Ron Resch Origami Pattern Inspired Energy Absorption Structures

Abstract

Energy absorption structures are widely used in many scenarios. Thin-walled members have been heavily employed to absorb impact energy. This paper presents a novel, Ron Resch origami pattern inspired energy absorption structure. Experimental characterization and numerical simulations were conducted to study the energy absorption of this structure. The results show a new collapse mode in terms of energy absorption featuring multiple plastic hinge lines, which lead to the peak force reduction and larger effective stroke, as compared with the classical honeycomb structure. Overall, the Ron Resch origami-inspired structure and the classical honeycomb structure are quite complementary as energy absorption structures.