Development of folding method of spherical membrane in both radial and axial directions

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present a new folding method of spherical membrane by using origami technique. Because a creation of folding method for closed structures such as spherical shell has been one of the most difficult tasks within the works of origami, it has been left up to the present. In order to design these structures, firstly, a folding method of a circular membrane both in radial and circumferential direction is newly developed. By gluing two circular membranes at their peripheries, fundamental foldable model for designing 3-D structure is manufactured. A new design method of foldable spherical membranes with efficient foldablity was devised by using this concept,

Keywords

• space equipment
• flexible structure
• aerospace engineering
• spherical membrane
• folding method
• origami technique
• axial and radial directions