Proceedings of the ASME 2015 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences &

Computers and Information in Engineering Conference

IDETC/CIE 2015
August 2-5, 2015, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

DETC2015-46671

AXIAL CRUSHING OF THIN-WALLED TUBES WITH KITE-SHAPE PATTERN

Degao Hou Yan CHEN*

School of Mechanical Engineering School of Mechanical Engineering
Tianjin University Tianjin University
Tianjin 300072, China Tianjin 300072, China
degaohou@tju.edu.cn yan_chen@tju.edu.cn

Jiayao Ma Zhong You

Department of Engineering Science Department of Engineering Science
University of Oxford University of Oxford
Oxford OX1 3PJ, U.K. Oxford OX1 3PJ, U.K.
jiayao.ma@eng.ox.ac.uk zhong.you@eng.ox.ac.uk

ABSTRACT A parametric study is also conducted to establish the

Thin-walled tubes are widely used as energy absorption
devices in automobiles, designed to protect the costly
structures and people inside during an impact event through
plastic deformation. They show excellent performance under
axial loading in terms of weight efficiency, stroke distance and
total energy absorption, but also have the disadvantage that
the crushing force is not uniform during deformation process,
especially with the existence of a high initial peak force.
Recently, pattern design on tubular structures has received
increasing attention. It has been found that, if the surface of a
tube is pre-folded according to an origami pattern, the
collapse mode of the tube can be altered, leading to changes
in energy absorption performance. In this paper, we present a
series of origami patterned tubes with a kite-shape pattern
that is constructed by joining two pieces of Miura-ori. First of
all, the geometry of the pattern is presented. We develop a
theoretical model to predict the energy absorption associated
with the axial crushing of the patterned tubes and derive a
mathematical formula to calculate the mean crushing force
accordingly. Secondly, a family of origami tubes with various
profiles are designed, and their performances subjected to
quasi-static axial crushing are numerically investigated.
∗ Corresponding
author.
relationship between the pre-folded angle of the pattern and
the initial peak force as well as the mean crushing force.
Numerical results show that introducing patterns to
thin-walled tubes offers three advantages in comparison with
conventional tubes, i.e., a lower initial peak force, a more
uniform crushing load, and a stable and repeatable collapse
mode. A 36.0% increase in specific energy absorption and
67.2% reduction in initial peak force is achieved in the
optimum case. The new origami patterned tubes show great
promise as energy absorption devices.
KEYWORDS: energy absorption, origami pattern, axial
crushing, finite element analysis, thin-walled tubes.
1 INTRODUCTION
Traffic accidents have been increasing tremendously
accompanying the rapid development of modern
transportation industry. Therefore, structural crashworthiness
and impact protection becomes more and more important. To
reduce the effects of impact loading, the most common
approach is to install energy absorption devices, which are
designed to convert kinetic energy into another form of energy
during impact accidents. Among all the structural types,

1 Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 03/10/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use

 thin-walled tubes subjected to axial crushing are extensively
used since they have the advantages of long stroke length,
high specific energy absorption (SEA) and stable collapse
mode.
A large amount of research has been carried out on the
axial crushing behaviors of thin-walled tubes. For
conventional circular tubes, depending on tube diameter D to
wall thickness t ratio, D/t, circular tubes could be crushed in
ring mode, diamond mode or mixed mode [1]. It was found
that ring mode develops in thick tubes (with small D/t) while
diamond mode develops in thin ones (with large D/t). For the
rest, the mixed mode usually takes place [2-3]. A great deal of
literatures on ring mode [4], and diamond mode [5-7] are
available. For square tubes, different collapse modes can be
obtained depending on tube width b to wall thickness t ratio,
b/t. According to Abramowicz and Jones (1984), there are four
basic collapse modes, i.e. symmetric or inextensional mode,
extensional mode and mixed modes A and B [8]. Their study
has shown that square tubes with b/t > 40.8 deform in
symmetric mode, and those with b/t <7.5 in extensional mode.
However, they pointed out that the mixed mode B and
symmetric mode are indistinguishable at 7.5 < b/t < 40.8 from
a practical point [9].
Regarding theoretical work, a theoretical model of
circular tubes failing in concertina mode, later called ring
mode, was first proposed by Alexander [10] to calculate the
mean crushing force. The folds were assumed to move
completely inward or outward and the material was taken as
rigid-perfectly plastic. Abramowicz (1983) later introduced
the concept of effective crushing distance [11] to modify
Alexander’s model. Wierzbicki et al. [12] revised the model
by introducing a parameter called eccentricity factor which
took both internal and external folds into account. This model
led to a higher crushing force, which agreed better with the
experiments. For square tubes, theoretical expressions for the
mean crushing force in the case of symmetric mode were
studied the crushing of square tubes with two patterns
constructed using the pyramid elements, whose energy were
increased by 15-33% and 54%-93%, respectively. However,
experimental results revealed that tubes with pyramid pattern
were imperfection sensitive and thus the desired mode was
difficult to be induced [18]. Ma and You [19] proposed a new
device, referred to as the origami crash box, which was made
through pre-folding the surface of a square tube according to a
specially designed origami pattern. The results showed that
the peak force reduced over 20% and the mean crushing force
increased over 50%.
In this paper, a new type of origami tube with a kite-shape
pattern that is constructed by joining two pieces of Miura-ori
is proposed. Its energy absorption properties are studied
numerically and theoretically. The layout of the paper is as
follows. The geometry of the kite-shape pattern is first
presented in Section 2. Section 3 gives the numerical study on
the folding behavior of kite-shape patterned tubes. The
theoretical study is discussed in Section 4. Finally is the
conclusion in Section 5 which ends the paper.
2 GEOMETRY OF THE KITE-SHAPE PATTERN
The kite-shape pattern consists of two basic elements
designed as P1 and P2 shown in Fig. 1(a) and Fig. 1(b),
respectively, each of which is made out of a single vertex with
four congruent parallelograms. The solid lines represent hill
folds and the dashed ones represent valley folds. An origami
tube with a kite-shape pattern is constructed by joining the
two basic elements. Fig. 1(c-d) show a patterned tube in top
view and side view, respectively. What are presented in Fig.
1(c-d) can be taken as individual modules, and tubes with
variable lengths can be obtained by stacking the modules
axially.
A1 b1 B1 C1 A2 b2 B2 18.92 mm

C2 18.92 mm

derived by Wierzbicki and Abramowicz [13], and

a1 1 a2 2
67.10°

67.10°
Abramowicz and Jones [4, 5]. Research on thin-walled h1
12.76
mm

h2
12.76
mm
11.74 mm

11.74 mm

cylinders with polygonal cross-sections was conducted by

D1 F1 D2 F2
Mamalis et al. [14]. E1 E2
Patterned tubes are another type of rapidly developing
energy absorption devices. By introducing patterns to
thin-walled tubes, the crushing mode can be altered so that G1 H1 I1 G2 H2 I2
better energy absorbing performance may be achieved. (a) (b)
Singace and El-Sobky [15] experimentally studied the axial
B1
crushing of corrugated circular tubes. It was shown that the
crushing response of tubes could be changed by varying
corrugation depth. Tubes with shallow corrugations collapsed b1
89.48°

E1
1
28.39
mm

in a way similar to circular tubes, while those with deeper A1A2 H1 C1C2
corrugations exhibited a lower initial peak force and a more
D1D2 B2 F1F2
uniform crushing process. However, the total energy
absorption of corrugated tubes was lower than that of G1G2 E2 I1 I2
2
conventional ones. Song et al. [16] applied a kind of origami 23.23
mm
116.54°

pattern on square tubes to minimize the initial peak force. b2

H2
Their study showed that the patterned tubes exhibited a lower
initial peak force and a more uniform crushing load compared (c) (d)
to those for conventional square tubes, while no total energy
Figure. 1 (a) A BASIC ELEMENT OF THE KITE-SHAPE PATTERN P1;
absorption gain was achieved. Few attempts have been made (b) A BASIC ELEMENT OF THE KITE-SHAPE PATTERN P2; (c) A
to achieve both a low initial peak force and a high energy PATTERNED TUBE IN TOP VIEW; (d) A PATTERNED TUBE IN SIDE
absorption in one design. Zhang et al. [17] numerically VIEW.

2 Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 03/10/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use

 The geometry of the kite-shape pattern can be
parameterized in a number of ways. Guest [20] studied the
geometry of Miura-folded structures and first proposed an
approach to explain the geometry of kite-shape pattern. We
here define the geometry in another way.
The geometry of basic element P1 can be described
using a parallelogram with side length a1, b1 and acute angle
α1, as shown in Fig. 1(a), and the dihedral fold angle θ1
between face A1B1E1D1 and face D1E1H1G1, as shown in Fig.
2(a). Other angles defined in Fig. 2(a), are β1, the angle
between fold line A1D1 and D1F1, and ψ1, the angle between
fold line D1E1 and E1F1
A1
B1
1
46.73°
parameters that define the module: tube widths b1 and b2,
module height l, pre-folded angle θ1 and angle ψ1. All the
other parameters can then be determined by equations (1-11).
In addition, the number of modules in the axial direction M is
another geometric parameter if long origami tubes are
designed. Finally, for a long tube with multi-modules, an
important feature should be noted is that all of the modules
must be folded simultaneously in order that the condition of
rigid folding is satisfied.
3 NUMERICAL STUDY
C1 G2 I2
3.1 FINTE ELEMENT MODELING
H2
2 One conventional square tube and twenty-four patterned
l1 ones were built numerically. The geometric parameters of the

F1 l2
46.73°

D1 D2 F2
21.36 mm
21.36 mm

1 1

21.36 mm
21.36 mm
2 2 conventional square tube, SQU, are side length b = 60 mm,
136.42°

136.42°

123.37°

123.37°

E1 E2
total axial height L=120 mm and thickness t = 1 mm. The
origami tubes have L and t identical to those in SQU. Other
G1 I1 A2 C2
parameters in the unfolded state are as follows: b1=60mm,
H1 B2 b2=50mm, and ψ1 = 90°. Parameters M and θ1 vary from one
(a)
tube to another. The configurations of all tubes are
(b)
summarized in Table 1. The notation K-M-θ1 is adopted, in
Figure. 2 (a) A FOLDED SHAPE OF BASIC ELEMENT P1; (b) A which K is short for kite-shape, M is the number of layers, and
FOLDED SHAPE OF BASIC ELEMENT P2. θ1 is the pre-folded angle in the unfolded state.
Commercial FEA software package Abaqus/Explicit was
The equations relating these angles (α1 ψ1 θ1) are obtained [21] applied to simulate the quasi-static axial crushing process of
as kite-shape patterned tubes. The tube was mainly meshed with
1 1
cot (1) tan 1 cos quadrilateral shell elements S4R, with only a few triangular
2 2 elements being used to avoid excessive distortion. In the
Addition useful relationships are simulation, the tube was put on a stationary rigid panel. A
 moving rigid panel initially just contacting the top edge of the
2h1 sin 1  l1 (2)
2 tube, moved axially to crush the tube. No extra clamping or
l holding apparatus was used to constrain tube ends. All the
a1 sin 1  1 (3) DOFs of the stationary rigid panel were fixed, whereas only
2
a1 sin1  h1 (4) the translational one of the moving rigid panel in the axial
direction of the tube was free of constraint. Prescribed
Figure 2(b) shows the geometry of basic element P2. Similar downward displacement of kL [16] was applied to the free
to the analysis of P1, the equations relating parameters of P2 translational DOF of the moving rigid panel to control the
are given by
crushing distance，in which k = 0.73 is a numerical factor
2 2
cot  tan  2 cos (5) defining the effective crushing. Self-contact was employed to
2 2 model the contact among different parts of the tube and
2 surface to surface contact was defined between the tube and
2h2 sin  l2 (6)
2 each rigid panel. Friction was taken into consideration and the
l2 friction coefficient was taken as 0.3. The material adopted was
a2 sin  2 
(7) mild steel, and the mechanical properties are as follows:
2
density ρ = 7800 kg/m3, Young’s modulus E = 210GPa,
a2 sin 2  h2 (8)
Poisson’s Ratio ν = 0.3, yield stress σy = 200.2 MPa, tensile
A module of an origami tube with a kite-shape pattern strength σu = 480 MPa. The strain hardening effect was
constructed by joining the basic elements P1 and P2 can be approximated by using power law hardening model with the
deployed and collapsed following the condition of rigid strain hardening exponent being 0.2.
origami with only one degree of freedom (DOF). Taking P1 as Convergence tests in terms of mesh density and analysis
a reference configuration, the following geometrical time, were also conducted. Two principles [22] were followed,
relationships should be satisfied. i.e., that the ratio of the artificial energy to the internal energy
a2  a1 (9) was below 5% to make sure that hourglassing effect would not
1   2 (10) significantly affect the results, and that the ratio of the kinetic
  energy to the internal energy was below 5% during most of
b2 sin 2  b1 sin 1 (11) the crushing process so as to ensure that the dynamic effect
2 2 could be considered as insignificant. It was found that an
In summary, there are five independent geometric
element size of 1 mm and a crushing time of 0.075s satisfied
3 Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 03/10/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use

 Table 1 CONFIGURATIONS OF KITE-SHAPE PATTERNED ORIGAMI TUBES AND NUMERICAI RESULTS

l 1 Pmax Pmax Pms Pms SEA SEA Pmax Following

Model M
(mm) (°) (kN) reduction (kN) increase (kJ/kg) increase Pms pattern
SQU - - - 46.38 - 10.92 - 4.252 - 4.247 -
K-2-120 60 120 2 4.18 - 2.12 - 0.8005 - 1.972 Y
K-2-160 60 160 2 15.20 67.2% 7.09 -35.1% 2.986 -29.8% 2.144 Y
K-3-120 40 120 3 5.19 - 2.34 - 0.8836 - 2.218 Y
K-3-156 40 156 3 13.41 70.2% 8.45 -22.6% 3.523 -17.1% 1.587 Y
K-3-160 40 160 3 14.74 68.2% 9.27 -15.1% 3.904 -8.2% 1.590 Y
K-3-164 40 164 3 16.51 64.4% 9.72 -11.0% 4.094 -3.7% 1.699 Y
K-3-168 40 168 3 19.03 59.0% 10.87 -0.4% 4.600 +8.2% 1.751 Y
K-3-172 40 172 3 22.79 50.9% 11.41 +4.5% 4.852 +14.1% 1.997 Y
K-4-120 30 120 4 6.16 86.4% 4.78 -56.2% 1.805 -57.5% 1.288 Y
K-4-130 30 130 4 7.73 82.3% 5.90 -46.0% 2.318 -45.5% 1.310 Y
K-4-140 30 140 4 10.09 78.2% 7.36 -32.6% 2.971 -30.1% 1.371 Y
K-4-150 30 150 4 13.13 72.3% 9.58 -12.3% 3.956 -7.0% 1.371 Y
K-4-156 30 156 4 15.87 69.0% 11.57 +6.0% 4.826 +13.5% 1.372 Y
K-4-160 30 160 4 16.93 66.1% 12.25 +12.2% 5.159 +21.3% 1.382 Y
K-4-164 30 164 4 17.55 62.2% 12.59 +15.3% 5.302 +24.7% 1.394 Y
K-4-168 30 168 4 20.17 56.5% 13.27 +21.5% 5.616 +32.3% 1.520 N
K-4-170 30 170 4 21.96 52.7% 12.43 +13.8% 5.260 +23.7% 1.767 N
K-4-172 30 172 4 24.16 47.9% 13.03 +19.3% 5.541 +30.3% 1.854 N
K-5-120 24 120 5 7.291 84.3% 6.46 -40.84% 2.439 -42.6% 1.128 Y
K-5-156 24 156 5 15.20 67.2% 13.86 +26.9% 5.782 +36.0% 1.097 Y
K-5-160 24 160 5 16.68 64.0% 13.99 +28.1% 5.892 +38.6% 1.192 N
K-5-164 24 164 5 18.67 59.7% 14.05 +28.7% 5.917 +39.2% 1.329 N
K-6-156 20 156 6 16.11 65.3% 14.72 +34.8% 6.140 +44.4% 1.094 N
K-7-156 17.1 156 7 17.05 63.2% 15.50 +41.9% 6.466 +52.1% 1.100 N

the two principles and were therefore adopted in the analysis.
Two key parameters were applied to evaluate the energy
absorption performance: the specific energy absorption (SEA),
defined as the energy absorption per unit mass, and the load
uniformity, defined as the ratio of the initial peak force to the
mean crushing force. The initial peak force, Pmax , and mean
crushing force in numerical simulation, Pms , of each tube were
generated from the results of numerical simulation.
The mean crushing force in numerical simulation for
each tube was calculated by formula (12), in which δ is the
final crushing distance.

3.2 CONVENTIONAL SQUARE TUBE
The conventional square tube SQU is studied to set a
benchmark to evaluate the energy absorption enhancement of
the origami patterned tubes. Numerical simulation shows that
SQU collapses into the symmetric mode as presented in Fig. 3,
which is typical of thin-walled square tubes with b/t = 60. The
initial peak force Pmax and mean crushing force Pms of SQU was
found to be 46.38 kN and 10.92 kN as listed in Table 1.

p s


0
p(x)
(12)

m

Figure 3 AXIAL CRUSHING PROCESS OF SQU

4 Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 03/10/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use

 (a) K-4-130
(a) K-2-120

(b) K-4-140
(b) K-3-120

(c) K-4-150
(c) K-4-120

(d) K-4-160
(d) K-5-120
Figure 6. AXIAL CRUSHING PROCESSES OF (a) K-4-130 (b) K-4-140
Figure 4. AXIAL CRUSHING PROCESSES OF (a) K-2-120 (b) K-3-120
(c) K-4-150 (d) K-4-160
(c) K-4-120 (d) K-5-120
25
K-4-170 K-4-160 K-4-150
K-4-140 K-4-130 K-4-120
20 20

K-5-120 K-4-120
Force (kN)

15 15
Force (kN)

K-3-120 K-2-120

10 10

5 5

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Displacement (mm) Displacement (mm)

Figure. 5 FORCE VS DISPLACEMENT CURVES OF K-2-120 TO Figure. 7 FORCE VS DISPLACEMENT CURVES OF K-4-120 TO
K-5-120. K-4-170.

3.3 ORIGAMI TUBES WITH KITE-SHAPE PATTERN
The crushing processes of representative patterned tubes
are shown in Fig.4 and Fig. 6. The Mises stress contour is
shown in the first one of each figure, which clearly show that
the stress level is among the highest in the vicinity of the
plastic hinges. It can be seen that all the tubes collapse
following the pre-folded origami pattern in a progressive and
stable manner.
Figure 4 shows the axial crushing processes of samples
with identical θ1 = 120° but different M. The force vs.
displacement curves of these samples are plotted in Fig. 5.
Three observations can be made from the results. First, the
patterns are well followed and the origami tubes collapse
according to the crease lines. At the onset of the crushing
process, every module of the origami tubes shown in Fig. 4,
buckles simultaneously. As the tube is compressed further,
plastic hinge lines are formed along the crease lines. Second,
the area below the curve indicates the energy absorption
capability. Fig.5 clearly shows that increasing M can
significantly enhance the capacity of energy absorption.

5 Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 03/10/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use

 Finally, for a long tube with multi-modules, an important initial peak force of K-5-156 is considerably lower than that of
feature should be noted is that all of the modules must be SQU. The area below the curve of K-5-156, which indicates
folded simultaneously in order that the condition of rigid the energy absorption capability, on the contrary, is larger than
folding is satisfied. For the patterned tubes with identical θ1 = that of SQU. The numerical data in Table 1 show that
120°, the more modules, the more difficult to satisfy the compared with SQU, the Pmax of K-5-156 is reduced by 67.2%
condition of rigid folding, which can be inferred from Fig. whereas the Pms is increased by 26.9% and the SEA is increased
4(d). It is obvious that the first and last modules of K-5-120 by 36.0%. Thus it can be concluded that the kite-shape pattern
buckles earlier than others in the middle, resulting some wider is successful in creating an energy absorption device with high
plastic hinge lines at the boundary. energy absorption efficiency and low initial peak force.
Figure 6 shows the axial crushing processes of samples
with M = 4, but θ1 ranging from 130°to 160°. The four tubes
deform following the pattern but they cannot produce a rigid
motion since their flat facets cannot remain flat during folding
and the modules of samples do not buckle simultaneously, as
can be seen in Fig. 6(d), at the beginning of the crushing
process, the top module first start to fold, then collapse one to (a) K-3-172
another from top to bottom. The load-displacement curves of
the origami tubes K-4-120 to K-4-170 are plotted in Fig. 7. It
can be seen that the high initial peak no longer exists because
of the origami pattern. The numerical data compiled in Table 1
shows reductions in initial peak force ranging from 52.7% to
87.6%. It can also be seen that as θ1 decreases, the crushing
process becomes more uniform. Moreover, the displacement (b) K-4-164
corresponding to the initial peak gradually increases and the
initial peak becomes close to subsequent peaks in the crushing
process. As for SEA, the tubes’ weight increases while their
energy absorption decreases with the reduction of θ1, leading
to reduced SEA.
For the tubes with identical M, several conclusions can
(c) K-4-168
be drawn as follows:
(a) Pmax decreases as θ1 decreases.
(b) Pms decreases as θ1 decreases.
(c) The crushing processes of patterned tubes become more
uniform as θ1 decreases.
(d) The SEA decreases as θ1 decreases.
(d) K-5-156
(e) When θ1 ≥ 156° and M =4, both Pms and SEA are higher
than those of the conventional square tube, respectively.

50
45
40 SQU K-5-156
(e) K-5-160
35
Force (kN)

30
25
20
15
10
(f) K-6-156
5
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Displacement (mm)

Figure. 8 FORCE VS DISPLACEMENT CURVES OF SQU AND

K-5-156
(g) K-7-156
Among the samples in Table 1, K-5-156 collapses
following the pattern, meanwhile leads a higher increase in Figure. 9 AXIAL CRUSHING PROCESSES OF (a) K-3-172 (b) K-4-164
(c) K-4-168 (d) K-5-156 (e) K-5-160 (f) K-6-156 (g) K-7-156
SEA. The force vs. displacement curve of K-5-156 is plotted
in Fig.8 together with that of SQU. It can be seen that the
6 Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 03/10/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use

 3.4 PARAMETRIC STUDY IN KITE-SHAPE PATTERN
It has been shown from the results presented above that
patterned tubes can significantly reduce the initial peak force
but are less efficient in terms of energy absorption. Therefore
a key task in the design of pattered tubes is to determine the
range of pattern geometry that leads to higher energy
absorption. Since all of the tubes have identical b1, b2, L, t and
ψ1, the results are organized on variations of θ1 and M.
When θ1 is small enough, the origami tubes collapse
following the pre-folded crease lines and satisfy the condition
of rigid folding. While θ1 is too large, the condition of rigid
folding is no longer followed. To find out the effects of θ1 and
M, sixteen origami patterned tubes, in which θ1 ranges from
156°to 172°, M ranges from 3 to 7 are analyzed.
Four origami patterned tubes, K-3-156 to K-3-172, with
M = 3 but increasing θ1 are first looked into. Numerical
simulation results show that the patterns of the four are well
followed. The axial crushing process of K3-172 can be seen in
Fig. 9(a). As M reaches 4, the failure mode still follows the
patterns with θ1 = 156° to θ1 = 164°. Fig. 9(b) shows the
deformation of K-4-164. However, it is observed from
K-4-168, Fig. 9(c), that the pattern is no longer well followed.
Similar phenomena can be observed in K-5-156 to K-5-172, in
which K-5-156, Fig. 9(d), follows patterns, while K-5-160, Fig.
9(e), no longer follows. When M goes past 5, all the origami
tubes do not follow the patterns even in the degree of 156°, as
can be seen in Fig. 9(f) and Fig. 9(g).
Then three conclusions can be drawn from the results
presented above.
First, for origami patterned tubes with identical M, Pmax,
Pms and SEA decreases as θ1 decreases. Meanwhile, the
crushing processes become more uniform. When the dihedral
angle θ1 is too large, the pattern is not followed.
Second, three different collapse modes have been
obtained during the axial crushing process. One is that the
pattern is followed and the condition of rigid folding is
satisfied. The second is that the pattern is followed but the
facets remain flat during folding while deformation takes
place only along the creases lines in terms of bending moment
vector along the crease line. The mechanical work done by the
external force is supposed to be equal to the bending energy
along the crease lines, and the mean crushing force in
theoretical analysis, Pmt can be obtained by using the
equataion as follows;
Pmt  u   M 0lk ( k ) (13)
1
M 0   0t 2 (14)
4
 y u
0  (15)
1 n
Where u is the crushing distance, lk is the length of the crease
line, M0 is the corresponding bending moment per unit length,
n is the stain hardening exponent and δθk is the change in fold
angle of a crease line.
The module shown in Fig. 1(d) is constructed by joining
the basic elements P1 and P2. Both consist of three kinds of
crease lines. Here, we take the element P1 shown in Fig. 10,
as a reference configuration to give an explanation about the
three kinds of crease lines. Horizontal lines A1B1, B1C1, D1E1,
E1F1, G1H1 and H1I1 are the first kind of crease lines. Oblique
lines B1E1 and E1H1 are the second. The rest lines A1D1, D1G1,
C1F1 and F1I1 are the third kind of crease lines.
For the basic element P1, let δθ1,I, δθ1,II and δθ1,III be the
changes in fold angle of the three kinds of crease lines,
respectively. What is shown in Fig. 10 is the pre-folded shape
of P1, where 1p,I denotes the original dihedral angle of
face A1B1E1D1 and face D1E1H1G1, 1p,II denotes dihedral
angle of face A1B1E1D1 and face B1E1F1C1.
A1 C1
B1
1p p
1,II 131.19°

condition of rigid folding is not satisfied and travelling plastic l1

46.72°

D1 F1
21.36 mm
1,I 1
p
hinges occur. The last is that the pattern is not followed at all. p
136.42°

123.36°

Finally, for tubes with identical θ1, increasing M can

E1
significantly enhance the capacity of energy absorption. This
is because more modules lead to more plastic hinge lines and I1
G1
thus a higher energy absorption. Besides, the pattern is always
followed within 156° ≤ θ1 ≤ 172° when M ≤ 3. When M goes H1
past 3, the phenomenon that the pattern is not followed is Figure. 10 PRE-FOLDED SHAPE OF P1.
observed, occurring at a smaller θ1 as M increases. Among the
samples that collapsed following the pattern in Table 1, the The equations relating  1, I is obtained as
optimum case, K-5-156, leading to a 36% increase in SEA and
a 67.2% reduction in Pmax, has been found. 1p, I
2h1 sin  l1p (16)
2
 1, I  1p, I (17)
4 THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
The equations relating  1, II is obtained as
4.1 THEORETICAL STUDY IN KITE-SHAPE PATTERN cos 1p  sin 2 1 cos 1p,II  cos 2 1 (18)
To investigate the folding behaviour of the origami tube,  1,II   (19) p
1, II
we disscussed a theoretical approach to predict the mean
crushing force. As far as rigid-foldable structures are The third kind of crease lines can be seen in the eggbox
concerned, Yasuda H et. al [21] has investigated the folding pattern shown in Fig. 11. The following relationships can be
behaviour of the TMP and disscussed modelling of the estabilished between dihedral and edge angles:
force-displacement relationship. They pointed out that flat cos(  1p )  sin 2 1 cos( 21p )  cos 2 1 (20)

7 Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 03/10/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use

 cos(  2p )  sin 2  2 cos( 22p )  cos 2  2 (21) 4.2 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE THEORETICAL
VALUES AND NUMERICAL VALUES
 p
  p p
(22)
1, III 1 2
We have presented a theoretical model to predict the
 1,III     p
1, III (23) energy absorption associated with the axial crushing of the
origami tubes and derived a mathematical formula to calculate
D1 the mean crushing force in section 4.1. Here, we mainly focus
C1 on the difference between the theoretical values and numerical
values.
E2
H2 Table 2 COMPARISON OF K-2-120 TO K-5-120

 2
p
p
H1 E1 1
Percent difference
p Simulation Theoretical
1
1,III 2 Sample
46.89°
s
P (kN )
m Pmt (kN ) Pms  Pmt / Pms
A1
1 K-2-120 2.1210 2.1446 1.1%

1
p

2
p
B2 K-3-120 3.3365 2.9262 12.3%
51.98°

K-4-120 4.7800 3.7079 22.4%

B1
K-5-120 6.4649 4.4895 30.6%
Figure. 11 PRE-FOLDED SHAPE OF EGGBOX PATTERN
Table 2 shows the numerical values and theoretical
For the basic element P2, let δθ2,I, δθ2,II and δθ2,III be the values of samples K-2-120 to K-5-120, which have θ1 = 120°,
changes in fold angle of the three kinds of crease lines, but M ranges from 2 to 5. Moreover, their axial crushing
respectively. They also can be defined by the equations processes shown in Figure 4(a-d). It can be seen that the
(16-23). All the other parameters used in equations (16-23) theoretical value of sample K-2-120 agrees well with the
can be obtained by equations (1-11). numerical one, while for the other three samples, the
For a patterned tube, let E1, E2 and E3 be the amount of theoretical values are much lower than the theoretical ones.
energy dissipated at three kinds of hinge lines, respectively. With the increase in M, the differences become larger. The
They can be obtained as follows: axial crushing process of k-2-120 shown in Fig. 4(a) indicates
E1  (4M  1)( M 0 b1 1, I )  (4M  1)( M 0 b2 2, I ) that its modules buckle simultaneously and collapse following
(24)
 (4M  1) M 0 (b1 1, I  b2 2, I ) the condition of rigid folding. With the increase in M, the
condition of rigid folding is broken. Modules at the boundary
E2  2M ( M 0 a1 1, II )  2M ( M 0 a2 2, II ) buckle earlier than the modules in the middle, resulting a
(25)
 2MM 0 a( 1, II   2, II ) wider plastic hinge line at the boundary. It is obvious in Fig. 4
E3  2M ( M 0 a1 1, III )  2M ( M 0 a2 2, III ) that the more modules a sample have, the more difficult to
(26) ensure every module buckles simultaneously, meanwhile the
 4MM 0 a 1, III plastic hinge lines at the boundary become wider, resulting a
where a1  a2  a ,  1,III   2,III higher energy absorption. That is why the theoretical values
are much lower than the numerical ones, as well as the reason
Then the energy absorbed by one patterned tube, , Etotal,
why the differences grow bigger with the increase in M.
can be obtained as
Etotal  E1  E2  E3 (27) Table 3 COMPARISON OF K-4-120 TO K-4-150
The work done by the external force to crush one
patterned tube, W, with the consideration of the effective Simulation Theoretical Percent difference
crushing distance, is Sample
Pms (kN ) Pmt (kN ) Pms  Pmt / Pms
W  P  kL t
m (28)
K-4-120 4.7800 3.7079 22.4%
t
in which P is the theoretical mean crushing force. k is
m
K-4-130 5.9000 3.9102 33.7%
equals to 0.73. According to energy balance, the external to K-4-140 7.3600 4.0918 44.4%
the energy dissipated. K-4-150 9.5800 4.2839 55.3%
W  Etotal (29)
Substituting equation (24-28) into equation (29), the following Table 3 shows the numerical values and theoretical
equation is obtained values of samples K-4-120 to K-4-150, which have M = 4, but
Pmt  M 0 [( 4M  1)(b1 1, I  b2 2, I )  2Ma ( 1, I   2, I ) θ1 ranges from 120°to 150°. Moreover, their axial crushing
(30) processes are shown in Fig. 4(c) and Fig. 6(a-c) respectively.
 4Ma ( 1, III )] / kL
It can be seen from Table 3 that the theoretical values of all
Unlike the conventional suqare tube, in the patterned the samples are much lower than the numerical ones. With the
tube only the the bending energy along the crease lines is increase in θ1, the differences become larger. The axial
considered. Therefore, only the samples what can produce a crushing processes shown in Fig.6 indicate that the modules
rigid motion are suitable for the formula (30). of patterned tubes do not buckle simultaneously. In other
8 Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 03/10/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use

 words, samples with a large θ1 do not deform following the
condition of rigid origami and cannot produce a rigid motion.
Moreover, travelling plastic hinges occur during compression.
The energy absorbed by oblique hinge lines consists of two
parts. One is the bending energy along the folds, the other one
is propagation of travelling plastic hinge lines, which is
efficient in energy absorption [23].As shown in Fig.6, the
propagation of travelling hinge lines increases as θ1 increases.
That is why the theoretical values are much lower than the
numerical ones, as well as the reason why the differences
grow bigger with the increase in θ1.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the kite-shape pattern is introduced to
thin-walled tubes and the axial crushing behavior of those
patterned tubes has been studied numerically and theoretically.
A theoretical model for rigid-foldable pattern has been
developed to predict the energy absorption associated with the
axial crushing of the origami tubes. A mathematical formula to
calculate the mean crushing force has been derived. It agrees
with the numerical data well in the case of a small pre-folded
angle case, which ensure that the samples collapse in a rigid
way. FE software Abaqus/Explicit has been employed to
simulate the crushing processes of conventional and origami
patterned tubes. The results show that patterned tubes have
lower initial peaks and more uniform crushing processes than
those of conventional one, making them more suitable as
energy absorption devices, especially for easy crushing
applications. In the optimum case, a 36.0% increase in
specific energy absorption and a 67.2% reduction in initial
peak force are achieved.
Theoretical investigation of the deformation mechanisms
of the samples with large pre-folded angles, whose pattern is
followed but the condition of rigid folding is not satisfied
will be conducted in the future. Moreover, a series of static
and dynamic axial crushing test are being carried out and the
results will be reported in due course.
REFERENCE
[1] Lu, G., and Yu, T. X., 2003, Energy Absorption of
Structures and Materials, CRC Press, Woodhead, Cambridge,
UK.
[2] Andrews K. R. F., England G. L. and Ghani E., 1983,
"Classification of the axial collapses of cylindrical tubes under
quasi-static loading," International Journal of Mechanical
Sciences, 25, 687-696.
[3] Guillow S. R., Lu G. and Grzebieta R. H., 2001,
"Quasi-static axial compression of thin-walled circular
aluminium tubes," International Journal of Mechanical
Sciences, 43, 2103-2123.
[4] Singace A. A., EIsobky H., and Reddy T. Y., 1995, "On
the eccenyricity factor in the progressive crushing of tubes, "
International Journal of Solids and Structures, 32(24),
3589-3602.
[5] Pugsley A., 1960, "The large-Scale crumpling of thin
cylindrical columns," The Quarterly Journal of Mechanics and
Applied Mathematics 13(1), 1-9.
[6] Pugsley A. G., 1979, "On the crumpling of thin tubular
struts," The Quarterly Journal of Mechanics and Applied
9 Copyright © 2015 by ASME
Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 03/10/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use
Mathematics 32(1), 1-7.
[7] Singace A. A., 1999, "Axial crushing analysis of tubes
deforming in the multi-lobe mode, " International Journal of
Mechanical Science, 41(7), 865-890.
[8] Abramowicz W. and Jones N., 1984, "Dynamic axial
crushing of square tubes," International Journal of Impact
Engineering, 2, 179-208
[9] Abramowicz W. and Jones N., 1986, "Dynamic
progressive buckling of circular and square tubes," 4,
243-270.
[10] Alexander J. M., 1960, "An approximate analysis of the
collapse of thin cylindrical shells under axial loading," The
Quarterly Journal of Mechanical and Applied Mathematics,
39(2), 189-213.
[11] Abramowicz W. and Jones N., 1984, "Dynamic axial
crushing of circular tubes," International Journal of Impact
Engineering, 2, 263-281.
[12] Wierzbichi T., Bhat S. U., Abramowicz, W. and Brodkin,
1992, "Alexander revisited-a two folding element model of
progressive crushing of tubes," International Journal of Solid
and Structures, 29(24), 3269-3288.
[13] Wierzbichi T. and Abramowicz, W., 1983, "On the
crushing mechanics of thin-walled structures," Journal of
Applied Mechanics, 50(4), 727-734.
[14] Mamalis A. G., Manolakos D. E., Baldoukas A. K. and
Viegelahn, G. L.,1991, "Energy dissipation and associated
failure modes when axially loading polygonal thin-walled
cylinders," Thin-walled Structures, 12(1), 17-34.
[15] Singace A. A. and EI-Sobky H., 1997, "Behaviour of
axially crushed corrugated tubes," International Journal of
Mechanical Science, 39(3), 249-268.
[16] Song J., Chen Y. and Lu G., 2012, "Axial crushing of
thin-walled structures with origami patterns," Thin-walled
Structures, 54, 65-71.
[17] Zhang X., Cheng G., You Z. and Zhang H., 2007,
"Energy absorption of axially compression thin-walled square
tubes with pattern," Thin-walled Structures, 45, 737-746.
[18] Ma J., Le Y. and You Z., 2010, "Axial crushing tests of
thin-walled steel square tubes with pyramid patterns," AIAA
2010-2615, 51st AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structurs,
Structureal Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Orlando, FL,
USA.
[19] Ma J. and You Z., 2013, "Energy absorption of
thin-walled square tubes with a pre-folded origami pattern part
I: geometry and numerical simulation," Journal of applied
Mechanics, 81(1).
[20] Mark S., and S. D. Guest, 2013, "Geometry of
Miura-folded metamaterials," Proceeding of the national
academy of sciences, 110, 3276-3281.
[21] Yasuda H., Yein T., Tachi T., Miura K. and Taya M., 2013,
"Folding behaviour of Tachi-Miura polyhedron bellows, "
Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical
& Engineering Science, 469,2159.
[22] Abaqus Analysis User’s Manaul, Abaqus Documentation
Version 6.12-1, 2014, Dassault Systems SIMULIA Corp.,
Providence, RI, USA.
[23] Jiayao M., 2013, "Thin-walled tubes with pre-folded
origami patterns as energy absorption devices," PhD thesis,
University of Oxford.