COLLOQUIUM
Dr. Arthur Evans
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Ancient art and modern mechanics: using
origami and geometry to design new materials
Abstract
The Japanese art of origami has been a purely aesthetic endeavor for hundreds of years, but recent
decades have seen the application of cutting, creasing, and folding to fields as diverse as
architecture and nano-engineering. The key link between the artistry of paper-folding and the
physics of cells and shells lies in the connection between geometry and mechanics. In this talk I
will discuss the emergence of origami design as a means for understanding the mechanics of thinshelled structures, highlighting the physical and mathematical principles that drive the
deformation of a thin sheet. While much of origami-based engineering has relied on heuristic
development, I will present here a method that generalizes material design of tessellated
structures, and explains the emergence of bistability in mechanical structures. Finally, these ideas
from origami mechanics can be adapted to non-Euclidean surfaces, either for design purposes or
for understanding essentially thin materials like cellular membranes or graphene
3:00-4:30 p.m., Friday, January 29th
McLane 162