Evgueni Filipov Awarded ONR Grant for Adaptable Structures

EXPERTS:

Filipov’s project, Curved Folded Sheets for Stiff, Anisotropic, and Adaptable Structures, will explore origami-inspired folding of sheets with curved creases to create three dimensional structures. Folding can harness intrinsic properties to make systems that are stiff, anisotropic, and mechanically adaptable.

Before and after a large displacement load on a folded structure.

The research will give insight to how global characteristics are affected by local interplay between low stiffness bending deformations and high stiffness stretching/shearing of the thin sheets.

Utilizing the award funds, analytical codes for both simplified and more detailed simulations will be developed to capture folding and structural deformations in the origami inspired systems. The codes will be tested, improved, and verified based on theoretical solutions and physical prototypes of curved sheets. The research work will use parametric studies to explore how single and multi-crease patterns, as well as the folded shapes affect the global stiffness characteristics.

Filipov’s expertise is in the field of deployable and reconfigurable structural systems. Folding and adaptable structures based on the principles of origami can have practical applications ranging in scale and discipline from biomedical robotics to deployable architecture.

The ONR award is for $322,181 divided over three years, starting on January 1, 2018. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy that coordinates and promotes the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps through organizations, schools, universities, and government. ONR carries out its mission by funding world-class scientists, technologists, and engineers.

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