Tristable property and the high stiffness analysis of Kresling pattern origami

Kresling pattern origami is known for its bistable property, as confirmed by the truss model used to analyze its dynamics. However, our theoretical research and folding experiments reveal that the Kresling pattern origami possesses three stable states during folding motion, with the third state exhibiting high stiffness. These represent exciting new achievements for origami research. Here, Kresling pattern origami is studied using the geometric definitions of triangulated cylindrical origami and triangulated conical origami, and the truss model is corrected based on the proposed tristable property and an established mathematical model of the third stable state. Analysis of the energy landscapes obtained from the corrected truss model reveals various properties of the Kresling pattern origami that confirm its tristable property. In addition, origami-inspired structures are created that exhibit excellent deployability, collapsibility, load-bearing capacity, and multistability. Thereafter, the high stiffness of the third stable state is validated experimentally. These studies can provide new content for constructing multistable metamaterials and improving the load-bearing capacity of deployable structures.