Acoustic beamfolding: New potentials enabled by interfacing reconfigurable origami and acoustic structures

Abstract

Acoustic transducer arrays yield large spatial and spectral change in energy transmission through strategic positioning of planar array elements. Yet, unless array elements are actively tuned through phase delay controls, the array performance characteristics remain fixed and suitable for limited purposes. Origami, the art of paper folding, is a means to introduce enormous topological change through simple, kinematic translation and rotation of connected, planar facets, which is one reason for its growing attention as a fluent vehicle to remarkably adapt system properties for multifunctional purposes. In this research, we integrate acoustic transducer array development and origami design principles to establish a new framework for adaptive acoustic energy shaping effected by simple geometric and kinematic folding relations. From a flat-folded strip to an unfolded plane, our theoretical and experimental results show that this transducer design concept leads to powerful means to tune the significance of radiated acoustic energy across orders of magnitude and to easily tailor the acoustic power transmission to the far field.

A Review of Thickness-Accommodation Techniques in Origami-Inspired Engineering

“…Connections between origami artists advanced the complexity and realism of the art, but more significantly, there arose connections between origami and mathematics, sciences, and engineering, which have led to the adoption of origami structures and mechanisms in a wide range of technical fields [2][3][4][5]. Structures and mechanisms, both adapted and inspired from origami, have found applications as diverse as acoustics [6][7][8], active structures [9], air bags [10][11][12][13], batteries [14][15][16][17], deployable shelters [18][19][20][21][22][23], DNA [24][25][26][27][28], energy absorption [29][30][31][32], foldcore sandwich panels [33][34][35][36], medical devices [37][38][39][40][41][42], MEMS devices [43][44][45][46][47]…”