Mechanics of paper-folded origami: A cautionary tale

Folded paper has a long history in origami artwork and is used by engineers to rapidly prototype designs of adaptive structures and mechanical metamaterials. However, engineers should be cautious when using paper to investigate the mechanical properties of origami structures. We show that the non-linear, pseudo-plastic behaviour of paper folds complicates the modelling of the mechanical properties of an origami structure. However, this pseudo-plastic behaviour could also present a new design space to tailor the mechanical properties of origami by controlling the rest angles of the folds. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.