An Undulating Kirigami Pattern With Enhanced Tear Strength

Abstract Kirigami, the cutting and folding of sheets, can create useful three-dimensional shapes from flat sheets of material. Some kirigami patterns self-deploy from their flat state when tension is applied; we call these tension-activated kirigami (TAK) patterns. A new TAK pattern has been proposed that produces ribbons of material that undulate out of the plane of the kirigami sheet when deployed with tension. In the planar state, this pattern comprises staggered rows of multiple slits, so we call it the multi-slit pattern. The multiple slits can include two, three, or more slits in place of the widely studied single-slit kirigami pattern, with an increased number of undulations produced with additional slits. An enhancement is also proposed that increases the tear strength of this pattern by adding multiple beams to carry the tension forces that deploy and hold the structure. This multi-beam enhancement to the multi-slit pattern has been investigated with experiments and duplicated with finite element analysis simulations. A good correlation was found, and a broader design space was also investigated with additional simulations. It is proposed that the multi-slit undulating kirigami pattern, with or without the multi-beam enhancement, produces a compelling new deployed structure with increased interlocking and the potential for many applications.