Integration of Origami-Inspired Folding into Deployable Composite Shells

This work presents an origami-inspired deployable composite shell structure that allows crease-folded packaging while retaining self-deployability enabled by the shell curvature. The structure incorporates crease lines by locally dropping plies so that only a single 45 degree plainweave carbon fiber/epoxy layer remains as a flexible hinge. The crease is supplemented by thin polyurethane tape to accommodate near-flattened folding. To evaluate the folding and unfolding behaviors, column bending tests are performed on an origami tape spring with a central crease line and compared against an uncreased control tape spring and a creased flat coupon. The origami tape spring shows the highest axial force and bending moment in the folded state, driven by the large crease thickness and curvature effects, but displays a milder snap-through response during quasi-static unfolding. Dynamic deployment experiments reveal that the origami tape spring reliably self-unfolds, but retains a slower and more controlled deployment than the control tape spring. Importantly, peak-to-peak accelerations induced by shock events at the end of deployment is reduced by 74–79\%, demonstrating significant mitigation. Overall, integrating shell curvature with origami folding enables composite space structures that can be stowed in a near-flattened state, be self-deployable, and scalable in design with more complex fold patterns.