Highly compressible origami bellows for harsh environments

Jared Butler, Jessica Morgan, Nathan Pehrson, Kyler Tolman, Terri Bateman, Spencer P. Magleby, Larry L. Howell

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

The design and testing of a highly compressible origami bellows for harsh environments is described. Several origami patterns are evaluated and the Kresling fold pattern was customized to constraints and selected for use in the bellows design. Origami bellows were prototyped in five different materials and tested in fatigue, thermal cycling, ablation, and radiation. Tested bellows show good fatigue life exceeding 100,000 cycles for some materials and resilience to potential harsh environmental conditions such as thermal cycling, abrasion, and high radiation. The bellows can be designed to fit within a given inner and outer diameter and stroke length depending on the design requirements. The origami bellows shows promise for space application and as an adequate replacement for current metal bellows due to its high compressibility and low mass.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication40th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference
PublisherAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
ISBN (Electronic)9780791850169
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016
EventASME 2016 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2016 - Charlotte, United States
Duration: Aug 21 2016Aug 24 2016

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference
Volume5B-2016

Other

OtherASME 2016 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityCharlotte
Period8/21/168/24/16

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Modeling and Simulation

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