- BYU student discovers previously unknown “blooming flower” origami folding pattern.
- The new technique has an infinite number of variations that can expand into 3-D forms.
- The designs have potential applications in space systems, medical devices and architecture.
Brigham Young University student Kelvin (Zhongyuan) Wang’s love of paper folding just led to a discovery that added a new chapter to an art form that can trace its roots back hundreds of years.
And it’s a revelation that Wang’s mentors say has the potential to solve design challenges across a wide array of applications including space systems, medical devices, bulletproof shields, architecture, furniture and aerodynamic components for transportation.
Wang is the lead author of the discovery, which was recently published in Proceedings of the Royal Society. Co-authors include BYU professor Larry Howell, a global expert on compliant mechanisms (jointless structures such as origami), and Robert J. Lang, an origami artist and a leading theorist on origami mathematics.
“What Kelvin has developed is an entirely new family of origami patterns that he’s called bloom patterns,” Lang said in a taped interview. “It’s a very apt name because many of them bloom like a flower.”
Wang said he folded the first of his bloom patterns years ago. But when Lang saw the work, he remarked that he’d never seen the pattern before.
“I was speechless,” Wang said.
Infinite possibilities
Lang said the discovery has opened the door to an “uncountable infinity” of new types of patterns that share characteristics that make the technique extremely valuable in the world of engineering. The blooms all can be opened completely into a flat sheet; can open partially to create a spherical, three-dimensional shape and, no matter how large the starting material is, can be collapsed into stacked layers above a flat disk.
BYU researchers said while one or two of those features are common in origami, it has been rare to find all three characteristics in a single design. The combination offers both technical and economic advantages:
- Flat foldability is ideal for stowing large arrays in compact spaces.
- Deployable systems require crease patterns that allow transformation without damaging the material.
- Repeating panels and rotational symmetry offer stability and lower manufacturing cost, since it’s more efficient to replicate identical panels than to produce varied parts.
“This new pattern has a lot of potential in space,” Howell said. “We can make it very compact in launch and deploy out in space.”
The design concept helps address the opposing realities of space-based devices in which limited cargo space and weight considerations favor compactness on the launch end, while instruments like antennas, space telescopes and solar arrays require large surface areas to perform their jobs after extraterrestrial deployment.
The ancient informs the modern
And that’s why concepts embodied in ancient paper folding techniques — Japanese origami can be traced back to the 16th century — have been studied and adapted in research happening around the world, including at BYU where researchers have been in the forefront of gathering insights from the craft for over a decade.
Another unique aspect of the bloom pattern, according to the research team, is the intermediate shape that emerges between the flat and fully deployed forms.
“One can imagine using that intermediate state, that spherical shape, as the desired finished state,” Lang said. “If one wants, for example, a bowl or perhaps a dish antenna, the bloom pattern could provide that.”
Wang said origami has been a satisfying outlet for personal creativity and one that he’s learning can also become a transformative force in the real world.
“The process of discovery requires a lot of repetition,” he said. “I feel incredibly peaceful as I fold and get into that state of flow. I can fold sometimes for hours. It feels wonderful to do that even when it’s mostly repetitions. I’m creating something out of paper with my hands and ideas come to my mind — to reality — about how to make it into a physical model.”
He added, “I love to do origami but if I can use origami to make practical applications that can benefit the world, that will be a dream come true.”
