Rapidly deployable hulls and on-demand tunable hydrodynamics with shape morphing curved crease origami

Abstract

Traditional hull fabrication relies on labor- and time-intensive methods to generate smooth, curved surfaces. These conventional methods often lead to hull surface topologies that are static in design with hydrodynamics aimed at handling a broad range of sea conditions but not optimized for any specific scenario. In this paper, we introduce a method of rapidly fabricating planing hulls using the principles of curved-crease origami. Starting from a flat-folded state, the curved-crease origami hulls can be deployed to match traditional planing hull shapes like the VPS (deep-V, Planing hull with Straight face) and the GPPH (General Purpose Planing Hull). By extension of the ability to conform to a desired shape, we show that the curved-crease origami hulls can emulate desired hydrodynamic characteristics in still as well as wavy water conditions. Furthermore, we demonstrate the shape-morphing ability of curved-crease origami hulls, enabling them to switch between low and high deadrise configurations. This ability allows for on-demand tuning of the hull hydrodynamic performance. We present proof-of-concept origami hulls to demonstrate the practical feasibility of our method. Hulls fabricated using the curved-crease origami principles can adapt to different sea states, and their flat foldability and deployability facilitate easy transport and deployment for rapid response naval operations such as rescue missions and the launch of crewless aquatic vehicles.