Ohio State researchers explore the potential of origami-based, pop-up design for medical masks

Researchers at The Ohio State University are exploring design alterations that could enable a self-assembling, pop-up structure for medical masks critically needed in the fight against COVID-19.

Face masks are effective tools in helping protect health care workers and the community against the further spread of COVID-19. However, the curved 3D shape of the protective material designed to fit one’s face can also make the equipment difficult to efficiently pack and transport.

Now, Renee Zhao, an assistant professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and her team are exploring the fundamental mechanisms and design that allow the rapid transformation of pop-up structures from a nearly flat shape to a three-dimensional one, which has the curvature distribution of a N95 respirator. Investigators hope the research can allow for novel innovation in the design of personal protective equipment (PPE).

 “One key objective of this project is to fold the respirator into a small capsule that only occupies one thirtieth of the respirator’s original area for space-saving packing,” said Zhao, “This would allow the respirators to be easily carried around when not using or easily transported when shipping in a large number. In addition, the concept can also be applied to biomedical devices, such as medical stent”.

The project, “Origami-Based Extremely-Packed Multistable Pop-Up Design for Medical Masks,” was awarded through a National Science Foundation (NSF) funding mechanism called EAGER, or Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research. EAGER supports early-stage but likely transformative projects deemed to be potentially “high risk-high payoff,” meaning investigators are expected to take radical approaches and novel perspectives in their research. Zhao’s research is supported by NSF’s COVID-19 Research program.

Zhao, who leads the Soft Intelligent Materials Laboratory is principal investigator on the project. She joined Ohio State in 2018 through the Materials and Manufacturing for Sustainability Discovery Theme, operated by the Institute for Materials Research.

Researchers will work to identify the limitations of origami design folding paths to overcome constraints imposed by the interactions among origami rings that affect the folding and unfolding of the structure’s face.

 “Our team at Ohio State is utilizing numerical and theoretical tools to study the instability of the origami ring and guide its structural design for optimized buckling behavior,” Zhao said. Through finite element simulations, we can analyze the origami rings’ energy landscapes when the rings are subjected to mechanical loads. The critical loads at the snap-buckling point of the rings can then be extracted to evaluate the folding performance of the origami rings. The insight from the simulations would provide us the design parameter for the maximum folding ratio. These parameters will be passed to our collaborating team at Georgia Tech for 3D printing of the origami ring. Professor H. Jerry Qi is the PI for the Georgia Tech team.”

The team hopes the research can be applied to the design of PPE beyond masks, such as medical eyewear and gowns.

Zhao received two NSF awards in 2020. Early this year, she received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for her research in the mechanics of soft intelligent materials. That award was followed by another grant for her project “Micromechanics of Interactions Between Hard Magnetic Particles and Soft Matrix on Magneto-Mechanical Actuation.”

Story by Mike Huson, IMR Public Relations