Flexible arc-armor inspired by origami

Natural dermal armor has superior protective performance and flexibility for effectively protecting flexible objects. Limited by the complex microstructure of natural scales, the scales of common bionic armors are mostly solid flat scales, which will have a certain impact on the quality and protective performance of the armor, and they are not suitable for protecting flexible objects with a curved surface out of consideration for conformality and performance. Based on the Miura pattern with single-degree-of-freedom, this paper designs an arc-scale that can be conformal to the curved surface, and proposes an arc-armor inspired by fish scales. The experiments and numerical simulations have proved that the introduction of the origami structure design can induce a stable failure mode of the arc-scale. The origami-based arc-armor has the advantages of low peak load, long effective stroke, and small fluctuation, which greatly improves the protection performance of the armor. And based on the failure mode of the arc-scale, the second-level structure is proposed to further optimize the energy absorption characteristics of the arc-scale, which contributes to reducing the peak load of the scales under medium- and high-velocity impacts. Under high-velocity impact, the denser the distribution of cells inside the scales, the higher the energy absorption efficiency of the arc-scales, which provides certain guidance for the design and application of the arc-armor. We have obtained an arc-armor with excellent energy absorption characteristics that can be reverse-designed according to the target shape. And such structures can find a wide range application in the protection of flexible electronics, human bodies, and other flexible objects that require light weight and flexibility.