At IMECE 2022 in Columbus, OH, I presented a poster on curved-crease origami ship hulls and their adaptable hydrodynamic behavior. I attended the conference with support from a $1,200 NSF travel grant and was selected as a finalist in the student poster competition.
My work introduced a way to fabricate planing hulls from flat sheets using curved-crease origami, where active folding allows the hull shape—and therefore its hydrodynamic response—to change on demand. In the poster, I showed how we use a bar-and-hinge model to analyze the kinematics of these morphing hulls and a simplified strip-theory-based hydrodynamic model to study drag, motion response, and seakeeping performance in calm and wavy conditions.
I highlighted how varying the actuation level and the underlying crease pattern lets us tune deadrise angle, manage resonant responses, and trade off between reduced drag and reduced motions in waves. Conversations at IMECE, especially from naval architects and hydrodynamics experts, helped sharpen the practical framing of this work and clarified how morphing hull concepts might fit into real-world ship design.