Tunable Aerodynamics via Snap-Through and Buckling in Origami and Kirigami

Mechanical instabilities in soft structures—such as buckling in kirigami and snap-through in origami—offer a versatile strategy to control aerodynamic forces on flexible surfaces. By exploiting the three-dimensional texture generated by out-of-plane buckling in kirigami sheets, we demonstrate that lift and drag can be significantly tuned—for example, drag can be varied by more than a factor of two while maintaining constant lift, or lift can be adjusted with minimal change in drag. Additionally, the snap-through behavior of bistable origami mechanisms can produce abrupt changes in drag in response to flow speed, and these responses can be systematically tailored through the geometrical and mechanical properties of the origami. Together, these approaches illustrate how mechanical instabilities enable programmable and tunable aerodynamic performance, with potential applications in adaptive aerodynamic surfaces, flow control, and load modulation.