  The study of origami-based mechanical metamaterials usually focuses on the
kinematics of deployable structures made of an assembly of rigid flat plates
connected by hinges. When the elastic response of each panel is taken into
account, novel behaviors take place, as in the case of foldable cones
(f-cones): circular sheets decorated by radial creases around which they can
fold. These structures exhibit bistability, in the sense that they can
snap-through from one metastable configuration to another. In this work, we
study the elastic behavior of isometric f-cones for any deflection and crease
mechanics, which introduce nonlinear corrections to a linear model studied
previously. Furthermore, we test the inextensibility hypothesis by means of a
continuous numerical model that includes both the extended nature of the
creases, stretching and bending deformations of the panels. The results show
that this phase field-like model could become an efficient numerical tool for
the study of realistic origami structures.

Soft Condensed Matter;Materials Science