Multistable metamaterials enabled by arched beams for high-efficiency energy absorption.

Energy-absorbing materials with high absorption efficiency are ideal candidates for impact protection. Multistable metamaterials, composed of bistable primitives, have attracted much attention in recent years owing to their unique advantages in energy absorption. However, developing multistable metamaterials with excellent energy absorption performance remains a formidable challenge. Here, we propose an energy-absorbing metamaterial enabled by bistable arched beams, which effectively realizes a multistable behavior with efficient energy absorption. We demonstrate through both simulations and experiments that the multistable metamaterials assembled from bistable arched beams can be designed to exhibit customizable energy-absorbing features, enabling efficient energy absorption under both compressive and tensile loadings. This work paves new avenues for realizing highly efficient energy-absorbing metamaterials and inspires future research on arch-based multistable metamaterials.