We observe and analyze the phenomenon of bistability emergent from cooperative stiffening in hyper-elastic metamaterials. Using experimental and numerical results of identical geometric designs, we show evidence that a single unit is unistable while combining two units can result in bistability. Our study demonstrates that the von Mises truss model cannot describe such emergent behavior. Hence, we construct a novel and simple analytical model to explain this phenomenon.
@article{arxiv.2507.00996,
title = {Beyond von Mises Truss Models: Emergent Bistability in Mechanical Metamaterials},
author = {Md Nahid Hasan and Taylor E. Greenwood and Sharat Paul and Bolei Deng and Qihan Liu and Yong Lin Kong and Pai Wang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.00996},
year = {2025}
}