European Journal of Mechanics, A/Solids, cilt.118, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
Mechanical metamaterials are architected solids whose macroscopic response is governed primarily by geometry rather than composition. Instability-induced metamaterials form a crucial subclass within this group, harnessing mechanical instabilities to achieve programmable deformations. Moreover, these materials are often made up of rubberlike materials which undergo large deformations and exhibit dissipative behavior due primarily to viscoelastic effects. Although hyperelastic constitutive models do not fully capture the observed rate-dependent dissipative response, periodic porous metamaterials are often modeled within the framework of finite elasticity. Therefore, it is essential to extend hyperelastic approaches towards viscoelastic formulations within the geometrically non-linear setting. To this end, we employ the theory of finite viscoelasticity to consider the rate-dependent dissipative response of elastomeric metamaterials with a periodic porous structure. Similar to their response predicted by finite elasticity, the instability due to geometrical non-linearity under compression leading to pattern transformation is also observed with finite viscoelasticity models. As opposed to elasticity, however, the energy dissipation caused by the intrinsic material response varies because of the snap-through response at different rates of loading as the body of the metamaterial includes heterogeneity. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the viscoelastic snap-through response of a biholar metamaterial under compression and in the presence of lateral confinement has not been studied before. Therefore, this study aims to fill this gap through the finite element analysis of the viscoelastic snap-through response of a periodic porous metamaterial with biholar architectures under lateral confinement and vertical compression.