Rotational snap-through behavior of multi-stable beam-type metastructures

•Arrangements of multiple bi-stable beams show rotational stability of the metastructure, next to the expected translational stability.•The geometric parameters (beam height h, thickness t and span L) for tuning the rotational responses are identified via parametric studies.•Using these parameters, and applying analytical modelling, stable and non-stable design domains for rotational behavior are defined as a function of t/L and h/L.•We demonstrate rotational stability and large deflections for 2D and 3D arrangements and stacks of bi-stable elements.