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• NFRHT between metaterminals made of SiC plate-supported LiH nanoparticles is studied. • Surface modes and hyperbolic modes can regulate near-field heat flux. • Underlying mechanisms for flux modulation are revealed via energy transmission coefficients. • Near-field heat flux is tunable at a fixed terminal gap. Near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) can break through the blackbody limit by several orders of magnitude, bringing great thermal management opportunities. However, regulating the intensity NFRTH at a fixed terminal gap is still challenging. In this work, we theoretically investigate the NFRHT between two metaterminals separated by a vacuum gap using the dipolar model. Each metaterminal comprises a silicon carbide (SiC) substrate covered by periodic lithium hydride (LiH) nanoparticle arrays. We demonstrate that the surface and hyperbolic modes excited by the hybrid LiH/SiC metasurface can regulate the radiative heat flux between the two terminals. Effects of the radius of the LiH particle (r), the lattice constant of the particle arrays, and their ratio on NFRHT and the underlying regulation mechanisms are revealed. Results indicate that at a fixed vacuum gap of 100 nm, the total flux between the LiH/SiC metaterminals can be increased from weaker (0.69 × 104 W/m2) to stronger (2.79 × 104 W/m2) than that (1.33 × 104 W/m2) between SiC planar terminals when the particle radius increases from r = 25 to 75 nm. The physical mechanism of NFRHT modulation is revealed through the effective dielectric function and energy transmission coefficients in different scenarios. This work provides a controllable means for manipulating NFRHT between terminals at a fixed gap size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]