Our research spans three connected themes: designing architected materials, understanding how materials and structures respond to complex loading, and evaluating protective systems under impact. Across these themes, we use computational mechanics and experimental evidence to study deformation, failure, and structural performance.
We study how geometry, topology, and connectivity can be used to control structural response. Current work examines architected materials that develop mechanisms such as rotation, buckling, and sequential collapse, with the goal of relating geometric rules to measurable behavior.
One developing direction uses geometric pattern families from Anatolian kilims and related tiling traditions as structured topology spaces. The aim is not decorative inspiration, but a systematic way to connect repetition, symmetry, and connectivity with deformation mechanisms.
Ongoing research. Detailed geometries and design parameters are not posted before publication.
Lightweight structures such as thin-walled components, woven fabrics and architected materials respond to impact in ways that quasi-static analysis cannot predict. Under extreme loading, stress waves, large deformations and material rate effects act together. The response becomes sensitive to details that would not matter under slow loading.
We study this class of problems with nonlinear explicit finite element analysis, supported by experimental data where available. Our models range from the yarn scale in woven fabrics to full structural systems.
The purpose of these models goes beyond reproducing a test. We use them to identify which mechanisms control the response, and to explain why one deformation or failure path develops instead of another.
This theme focuses on the design and performance of protective systems, including roadside safety barriers, combat helmets, and armor plates.
Each application has its own performance measures. In roadside systems, the barrier must contain and redirect the vehicle while limiting occupant risk. In helmets and armor, penetration resistance and deformation behind the impacted surface are important measures of protective performance. Meeting these requirements also involves constraints on weight, dimensions, and material choice. These problems share one design question: how should a structure carry impact loads and deform so that protection is achieved across different impact conditions, rather than only in a single test?
A controlled study showed that identical kinetic energies can lead to different ballistic outcomes. The work identified three response regimes and linked arrest to the compatibility between projectile momentum and the fabric's finite impulse-handling capacity.
Palta, E. (2026). Iso-energetic ballistic response of meso-scale woven fabrics. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 326, 111910.
This study developed a finite element model that couples detailed yarn-scale and coarser fabric-scale regions through shared nodes. The interface improves the transfer of stress waves between the two scales, allowing the model to capture impact response with less computational cost than a fully meso-scale model.
Comparisons with experimental data and a full meso-scale model assessed its accuracy and efficiency. The validated approach was then applied to three-, five-, seven-, and ten-ply dry Kevlar fabrics to determine ballistic limits and examine energy transfer, deformation, and damage at each target’s V100 ballistic limit.
Palta, E., & Fang, H. (2019). On a multi-scale finite element model for evaluating the ballistic performance of multi-ply woven fabrics. Composite Structures, 217, 488–508.
