Bio
I am a PhD candidate at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, in the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, specializing in structural dynamics with a focus on blast loads on structures. My research aims to deepen our understanding of how structures behave under extreme loading and to develop strategies that improve their resistance to blast events.
I work in the Extreme Loads on Structures Lab under the supervision of Dr. Hezi Y. Grisaro, in the Department of Structural Engineering and Construction Management.
Research
My doctoral work develops advanced models of aluminum foams performing as sacrificial layers for protected structures. Using lumped-mass formulations, pressure–impulse (P–I) diagrams and a simplified decoupled methodology, I study how the energy a foam cladding absorbs relates to the damage it prevents in the structure behind it, across a wide spectrum of blast loads.
Alongside the modeling, I take part in experimental work, including tests on ultra-high-performance concrete beams and the influence of steel fibers on their performance and cracking.
2023 – present
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering · Department of Structural Engineering and Construction Management
Research topic: Advanced Modeling of Aluminum Foams Performing as Sacrificial Layers for Protected Structures
2021 – 2023
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering · Structural Engineering Department
Research topic: Dynamic Behavior of Structures with Energy Absorption Protection Layer under Blast Loads
2017 – 2020
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering · Structural Engineering Department, minor in Construction Management
Final project: Design of a road bridge over running water
A little about my work — from why metallic foams make good sacrificial layers, through how their coupled response is modeled and evaluated, to a separate experimental study on UHPC beams.
Metallic foams undergo large plastic crushing at a nearly constant plateau stress. As sacrificial claddings, they cut the peak pressure a blast delivers, stretch its duration, and absorb energy before it ever reaches the protected structure.
Is the damage reduction really from the foam absorbing energy, or simply from the added mass of the cladding? Comparing the bare structure, a mass-equivalent reference and the foam-clad system isolates the true contribution of energy absorption.
Non-uniform aluminum foams are modeled as sacrificial layers whose density varies through the thickness. Changing that distribution changes the plateau stress, the compaction strain, how the compaction front propagates, and ultimately the structural response.
Foam compaction and the protected structure's response happen together, not in sequence: the moving compaction front, the plateau stress it transmits, and the structure's own dynamic response all interact.
Pressure–impulse diagrams and heat maps evaluate foam-cladding performance across a broad blast-load spectrum, identifying where the cladding helps, where it is neutral, and where a poor foam design can lose efficiency or even worsen the response.
A practical analytical workflow separates foam compaction from structural response: the foam's own behavior first gives the transmitted load, then the protected structure is analyzed under that load — enabling fast design iteration without solving the fully coupled problem every time.
This work directly connects the share of input energy the foam absorbs with the reduction in the structure's peak displacement, tracking how the incoming energy is distributed between foam compaction, structural response, and residual kinetic and dissipation effects.
A separate experimental study, not part of the metallic-foam cladding work above: it evaluates how steel-fiber content affects the load-bearing performance, bending response and cracking behavior of ultra-high-performance concrete beams.
7th fib Congress, 2026
Peer-reviewed journal papers, a book chapter and refereed conference papers, all as first author.
2026
Mechanics of Materials, 223, 105835Q1
2026
International Journal of Impact Engineering, 212, 105666Q1
2026
Journal of Engineering Mechanics (ASCE), 152(4)Q1
2024
Journal of Building Engineering, 91, 109527Q1
2024
Engineering Structures, 308, 118047Q1
2026
In Fundamentals of Explosive Ordnance, CRC Press / Taylor & Francis, pp. 435–458In press
2026
Proceedings of the 7th fib Congress — Structural Concrete 2050: Towards Carbon Neutrality, AI Design, and Robotic Construction
2025
Proceedings of the 27th International Symposium on Military Aspects of Blast and Shock (MABS27)
2025
In Safeguarding Structural Resilience Under Extreme Events — Proceedings of PROTECT 2024, Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, Springer, pp. 341–352
2024
Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on Interaction of the Effects of Munitions with Structures (ISIEMS 19)
2023
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Protective Structures (ICPS6)
Full list on Google Scholar
Presentations at international symposia on protective structures, blast and shock.
June 2026
7th fib Congress
Experimental Evaluation of UHPC Beams: Influence of Steel Fibers on Structural Performance and Cracking Behavior
PortugalFirst author · presenter
Dec 2025
MABS27 — 27th International Symposium on Military Aspects of Blast and Shock
A Simplified Decoupled Methodology for Predicting the Blast Response of Foam-Cladded Structures
FranceFirst author · presenter
Dec 2024
ISIEMS 19 — 19th International Symposium on Interaction of the Effects of Munitions with Structures
Heat Map-Based Evaluation of Aluminum Foam Cladding Performance for Structural Damage Mitigation over a Wide Load Spectrum
GermanyFirst author · presenter
Aug 2024
PROTECT 2024 — 9th International Colloquium on Performance, Protection & Strengthening of Structures Under Extreme Loading & Events
Performance Evaluation of Aluminum Foam-Cladded Structures Across a Broad Blast Load Spectrum: PI Diagrams Analysis
SingaporeFirst author · presenter
May 2023
ICPS6 — 6th International Conference on Protective Structures
Dynamic Behavior of Structures with Energy Absorption Protection Layer under Blast Loads
Auburn, Alabama, USAFirst author · presenter
Mar 2023
ISCM-51 — 51st Israel Symposium on Computational Mechanics
Approaches for Modeling the Coupling between Compaction of Aluminum Foams and Protective Structures under Blast Loads
Haifa, IsraelPresenter
Scholarships, grants and prizes recognizing the research.
2024 · Edmond de Rothschild Foundation
Scholarship for outstanding female PhD students, across fields of study, at research institutions in Israel.
2025 · Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion
Awarded for research in materials, performance and construction technology.
2026 · Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion
For outstanding publications in Q1-ranked journals in civil and environmental engineering.
Contact
Ola Wattad
olawattad@campus.technion.ac.il Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering