News & Events

We are pleased to share METU Computational Solid Mechanics Lab’s contribution to MSE 2026! Our PhD student İlbilge Umay Aydıner presented a poster at the Materials Science and Engineering Congress (MSE 2026), held in Darmstadt, Germany, on 29 September–1 October 2026. Her poster, entitled “Constraint-Based Transferability of Fracture Toughness for Eurofer97,” was co-authored with Can Erdoğan, Terentyev Dmitry, and Tuncay Yalcinkaya. We thank our colleagues at SCK CEN for their valuable collaboration. We also gratefully acknowledge COST Action EU-MACE for supporting Ilbilge’s participation through a Conference Grant, and Türkiye Enerji, Nükleer ve Maden Araştırma Kurumu (TENMAK) for its support of her PhD research.

Our group member and PhD candidate Can Erdoğan delivered an oral presentation at the Integrated Composite Solutions Day, organized by A-Ztech and Dassault Systèmes in Ankara, Türkiye, on 7 October 2026. His presentation, titled “Phase Field Modelling of Failure in Composite Structures using Abaqus” was co-authored with Tuncay Yalçınkaya.

We congratulate our PhD student Hande Vural, on receiving one of the 2024–2025 METU Thesis of the Year Awards for her MSc thesis. Her thesis, titled “Ductile failure analysis during backward flow forming processes”, was completed under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Tuncay Yalcinkaya. The research combined experimental investigations with finite element modelling to assess ductile fracture and forming limits in backward flow forming. Hande received the award from METU President Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yozgatlıgil at the opening ceremony of the 2026–2027 academic year, held on 28 September 2026. We thank REPKON for its support and collaboration throughout the thesis work.

MCSM Lab contributed 11 papers to the 25th European Conference on Fracture (ECF25), held in Athens, Greece, from 6 to 11 September 2026. Seven oral and four poster presentations showcased our research in computational plasticity, fatigue and fracture. Orhun Bulut received one of the conference’s two Best Poster Awards. Congratulations to Orhun on this achievement! The conference provided valuable opportunities to discuss our findings, exchange ideas with colleagues and initiate new international collaborations. We thank the organisers, our co-authors and collaborators, and everyone who attended our presentations and poster discussions.

Prof. Dr. Tuncay Yalcinkaya, Principal Investigator of the MCSM Lab, and PhD student Can Erdoğan received their Academic Performance Awards for their contributions to the research activities of Middle East Technical University. The awards were presented by Rector Ahmet Yozgatlıgil during the Academic Performance Awards Ceremony and Year-End Gathering, in recognition of their research contributions and scholarly achievements.

Our group member and PhD student Hande Vural attended LWAG 2026: Light-Weight Armour for Defence & Security co-organized by the Norwegian Defence Estates Agency (NDEA) and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She gave an oral presentation co-authored with Yunus Emre Özsoy and Tuncay Yalçınkaya, entitled "Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Ballistic Impact Response in Multilayer Metallic Systems Using FE-SPH Analyses with Various Damage Criteria". The event was held from June 2nd to 4th at Oscarsborg Fortress, Norway

Our group member Hande Vural has been awarded a scholarship from the COST Action EU-MACE to attend the AccelMAPs Training School. She presented a poster co-authored with Tuncay Yalçınkaya, titled "Deep Learning-Based Phase Segmentation of Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) Maps". The event was held from May 18th to 21st at the Campus Tecnológico e Nuclear of Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal, Lisbon.

MCSM Lab attended the SIMULIA Türkiye Users Conference hosted by A-Ztech and Dassault Systèmes. Prof. Dr. Tuncay Yalçınkaya delivered a keynote talk titled "From Microstructure to Failure: Multiscale Plasticity, Damage, and Fracture Modeling with Abaqus Subroutines".

An online workshop, coordinated by Prof. Dr. Tuncay Yalçınkaya and Prof. Dr. Jarosław Jasiński, was held between NOMATEN Research Centre and MCSM Lab to discuss potential collaboration topics under the theme “Simulation and Research of Materials for Extreme Conditions.” The workshop provided an efficient platform to exchange ideas, identify common research interests, and explore new opportunities for collaboration.

The appointment of Dr. Tuncay Yalçınkaya to full professorship was congratulated by Rector Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yozgatlıgil at a university reception, where all professorship appointments for 2025 were announced and celebrated.

MCSM Lab has organized the International Workshop on Plasticity, Damage and Fracture of Engineering Materials (IWPDF 2025), held in Istanbul, 24–26 September 2025.

MCSM Lab has participated in the 18th International Conference on Computational Plasticity, COMPLAS2025, held in Barcelona, Spain, with three presentations.

Our group gathered together for a barbecue event.

Our group member and PhD candidate Can Erdoğan has received an Academic Performance Award for the 2023 Academic Year, presented by the Rector.

MCSM Lab participated in the 20th International Conference on Strength of Materials, ICSMA 20, held in Kyoto, Japan, with two presentations. Dr. Yalçınkaya delivered an oral presentation titled "Uncoupled Damage Modeling in Flow Forming Processes: An Assessment of Failure Mechanisms," in collaboration with REPKON and co-authored by Hande Vural and Tevfik Ozan Fenercioğlu. Sadık Sefa Açar presented a poster titled "Multi-scale Modeling of Single Crystal Turbine Blade with Orientation Deviations Under Cyclic Operational Loading," co-authored by Orhun Bulut and Tuncay Yalçınkaya.

Dr. Yalçınkaya has attended the 4th Internal Technical Review Meeting of the EU-funded TRANSITION Project, held at the Baker Hughes Florence Learning Center in Florence.

Our group member Sadık Sefa Açar presented his work titled "Polycrystalline Plasticity Analysis of Cyclic Loading and Stress Relaxation in Austenitic Stainless Steels" at the 7th Structural Materials for Innovative Nuclear Systems (SMINS-7) workshop in Madrid.

Dr. Yalçınkaya attended the EU-MACE COST Action meeting held in Burghausen, Germany, where IWPDF 2025, organized by our research group was officially included in the EU-MACE priority conference list.

Happy New Year! MCSM Lab gathered to celebrate and welcome the new year.

Dr. Yalçınkaya has been elected as an ESIS fellow at ECF24 in Zagreb, Croatia.

MCSM Lab has contributed to ECF24 in Zagreb, Croatia with 10 papers.

MCSM Lab has organized IWPDF 2023 Meeting in Istanbul on October 4-6, 2023.

MCSM Lab has contributed to ESAFORM 2023 Conference in Krakow, Poland with 9 papers.

MCSM Lab has contributed to European Conference on Fracture, ECF23 in Madeira, Portugal with 4 papers. The paper titled Phase field modeling of fatigue crack growth at constant and variable amplitude loading got the best poster award.

Dr. Yalçınkaya visited Forschungszentrum Jülich - Institute for Advanced Simulations, Prof. Dr. Stefan Sandfeld, and met with previous MCSM members in Aachen, Germany, on 10-14 January 2022.

Dr. Yalçınkaya organized and chaired the 2nd International Workshop on Plasticity, Damage and Fracture of Engineering Materials, virtually on 18-20 August 2021, from Middle East Technical University in Ankara.

MCSM Lab members Dr. Yalçınkaya, Can Erdogan and Izzet Tarik Tandogan visited University of Oxford, Department of Engineering Science for collaboration discussions with Prof. Dr. Alan Cocks on 8-11 March 2020.

Dr. Yalçınkaya has visited the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological University on 20-31 January 2020.

MCSM Lab has organized the 1st International Workshop on Plasticity, Damage and Fracture of Engineering Materials, on 22-23 August 2019 in Ankara, Türkiye.

Dr. Yalçınkaya organized the graduate course on variational approaches to inelastic phenomena in continuum mechanics delivered by Prof. Giovanni Lancioni from Polytechnic University of Marche between 14-16 February 2017 at Department of Aerospace Engineering.