Dr. Yasser Safa

Dr. Yasser Safa

ZHAW School of Engineering
ICP Multiphysics Modeling and Imaging
Technikumstrasse 71
8400 Winterthur

+41 58 934 77 22
yasser.safa@zhaw.ch

Projects

Novel approaches for investigating local corrosion and mechanical degradation of multiphasic alloys / Project leader / ongoing
Designing smart wave guides and phononic cloaks using metamaterials / Project leader / completed
Innovative rotor design of a new airborne wind power system / Project leader / completed
Nonlinear Thermo-Mechanics of Surface Growth for Additive Manufacturing Applications / Project leader / completed
Developing a Rotor Model of a Novel Lighter-Than-Air System of a Wind Power Turbine / Project leader / completed
Testing a new method for characterization and optimization of the adhesion strength of ceramic and metallic coatings / Project leader / completed

Publications

Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed

Fallah, Arash S., Oleksii V. Bereznykov, Navid Mehreganian, Milad Toolabi, and Yasser Safa. 2026. "Twisting the Spectrum : Phononic Band Structures in Auxetic Metamaterials." Results in Engineering 32 (111631). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2026.111631.
Marmet, Philip, Yasser Safa, Michel Prestat, Flavien Vucko, Roland Logé, and Lorenz Holzer. 2026. "In Situ Quantification of β-Phase Dissolution in Ti-6Al-4V under Harsh Oxidative Conditions." Corrosion Science 263 (113730). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.corsci.2026.113730.
Bereznykov, O. V., Y. Safa, A. M. Gabovich, V. N. Gorshkov, and A. S. Fallah. 2025. "Evanescent Waves in Multi-Resonator Metamaterials : Mechanisms and Characteristic Parameters of Wave Attenuation." Low Temperature Physics 51 (10): 1267–82. https://doi.org/10.1063/10.0039429.
Mehreganian, N., Yasser Safa, Gernot Kurt Boiger, Mathias Bonmarin, and Arash Soleiman Fallah. 2025. "Dynamic Response of Armour Steel Hollow Cylindrical Shells to Blast Loading : A Comparative Study." Results in Engineering 28 (107258). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2025.107258.
Mehreganian, Navid, Yasser Safa, Gernot Kurt Boiger, Ebuka Nwankwo, and Arash Soleiman Fallah. 2023. "Dynamic Response of Blast Loaded Hollow Cylindrical and Truncated Conical Shells." The International Journal of Multiphysics 17 (3): 269–88. https://doi.org/10.21152/1750-9548.17.3.269.
Yavari, Arash, Yasser Safa, and Arash Soleiman Fallah. 2023. "Finite Extension of Accreting Nonlinear Elastic Solid Circular Cylinders." Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics 36 (5): 1053–69. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00161-023-01208-w.
Fallah, Arash Soleiman, Ilias N. Giannakeas, Rizgar Mella, Mark R. Wenman, Yasser Safa, and Hamid Bahai. 2020. "On the Computational Derivation of Bond-Based Peridynamic Stress Tensor." Journal of Peridynamics and Nonlocal Modeling, July. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42102-020-00036-9.
Fallah, Arash, Mazdak Ghajari, and Yasser Safa. 2019. "Computational Modelling of Dynamic Delamination in Morphing Composite Blades and Wings." The International Journal of Multiphysics 13 (4): 393–430. https://doi.org/10.21152/1750-9548.13.4.393.
Safa, Yasser, and Thomas Hocker. 2015. "A Validated Energy Approach for the Post-Buckling Design of Micro-Fabricated Thin Film Devices." Applied Mathematical Modelling 39 (2): 483–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2014.05.038.
Safa, Yasser, Thomas Hocker, Michel Prestat, and Anna Evans. 2014. "Post-Buckling Design of Thin-Film Electrolytes in Micro-Solid Oxide Fuel Cells." Journal of Power Sources 250 (March): 332–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.10.125.
Evans, Anna, Michel Prestat, R. Tölke, M. V. F. Schlupp, L. J. Gauckler, Yasser Safa, Thomas Hocker, et al. 2012. "Residual Stress and Buckling Patterns of Free-Standing Yttria-Stabilized-Zirconia Membranes Fabricated by Pulsed Laser Deposition." Fuel Cells 12 (4): 614–23. https://doi.org/10.1002/fuce.201200028.
Safa, Yasser, M. Flueck, and J. Rappaz. 2009. "Numerical Simulation of Thermal Problems Coupled with Magnetohydrodynamic Effects in Aluminium Cell." Applied Mathematical Modelling 33 (3): 1479–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2008.02.011.
Safa, Yasser, and Daniel Pfenniger. 2008. "Equation of State and Stability of the Helium-Hydrogen Mixture at Cryogenic Temperature." The European Physical Journal B 66 (3): 337–52. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2008-00438-8.

Books, peer-reviewed

Safa, Yasser. 2005. "Simulation numérique des phénomènes thermiques et magnétohydrodynamiques dans une cellule de hall-héroult." Doctoral dissertation, Lausanne: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. https://doi.org/10.5075/epfl-thesis-3185.

Book chapters, peer-reviewed

Mehreganian, Navid, Yasser Safa, and Gernot Kurt Boiger. 2024. "Impact Analysis of Wind Turbines Subjected to Ship Collision and Blast Loading." In Multiphysics of Wind Turbines in Extreme Loading Conditions, edited by Arash Soleiman Fallah, Hassan Abbas Khawaja, and Mojtaba Moatamedi, 101–38. Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-91852-7.00008-8.
Safa, Yasser. 2011. "Helium Thermodynamics, Analytical Model." In Helium : Characteristics, Compounds, and Applications, 191–208. New York: Nova Science Publishers.

Written conference contributions, peer-reviewed

Alaboz, Hakan, Andras Kovacs, Yasser Safa, and Ulrich Mescheder. 2022. "Development of Cost-Effective Automated Test System for Determining Lifetime of Gold Contacts under Mechanical Load." Conference paper. In MikroSystemTechnik Kongress 2021 : Mikroelektronik / Mikrosystemtechnik Und Ihre Anwendungen Innovative Produkte Für Zukunftsfähige Märkte, 738–41. Berlin: VDE. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-27639.
Rappaz, J., M. Flueck, and Yasser Safa. 2006. "Influence of thermo-hydraulic fields on structural mechanics of aluminum reduction cells." Conference paper. In Light Metals 2006 : proceedings of the technical sessions presented by the TMS Aluminum Committee at the 135th TMS Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, USA, March 12-16, 2006, 433–38. TMS - The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.
Safa, Yasser. 2005. "Determination and Influence of the Ledge Shape on Electrical Potential and Fluid Motion in a Smelter." Conference paper. In Light Metals 2005 : Proceedings of the Technical Sessions Presend by the TMS Aluminum Committee at the 134th TMS Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, February 13-17, 2005, 461–68. TMS - The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.

Other publications

Evans, Anna, Michel Prestat, René Tölke, Ludwig J. Gauckler, Thomas Hocker, Yasser Safa, Danick Briand, Jérôme Courbat, and Nico De Rooij. 2012. "Residual Stress and Buckling Patterns of Yttria-Stabilised-Zirconia Thin Films for Micro-Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Membranes." Conference paper. In Ionic and Mixed Conducting Ceramics, edited by M. B. Mogensen, T. Armstrong, T. M. Gür, H. Yokokawa, and X.-D. Zhou, 8:475–79. Pennington: The Electrochemical Society. https://doi.org/10.1149/1.3701338.
Safa, Yasser, and Thomas Hocker. 2009. "Numerical Simulation of Reactive Transport Phenomena in the Hexis SOFC-System." Conference paper. In Solid Oxide Fuel Cells 11 (SOFC-XI), edited by S. C. Singhal and H. Yokokawa, 25:1221–30. Pennington. https://doi.org/10.1149/1.3205651.
Safa, Yasser. 2006. Reaction-Diffusion Problem with Concentration Driven Deformation. Zurich: ETH Zurich. http://mosaic.mpi-cbg.de/docs/Safa2006.pdf.
Safa, Yasser. 2005. "Numerical Simulations of Thermo-Magneto-Hydrodynamic Phenomena." Conference paper. In Numerical Swiss Colloquium, Zürich, 24 March 2005.

Oral conference contributions and abstracts

Marmet, Philip, Lorenz Holzer, Yasser Safa, Michel Prestat, Flavien Vucko, and Roland Logé. 2026. "In Situ Quantification of β-Phase Dissolution in Ti-6Al-4V Implant Material under Harsh Oxidative Conditions." Conference presentation. In 10th Swiss Corrosion Science Day, Villigen, Switzerland, 24 April 2026.
Marmet, Philip, Lorenz Holzer, Yasser Safa, Michel Prestat, Flavien Vucko, Roland Logé, Haoran Yu, Oumaima Gharbi, Mireille Turmine, and Vincent Vivier. 2025. "H2O2-Driven Corrosion of Ti-6Al-4V Implants : Connection between Electrochemical and Microstructure Characteristics." Conference presentation. In EUROCORR Book of Abstracts.
Prestat, Michel, Philip Marmet, Yasser Safa, Lorenz Holzer, Shruti Banait, Laura Perrin, Roland Logé, Maxime Dumouchel, and Flavien Vucko. 2024. "H2O2-Driven Corrosion of Ti6Al4V Investigated by Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy and Quantitative Microstructure Analysis." Conference presentation. In EUROCORR Book of Abstracts.
Vucko, Flavien, Geoffrey Ringot, Philip Marmet, Yasser Safa, Lorenz Holzer, Shruti Banait, Laura Perrin, Roland Logé, and Michel Prestat. 2024. "Fatigue-Corrosion Behaviour of Ti6Al4V Alloys in H2O2-Containing Physiological Solution." Conference presentation. In EUROCORR Book of Abstracts.
Hocker, Thomas, Yasser Safa, and Daniel Christoph Meier. 2016. "Kontrolliertes Kühlen von Kakaobutter und Modellierung der Kristallisation von Kakaobutter." Conference presentation. In Choco Tec 2016 - der Schokoladenkongress des Jahres, Köln, Deutschland, 6-8 December 2016.
Safa, Yasser, and Thomas Hocker. 2016. "Developed numerical approach of the melt-crystals phase-changing kinetics in solidification process." Conference presentation. In 11th International Conference of Multiphysics, Winterthur, 8-9 December 2016.
Safa, Yasser. 2015. "Developed Model of the Phase Change Kinetics in Cocoa Butter, Simulation of Cooling and Solidification Processe." Conference presentation. In Meeting Day of Swiss Chocolate Industry "AK-Schoko Treffen", Zurich, 2015.
Safa, Yasser. 2014. "A New Phase Mixture Approach for the Gas-Liquid Flow in Shale Reservoir." Conference presentation. In 2nd International Symposium on Energy Challenges and Mechanics (ECM2) Aberdeen, UK, 19-21 August 2014.
Prestat, Michel René, A. Evans, R. Tölke, M. V. F. Schlupp, B. Scherrer, Z. Yáng, J. Martynczuk, et al. 2012. "Miniaturized Free-Standing SOFC Membranes on Silicon Chips (A0704)." Conference presentation. In 10th European SOFC Forum 2012, Lucerne, Switzerland, 26–29 June 2012.
Safa, Yasser, and Thomas Hocker. 2012. "A Validated Model of Membrane Mechanics for Micro SOFC." Conference presentation. In 9th Symposium on Fuel Cell and Battery Modeling and Experimental Validation (ModVal 9), Sursee, 2.-4. April 2012.
Hocker, Thomas, M. Niffenegger, Yasser Safa, and E. Chahine. 2011. "Buckling-Driven Crack Growth in Elastic Plate Devices." Conference presentation. In 21. Symposium Simulationstechnik (ASIM 2011), Winterthur, Schweiz, 7.–9. September 2011.
Safa, Yasser. 2011. "Mathematica Implementation of New Simulation Codes for Challenging Industrial Applications." Conference presentation. In XIII. Berliner Mathematica-Tag, Berlin, Deutschland, 2. Dezember 2011.
Safa, Yasser, and Thomas Hocker. 2011. "A New Model for Detailed Simulation of Multiple Transport and Conversion Processes in SOFC Stack Repeat Units." Conference presentation. In 8th Symposium on Fuel Cell Modeling and Experimental Validation (ModVal8), Bonn, Germany, 8-9 March 2011.
Schumacher, Jürgen, and Yasser Safa. 2010. "Modeling Two-Phase Flow in the Gas Diffusion Layer of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell." Conference presentation. In 7th Symposium on Fuel Cell Modeling and Experimental Validation, Morges, 23-24 March 2010.
Safa, Yasser, and Jürgen O. Schumacher. 2009. "Numerical Modeling of the Two-Phase Transport in a PEM Fuel Cell." Conference presentation. In Proceedings of the Third European Fuel Cell Technology & Applications Conference : Presented at 3rd European Fuel Cell Technology and Applications Conference, December 15 - 18, 2009, Rome, Italy.
Schumacher, Jürgen, and Yasser Safa. 2009. "Numerical Simulation of Transport Phenomena in PEM Fuel Cells." Conference presentation. In Algoritmy 2009 - Conference on Scientific Computing, Podbanske, Slovakia, 15-20 March 2009. Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava.
Safa, Yasser. 2005. "Cuve de hall-héroult en thermomagnétohydrodynamique." Conference presentation. In Le 2ème Congrès National de Mathématiques Appliquées et Industrielles, Evian, France, 23-27 May 2005.
Safa, Yasser. 2004. "Thermal Calculations of Reduction Cells Coupled with Magnetohydrodynamic Effect." Conference presentation. In Workshop in Numerical Simulations for Aluminum Industry, Lausanne, 2004.