Multiphase Flow 2017

9th International Conference on Computational & Experimental Methods in Multiphase & Complex Flow

20 - 22 June, 2017

Tallinn, Estonia

Introduction

This is the 9th International Conference on Multiphase Flow in the very successful series which started in Orlando, Florida (2001), followed by meetings in Santa Fe, New Mexico (2003), Portland, Maine (2005), Bologna, (2007), the New Forest, home of the Wessex Institute (2009), Kos (2011), A Coruna  (2013) and Valencia (2015).

The overall focus of this conference series is the combination of experimental and computational techniques to gain a better understanding of all classes of multiphase and complex flow.  The meeting aims to facilitate the exchange of ideas and experiences directly and interactively, thereby promoting the development of knowledge in this increasingly important field.

This series of conferences on Multiphase Flow, organised by the Wessex Institute since 2001 aims to further such initiatives and to develop knowledge transfer mechanisms, in particular between academics and industry professionals. The papers presented at previous meetings are stored in digital form at http://www.witpress.com/elibrary where they are permanently available to the international community.

Conference Topics

The following list covers some of the topics to be presented at Multiphase Flow 2017. Papers on other subjects related to the objectives of the conference are also welcome.

• Multiphase flow simulation
• Bubble and drop dynamics
• Interface behaviour
• Experimental measurements
• Compressible multiphase flows
• Flow in porous media
• Turbulent multiphase flow
• Image processing
• Heat transfer
• Atomization
• Fluidised beds
• Cavitation
• Multiphase chemical reactions

Find out more on the conference webpage.

Timber Structures 2017

1st International Conference On Timber Structures and Engineering

13 - 15 June, 2017

New Forest, UK

Introduction

The 1st International Conference on Timber Structures is being organised by the Wessex Institute in collaboration with the Technical Centre of Wood Industry in Belgium.

Rapid advances have recently been made in the development and processing of innovative ecologically friendly wood products.  A wide range of new structural shapes can now be fabricated and used to construct buildings and bridges which have minimal impact on the environment.  Wood is particularly attractive since it is renewable and has no carbon footprint when it is harvested in a sustainable way. Timber structures are ecologically sound and comparatively low cost.  The material lends itself to innovative design and new types of composites offer reliable, robust and safe materials.

The Conference will explore the latest developments in wood products and their application as structural components with emphasis on new research and real applications.  It is intended to provide a platform for the presentation and discussion between researchers and practitioners of new and innovative ideas in this important field. 

Conference Topics

The following list covers some of the topics to be presented at Timber Structures 2017. Papers on other subjects related to the objectives of the conference are also welcome.

• Wood products characterisation
• Material properties of wood
• Durability aspects, service life modelling
• Fire safety of timber structures
• Protection against decay
• Non-destructive inspection and monitoring
• Glued, laminated structures, Xlam and CLT
• Timber joints and connections
• Vernacular wood structures
• Heritage timber structures
• Timber housing and eco-architecture
• Timber bridges
• Large span timber roof structures
• Shell structures in timber
• Mixed, composite and hybrid structures
• Computational analysis and experimental methods
• Structural engineering and design
• Seismic behaviour of timber structures
• Protection of timber
• Case studies
• Repaired timber structures
• Rapidly assembled and transferable timber structures
• Guidelines, codes and regulations
• Structure failures
• Art and craftsmanship

Find out more on the conference webpage.

Disaster Management 2017

5th International Conference on Disaster Management and Human Health: Reducing Risk, Improving Outcomes

7 - 9 June, 2017

Seville, Spain

Introduction

The International Conference on Disaster Management is being reconvened following the success of the previous four meetings, held at Wessex Institute in the New Forest in 2009, the University of Central Florida in Orlando, USA in 2011, A Coruña, Spain in 2013 and Istanbul Technical University, Turkey 2015.

This series of conferences originated with the need for academia and practitioners to exchange knowledge and experience on the way to handle the increasing risk of natural and human-made disasters. Recent major earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods and other natural phenomena have resulted in huge losses in terms of human life and property destruction. A new range of human-made disasters have afflicted humanity in modern times; terrorist activities have been added to more classical disasters such as those due to the failure of industrial installations for instance.

It is important to understand the nature of these global risks to be able to develop strategies to prepare for these events and plan effective responses in terms of disaster management and the associated human health impacts.

The conference provides a forum for the exchange of information between academics and practitioners, and a venue for presentation of the latest developments. The corresponding volume of WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment containing the papers presented at the meeting has been published in paper and digital format and widely distributed around the world. The papers are also archived in the WIT elibrary (http://www.witpress.com/elibrary) where they are available to the international community. 

Conference Topics

The following list covers some of the topics to be presented at Disaster Management 2017. Papers on other subjects related to the objectives of the conference are also welcome.

• Disaster analysis
• Disaster monitoring and mitigation
• Emergency preparedness
• Risk mitigation
• Risk and security
• Community resilience
• Socio-economic issues
• Health risk and disaster psychology
• Case studies
• Human factors
• Multi-hazard risk assessment
• Risk communications
• Preparedness and training
• Learning from disasters
• Termism and man-made disasters 

Find out more on the conference webpage.

Water and Society 2017

4th International Conference on Water & Society

5 - 7 June 2017

Seville, Spain

Introduction

The Water and Society Conference is to be reconvened in 2017 following the success of the previous meetings, the first of which was held in Las Vegas in 2011, followed by a meeting in 2013 in the New Forest, UK, home to the Wessex Institute, and one in La Coruna, Spain in 2015.

Over the centuries, civilisations have relied on the availability of clean and inexpensive water. This can no longer be taken for granted as the need for water continues to increase due to the pressure from growing global population demanding higher living standards. Agriculture and industry, major users of water, are at the same time those that contribute to its contamination. Water distribution networks in urban areas, as well as soiled water collection systems, present serious problems in response to a growing population as well as the need to maintain ageing infrastructures.

Many technologically feasible solutions, such as desalination or pumping systems are energy demanding but, as costs rise, the techniques currently developed may need to be re-assessed. The Conference will address the interaction between water and energy systems.

This meeting will encourage trans-disciplinary communication on issues related to the nature of water, and its use and exploitation by society. The conference is motivated by the need to bridge the gap between the broad spectrum of social political sciences and humanistic disciplines and specialists in physical sciences, biology, environmental sciences and health, among others.

The socio-political implications of a world short of clean, easily available water are enormous. It will lead to realignments in international politics and the emergence of new centres of power in the world.

Policy makers need to be educated and advised on developing policies and regulations that will support the water systems of tomorrow. The role of society and its involvement with water is paramount. To meet the future demands for water, new standards, new training and additional support roles will best be delivered by those knowledgeable of the new technologies and direction of the industry.

The intention of the Water and Society series of conferences is to review these issues, as well as the more technical aspects of water resources management and quality, to help put forward policies and legislation that will lead to improved solutions for all.

The papers selected for presentation and included in the Conference Proceedings are permanently stored in the WIT eLibrary as Transactions of the Wessex Institute (see http://www.witpress.com/elibrary). 

Conference Topics

The following list covers some of the topics to be presented at Water and Society 2017. Papers on other subjects related to the objectives of the conference are also welcome.

• Water resources management
• Water as a human right
• Water quality
• Water resources contamination
• Water, sanitation and health
• Water and disaster management
• Policy and legislation
• Future water demands
• Irrigation management
• Water management
• Urban water management
• Management of catchments
• Groundwater management and conservation
• Agribusiness

Find out more on the conference webpage.

Complex Systems 2017

The New Forest Complex Systems Conference 2017

23 - 25 May, 2017

New Forest, UK

Introduction

The Conference aims to bring together researchers, developers and users of complex systems from a variety of disciplines interested in developing the new approaches for resolving complex issues that cannot be resolved using conventional mathematical or software models. It also welcomes specialists in modelling complex issues using multi-agent technology and similar distributed approaches, which have achieved credible application results.

By now the conference is well established and is distinguished by its friendly and informal atmosphere in which it is easy for participants to help each other to further advance their appreciation of the subject of managing complexity.

Among the participants one will find renown complexity thinkers, well established practitioners and novices in the area of complexity happily discussing issues of common interest

And, of course, the New Forest is beautiful, and provides the right opportunity to bring your family and friends with you.

The Conference is particularly interested in methods for resolving complex issues that exhibit some of the following attributes:

CONNECTIVITY - A system consists of a large number of diverse components, referred to as Agents, which are richly interconnected.

AUTONOMY - Agents are not centrally controlled; they have a degree of autonomy but their behaviour is always subject to certain laws, rules or norms.

EMERGENCE - Global behaviour of a complex system emerges from the interaction of agents and is therefore unpredictable but not random; it generally follows discernible patterns.

NONEQUILIBRIUM - Global behaviour of a complex system is far from equilibrium because frequent occurrences of disruptive events do not allow the system to return to the equilibrium between two such events

NONLINEARITY - Relations between agents are nonlinear, which occasionally causes an insignificant input to be amplified into an extreme event (butterfly effect).

SELF-ORGANISATION - A system is capable of self-organizing in response to disruptive events, a feature termed Adaptability. Self-organisation may also be initiated autonomously by the system in response to a perceived need, a feature termed Creativity.

CO-EVOLUTION - A system irreversibly co-evolves with its environment.

High level of dynamics of such systems, which is usually expressed through the frequent occurrence of unpredictable disruptive events, makes conventional optimizers, batch schedulers and resource planning systems unworkable.

Complex Systems occur in an infinite variety of problems, not only in the realm of physical sciences and engineering, but encompassing fields as diverse as economy, the environment, humanities, social and political sciences. Further examples are given in the enclosed list of topics which although incomplete gives an idea of the themes to be covered by the meeting.

Conference Topics

The following list covers some of the topics to be presented at Complex Systems 2017. Papers on other subjects related to the objectives of the conference are also welcome.

Complexity Science

• Emergence
• Adaptation in response to disruptive events
• Resilience to extreme events
• Autocatalytic properties
• Self-organisation
• Evolution

Complex Adaptive Business

• Self-organisation versus control
• Real-time logistics
• Real-time supply chains
• Adaptive business processes
• Enterprise ontology
• Mining big data (extracting knowledge from data)
• Resilience to electronic attacks and fraud

Complex Adaptive Healthcare

• Adaptation in human biology
• Self-organisation of healthcare resources

Complex Networks

• The Internet of documents
• The Internet of people
• The Internet of things
• Social media

Complexity in Transportation Systems

• Self-organisation in air traffic management
• Adaptive aircraft lifecycle
• Adaptive space logistics
• Intelligent drones
• Real-time scheduling of multi-modal transport
• Swarming

Complex Systems Engineering

• Adaptive systems
• Families of robots
• Emergent leadership
• Adaptive management

Smart City

• Adaptive delivery of services
• Adaptive energy management
• Self-organising urban networks

Global Issues

• Geopolitical systems and conflicts
• Complexity issues in economics
• The internet-based global market
• Natural catastrophes
• Human-made disasters
• Overpopulation
• Unlimited material growth
• Urban development

Social Systems

• Self-organisation versus control
• Complexity in politics

Find out more on the conference webpage.

BIM 2017

2nd International Conference on Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Design, Construction and Operations

10 - 12 May, 2017

Alicante, Spain

Introduction

The International Conference on Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Design, Construction and Operations is reconvened following the success of the first meeting that took place in Bristol, UK. BIM17 will take place at the University of Alicante, Spain.

The modern construction industry and built environment disciplines have been transformed through the development of new and innovative BIM tools and techniques. These have fundamentally altered the manner in which construction teams operate; the processes through which designs are evolved; and the relationships between conceptual, detail, construction and life cycle stages. 

BIM is essentially value-creating collaboration throughout the entire life-cycle of an asset, underpinned by the data attached to them. BIM has far and reaching consequences on both building procurement and infrastructure. This recent emergence constitutes one of the most exciting developments in the field of the Built Environment. These advances have offered project teams multi-sensory collaborative tools and opportunities for new communication structures.

The conference fulfils the vital task of bringing together experts from industry, practice and academia to debate those key topics, to develop innovative solutions, and predict future trends. The conference includes a range of presentation forums, including plenary papers, workshops, seminars, and panel sessions.

Papers presented at these conference series as well as others approved by the Wessex Institute are permanently available to the International Scientific Community through the e-library of the Institute www.witpress.com/elibrary

Conference Topics

The following list covers some of the topics to be presented at BIM 2017. Papers on other subjects related to the objectives of the conference are also welcome.

• BIM in design coordination
• BIM in construction operations
• BIM in building operation and maintenance
• BIM and sustainability
• BIM and collaborative working and practices
• BIM-Facilities management integration
• BIM-GIS integration
• BIM and automation in construction
• BIM and health and safety
• BIM standards
• BIM and interoperability
• BIM and life cycle project management
• BIM and cultural heritage
• BIM and Robotics
• BIM in risk analysis and management
• BIM in emergency analysis, planning and management
• BIM and security

Find out more on the conference webpage.

STREMAH 2017

15th International Conference on Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Heritage Architecture

9 - 11 May, 2017

Alicante, Spain

Introduction

STREMAH 2017 is the 15th International Conference on Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Heritage Architecture. The meeting has taken place on a regular basis since the first conference started in Florence (1989) and continued in Seville (1991); Bath (1993); Crete (1995); San Sebastian (1997); Dresden (1999); Bologna (2001); Halkidiki (2003); Malta (2005); Prague (2007); Tallinn (2009); Tuscany (2011), the New Forest, UK home of the Wessex Institute (2013) and A Coruna, Spain (2015).

The importance of retaining the built cultural heritage cannot be overstated. Rapid development and the inappropriate conservation techniques are threatening many built cultural heritage unique sites in different parts of the world. This conference aims to provide the knowledge required to formulate regulatory policies, to ensure effective ways of preserving the architectural heritage. The series has been most successful and the conference continues to attract a wide range of high quality contributions since it started in 1989.

The meeting addresses a series of topics related to the historical aspects and the reuse of heritage buildings, as well as technical issues on the structural integrity of different types of buildings, such as those constructed with materials as varied as iron and steel, concrete, masonry, wood or earth. Restoration processes require the appropriate characterisation of those materials, the modes of construction and the structural behaviour of the building. This knowledge can be gained through a series of material characterisation techniques, preferably via non-destructive tests. Modern computer simulation can provide accurate results demonstrating the stress state of the building and possible failure mechanisms affecting its stability. Of particular importance are studies related to their dynamic and earthquake behaviour aiming to provide an assessment of the seismic vulnerability of heritage buildings.

This conference brings together contributions from scientists, architects, engineers and restoration experts from all over the world dealing with different aspects of heritage buildings. Papers contained in the volumes in the series have been published in paper and digital format in the WIT transactions of the Built Environment, and widely distributed around the world. They are also permanently archived in the Wessex Institute eLibrary where they are available to the international community http://www.witpress.com/elibrary.

Conference Topics

The following list covers some of the topics to be presented at STREMAH 2017. Papers on other subjects related to the objectives of the conference are also welcome.

• Heritage architecture and historical aspects
• Learning from the past
• Surveying and monitoring
• Maintenance issues
• Rehabilitation of metallic structures
• Earth construction
• Modern (19th/20th century) heritage
• Ports and coastal heritage
• Heritage masonry structures
• Wooden structures
• Simulation and modelling
• Material characterization
• New technologies and materials
• Corrosion and material decay
• Seismic vulnerability and retrofit
• Management and assessment of heritage buildings
• Re-use of heritage buildings
• Heritage and tourism
• Conservation policies
• Guidelines, codes and regulations for heritage
• Heritage management
• Defence heritage
• Industrial heritage
• Transportation heritage
• Social, cultural and economic aspects
• Adaptability and accessibility
• Monitoring and damage detection
• Vernacular architecture
• Safety and security

Find out more on the conference webpage.