First International Conference on The Art of Resisting Extreme Natural Forces

 Overview

According to the ancient Greeks, nature was composed of four elements; air, fire, water and earth.  Engineers are continuously faced with the challenge imposed by those elements, in activities such as the design of bridges and high buildings to withstand high winds; the construction of fire resistant structures, the control of floods and wave forces; the minimisation of earthquake damage; prevention and control of landslides and a whole range of natural forces.  

Advances in engineering design and the quest for optimal and more efficient structures have highlighted the importance of those natural forces with regard to the safety and durability of all forms of construction.  

 Opening Address

Professor Brebbia opened the Meeting by welcoming the delegates to the New Forest Campus of Wessex Institute.  He explained the objective of the Institute to act as a Centre for knowledge exchange at international level.  

Professor Brebbia also stressed the commitment of WIT to act as a bridge between the physical and engineering sciences and humanities in general. Several of the most recent initiatives at WIT involve interdisciplinary research and projects, which include the participation of political and social sciences, as well as economists, bioscientists and others. 

WIT conferences continue to attract outstanding papers, which are now permanently archived in the electronic Library maintained on the Web by WIT Press. This very successful Library ensures that papers presented at WIT meetings are easily available to the scientific community.  The papers are indexed in many abstracting services, including those of Elsevier.

 Keynote Address by Professor Santiago Hernandez

The Conference began with a keynote address by Professor Santiago Hernandez on “Reshaping the Continents, Engineering and Nature”.  During his presentation, he referred to the most important bridges in the world, particularly those connecting islands and mainland.  These structures represent major advances in engineering, challenged by natural forces such as high winds, adverse sea conditions and earthquakes, among other natural forces.  The talk was illustrated with a number of excellent photos and plans.   Professor Hernandez also referred to the bridges planned now which are going to reshape continents.  Projects include bridges connecting German and Danish islands, the new bridge proposed to connect Chiloé Island, Chile with the mainland, in a region which is subjected to strong earthquakes.  (The strongest earthquake to date has been recorded in Valdivia, Chile.)  The Japanese are also designing new bridges to connect more islands and Italy is planning to build one over Messina Strait, linking Sicily with the mainland.  Professor Hernandez’s group at the University of La Coruña has been involved in designing the proposed bridge from La Coruña to El Ferrol, as well as the proposed Messina bridge.  Professor Hernandez described in more detail the work carried out by his group for the Italian bridge.

 Invited Presentations

Other invited presentations were:  

• “Improvement analysis of long-span bridges flutter: Messina bridge example”, by JA Jurado, University of La Coruña, Spain
• “Safety investigation on rail and road vehicles exposed to cross-wind: wind tunnel tests and multi-body simulations”, by E Sabbioni, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
• “Lateral-torsional buckling of ferritic stainless steel beams in case of fire”, by P Vila Real, University of Aveiro, Portugal
• “Designing for the extreme environment of space: A case study of the ENVISAT satellite”, by S Burgess, University of Bristol, UK
• “Engineering design against natural forces based on risk assessment”, by M Holicky, Czech Technical University, Prague.
• “ Twin Towers: why did they fall?”, by Eduardo Kausel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

The talk by Eduardo Kausel on the collapse of the Twin Towers was of great interest to the participants.  Eduardo was one of the first scientists to become interested in the problem, trying to explain the reason behind the collapse of the World Trade Centre on 11th September 2001.  The lecture gave a full description of the analyses carried out, including those using FEM, some of which required two million degrees of freedom. The key finding was that the structural damage was not sufficient to cause the collapse, which was due to fire. The impact and ensuing fire balls opened large gaps and broke many windows.  This substantially increased the air supply to the fires.  One tower lasted less than the other due to the different crash loading as one of them was hit in a way that resulted in unsymmetrical loading.

 Keynote Address by Professor Stuart Burgess

The second day of the Conference was particularly important, starting with a keynote address given by Professor Stuart Burgess, Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Bristol University.  He spoke about “Design for extreme environment of space”.  Stuart has been associated with the Wessex Institute for some time, and is one of the main Editors of the International Journal of Design and Nature, a unique publication which aims to provide a forum for original research in the interpretation of nature in engineering and mathematical terms and how to learn from her.  

Professor Burgess has been involved in the design of the ENVISAT, a satellite dedicated to environmental problems.  The satellite presented special challenges as it has to work in zero gravity conditions. It is also subject to launching forces – in this case the Arianne rocket.  The launching of the satellite and the associated forces represent a unique engineering challenge.  Forces up to 50 G are produced in the launching, which are acting over such a delicate piece of engineering as a satellite.  Extreme thermal events (from –70oC to +80oC) will affect the structure once in orbit.  Micro meteorites are another hazard, as well as solar flares usually in 12 year cycles which can destroy the satellite.  A satellite will on average be impacted every 30 minutes by a micro meteorite. Even normal UV radiation at that height will cause the materials to deteriorate.   

In the case of ENVISAT, 120 companies from twenty different countries were involved, all of them requiring space in the satellite.  The structure carries 70m2 of solar panels and has twenty observation instruments.  

Professor Burgess needed to develop a special mechanism to be able to deploy large panels weighing 500kg in space.  His resulting invention led to him being awarded the Turners Gold Medal for Spacecraft Design.  The whole project cost £1.4 million and depended on the ability of the solar panel to deploy in less than 60 minutes.  

The satellite supports a wide range of earth science research, including environmental and climate changes.  It is working well and making an important contribution to our knowledge of the earth’s biosphere.  It is now taking some of the best pictures ever received from space.  Further information can be seen on ENVISAT’s home page. 

 Excursions

The delegates were taken to Buckler’s Hard, one of the most interesting places in the New Forest, during one of their lunch breaks.  This is now a small village, with many historical connections.  It was there than many famous ships, including some used in Trafalgar, were built.  The place is the site of a ship-building museum containing exhibits related to the sailing ships built there in the 18th and 19th centuries.  

A highlight of the conference was the visit to the Thames Barrier which is located in Greenwich and it is the defence of London against flooding.  There, the delegates were given a guided tour by a Senior Engineer.  The Barrier, inaugurated in 1984, is a major engineering work comprising a series of upstream defences to protect the whole of London.  The width of the Barrier from bank to bank is over 500m, with four major openings, each of them with a span of 61m.  The idea of building a barrier to protect London was agreed on after discussing the possibility of raising the embankments along the river.  The Barrier was seen as the best solution and was motivated by the serious effects that extreme surge floods can have on life and property.  

Flooding is becoming a more common occurrence in many parts of the world and the effects are aggravated by the increase in the population living along river banks. The problem is compounded by the rise in sea levels and the possibility of major climate changes resulting in more dramatic surges among other phenomena.  Plans are now afoot to modify the Thames Barrier to account for the challenges expected to take place in the next 100 years.

 Conference Dinner

The Conference Banquet took place in a country manor called New Park, originally built by Charles II on the return of the monarchy to the throne.  The New Park is now a hotel with very high standards of cuisine and an excellent wine list.  The delegates had occasion to relax in a convivial environment.  At the end of the meal, Professors Hernandez and Brebbia thanked the participants for coming to the Engineering Nature Conference. Professor Brebbia explained his love of the New Forest, as well as his interest in Patagonia: two different regions of the world, linked in his mind by a rich natural environment and ecology.  It is perhaps significant that an earlier naturalist (William Hudson) also lived in and wrote about both regions, and was influential in Professor Brebbia’s decision to write a book on Patagonia.  

The delegates were offered a copy of Professor Brebbia’s book as well as a specially commissioned ceramic bowl made by a well known local potter.  Professor Brebbia hoped that both gifts would remind the participants of their visit to Ashurst Lodge and the Engineering Nature Conference. 

 Publication of Papers

Papers from the conference will also be hosted online at the WIT eLibrary as Volume 58 of WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences (ISSN: 1743-3533). For more details visit the WIT eLibrary at www.witpress.com.  

Patagonia a forgotten land – from Magellan to Peron, by C.A. Brebbia, 384 pp (ISBN 978-1-84564-061-3) is available in hard back from WIT Press, priced at £33/US$59/€49.50.  Orders can be placed as above.  

The New Forest: A Personal View, by C.A. Brebbia, 112pp (ISBN 1-85312-504-0) is available in hard back from WIT Press, priced at £22.50/US$35.10/€37.50.  Orders can be placed as above.