BEM/MRM 41

41st International Conference on Boundary Elements and other Mesh Reduction Methods

11 - 13 September 2018
New Forest, UK

Overview

The annual conference on Boundary Elements and other Mesh Reduction Methods (BEM/MRM) which started in 1978, reached its 41st version this year. The 2018 conference took place in the New Forest, near Southampton (UK). The Conference was organised by the Wessex Institute, UK, represented by Dr Stavros Syngellakis, and the University of Mississippi, USA, represented by Professor Alex Cheng.

Since its beginning in 1978, the Conference has attracted high quality papers reporting further advances in techniques that reduce or eliminate the type of meshes associated with finite elements or finite differences, for instance. The meeting acts as a forum for discussion of new formulations and for critical comparison of results before solutions and numerical tools are released to end users.

Opening of the Conference

The very first session of the conference was dedicated to the memory of the founder of Wessex Institute, Professor Carlos A Brebbia. For this tribute to Carlos, BEM/MRM delegates were joined by those attending the Energy Quest conference as well as other colleagues and friends from Ashurst Lodge and Elsevier.

This session was opened by Professor Alex Cheng from the University of Mississippi who welcomed everyone to this special occasion then referred briefly to Carlos's personality as a friend and colleague. Then Dr Stavros Syngellakis spoke about the establishment and development of the Wessex Institute as Carlos's unique achievement, described recent research projects and the Institute's knowledge transfer activities carried out under his leadership. Ms Juliet Jones from the Wessex Institute gave a chronology of key events in Carlos's personal and professional life. This was followed by a presentation focusing on Carlos' contribution to the boundary element method by Professor Alex Cheng. Alex explained how inspiration from earlier work on boundary integral equations led Carlos to the establishment of the method not only as a mainstream academic pursuit but also as a valuable tool for solving practical engineering problems. The session ended with short contributions by several delegates from both conferences who knew Carlos well and made moving references to their personal and professional association with him.

Presentation of the George Green Medal

The second morning session was dedicated to the George Green Medal award. Professor Cheng gave a brief account of George Green's life and work, then explained the rationale behind the establishment of the award by the Wessex Institute and the University of Mississippi. The 2018 award was presented by representatives of Elsevier Publishers who sponsor it. The recipient was Professor Ney Dumont, of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

Subsequently, Professor Dumont gave the George Green Medal lecture entitled:

“Conceptual review of variationally-based hybrid boundary element methods”.

Invited Presentations

There were a series of invited presentations by well-known colleagues:

• “Multi-domain boundary element method for axisymmetric problems in potential theory and linear isotropic elasticity”, by Elena Strelnikova, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Ukraine.
• “Moving finite element method”, by Vladimir Sladek, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia.
• “Determination of shape parameter in RBF approximation”, by Andreas Karageorghis, University of Cyprus, Cyprus.
• “RBF-based laser speckle pattern digital image correlation method for surface strain measurements”, by Eduardo Divo, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, United States.
• “Green’s functions for a two-phase soft electroactive space under a bias”, by Weiqiu Chen, Zhejiang University, China.
• “BEM analysis of plane wave coupling to three-phase power line”, by Dragan Poljak, University of Split, Croatia.
• “An RBF interpolation blending scheme for effective shock-capturing with conjugate heat transfer”, by Alain Kassab, University of Central Florida, United States.
• “Cauchy BVP for elastic half-plane posed in displacement orientations,” by Alexander Galybin, Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth-IPE RAS, Russia.
• “Multiple fatigue crack growth modelling in nonhomogeneous structural systems using the dual BEM”, by Edson Leonel, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Conference Topics

The papers presented during the Conference were classified under the following session headings:

• Fundamental solutions and Green’s functions for complex problems
• Advanced BEM formulations
• Advances in mesh reduction methods
• Computational techniques
• Fracture Mechanics applications
• Other modelling approaches

There were several occasions for holding informal discussions during the coffee breaks and the complimentary lunches that the hotel prepared for the delegates.

Conference Publications

Papers presented at this conference will appear in Vol. 122 of the WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences (ISSN: 1743-3533, ISBN 978-1-78466-295-0). All papers presented at the meeting since the 1994 conference are available Open Access in the eLibrary of the Wessex Institute (https://www.witpress.com/elibrary), from where they can be freely downloaded by any interested parties.

A few papers have been selected for publication in the International Journal of Computational Methods and Experimental Measurements. This Journal provides the scientific community with a forum to present the interaction between the complementary aspects of computational methods and experimental measurements, and to stress the importance of their harmonious development and integration.

EABE Editorial Board Meeting

At the end of the first day of the Conference, members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements (EABE) met to discuss how the publication is progressing and ways in which its performance versus other journals on Computational Methods in Engineering can be improved. The meeting was also attended by two Elsevier representatives, Ms Carrie Christensen from New York, the journal manager, and Mr Christopher Greenwell from Oxford, UK. Carrie gave a presentation of the state-of-the-journal. Most notable in the report was significant rise of the impact factor, which is now 2.14, and the high first quarter journal ranking in all 4 categories that EABE is listed.

This was followed by a lively discussion of the board. A number of good suggestions were received. One very important decision was taken based on the Board’s recommendation, namely that EABE starts to present a Best Paper Award annually.

The meeting closed with a sumptuous dinner in a private room of the Balmer Lawn Hotel, the conference venue. At the end of this, Professor Alex Cheng, the journal’s editor-in-chief, thanked everyone for their support of the journal.

ISAC Meeting

The ISAC members who attended the conference had an informal meeting over lunch to discuss the various issues that contribute to the continuing success of the series, namely, conference themes, ISAC membership and future venues. During the lively discussion that ensued, many suggestions and recommendations were received, which were recorded and will be assessed by the conference organising committee. At the end of the meeting, Dr Stavros Syngellakis thanked the members on behalf of WIT for their support in ensuring the high quality of delegates’ contributions.

Conference Dinner

The conference dinner took place on Wednesday evening in the Beech Room, one of the private function rooms of Carey's Manor Hotel, Brockenhurst, which is within walking distance of the conference venue. Carey's Manor enjoys a high reputation as a hotel and for its restaurants. The table was stylishly laid and candles and gentle music created a relaxed atmosphere, with wonderful service from our dedicated waiter and team. A group photograph was taken outside in the beautiful grounds, to mark the occasion.

The three course menu, accompanied by red and white wines from the Valle Central area of Chile, consisted of predominantly locally sourced ingredients which in many cases are organic and free range. All present found this to be a rich and satisfying meal and many took tea or coffee afterwards.

Professor Giorgio Passerini, representing WIT at the conference dinner, thanked both the delegates and the chairs of the two conferences, Professors Cheng and Magaril, for the success of both conferences and reflected on the dinner. He also said that he looked forward to the next in the series, for BEM in Coimbra next year and in 2020 for Energy Quest, at a venue to be arranged within the next 12 months.

Professor Alex Cheng added some comments about how Carlos was the driving force before for BEM and now the method and the conference relied on WIT members and conference participants to push it forward.

Closing of the Conference

The conference was closed by Alex and Stavros, who thanked the delegates for attending and hoped that they would consider attending BEM/MRM42 when the meeting is reconvened in Coimbra, Portugal from 2-4 July 2019.

Related Conferences

Multiphase Flow 2019, 21 - 23 May 2019

Materials Characterisation 2019, 22 - 24 May 2019

CMEM 2019, 3 - 5 June 2019

ERES 2019, 5 - 7 June 2019

BEM/MRM 42, 2 - 4 July 2019