ASCE Fluids Technical Committee Meeting Minutes

Sheraton Hotel and Marina, San Diego, 7pm – 9 pm, June 26, 2001

Members Present:

Name	Affiliation	E-mail address
Alex Cheng	University of Delaware	cheng@ce.udel.edu
Allen T. Chwang	University of Hong Kong	atchwang@hkucc.hku.hk
C. T. Hsu	Hong Kong Univ. of Sci. and Tech.	mecthsu@ust.hk
C. O. Ng	University of Hong Kong	cong@hku.hk
Jin Ooi	University of Edinburgh, UK	jin@civ.ed.ac.uk
Michelle H. Teng	University of Hawaii at Manoa	teng@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu
Francis Ting	South Dakota State University	Francis_Ting@sdstate.edu
Keh Han Wang (Chair)	University of Houston	khwang@uh.edu
Scott A. Yost	University of Kentucky	yosta@engr.uky.edu

Issues Discussed:

Review of Committee Rosters and New Members

Wang stated that our committee currently has 21 members, and the following three new members have been nominated:

Dr. C. O. Ng, from Univ. of Hong Kong, specialized in flow in porous media;

Dr. B. Hodges, from UT Austin, specialized in water quality modeling, internal waves;

Dr. N. Williams, from Univ. of Houston, specialized in offshore engineering.

The members present at the meeting voted unanimously to approve the above nomination. The total number of members for the Fluids Committee now stands at 24.

Three new members and vice chair (Dr. Michelle Teng) have been unanimously approved later by the EXCOM at its meeting on June 30.)

Dr. Cheng indicated that the Engineering Mechanics Division Executive Committee would like to see more activities from the Fluids Committee, and we should try to recruit more active new members for our committee. Dr. Cheng has been recently elected to the Executive Committee and will represent the Fluids Committee there. (Congratulation to Dr. Cheng)

Report of Journal Paper Submission and Review Status

Wang reported that since October 2000, a total of 17 manuscripts in the fluids area have been received for consideration of publication in the Journal of Engineering Mechanics. So far, six manuscripts have completed the review process and one was transferred to Turbulence Committee for review. Three papers have been rejected, and the rest ten papers are currently being reviewed. The estimated acceptance rate is about 50%.

Update on the Environmental Fluid Mechanics Book Project

The Fluids Technical Committee has been editing a book to be published by ASCE Press. The book is entitled “Environmental Fluid Mechanics - Theory and Applications”. The editors are Drs. Hayley Shen, Alex Cheng, Keh Han Wang and Michelle Teng. Wang reported that the project has been going on for about one and half years. So far, most of the book chapters have completed the review process and the final revised manuscript has been submitted. We are waiting for three more chapters to finish. The project is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

4. Report on the Editing of a Special Issue for the Journal of Engineering Mechanics

Wang reported that the Fluids and Turbulence Committees are collaborating to edit a special issue for the ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics. The title of the special issue is “Advanced Experimental Techniques in Environmental Fluid Mechanics” and the guest editors are Keh Han Wang, Michelle Teng (Fluids Committee), Mohammad Hajj, and H. C. Chen (Turbulence Committee). Wang has contacted Chief Editor Dr. Sture and has received the approval of the proposed special issue. This issue is planned to be published in fall 2002. Thus far, 8 papers have been committed. A total of 14 papers are needed. Wang will contact invited author Dr. Raichlen regarding two undecided papers. Wang will also discuss with Turbulence Committee Chair Dr. Chen to invite several papers in the turbulence area. Dr. Cheng suggested that we invite more than 14 papers in case some authors decide to drop out later. Dr. Yost mentioned that the ASCE Hydraulics Division may have been editing a book on experimental techniques in hydraulic engineering and we should try to find more information about this related project.

5. Proposed Technical Sessions for the 2002 Engineering Mechanics Conference

The next Engineering Mechanics Conference will be held at Columbia University in New York, June2-5 in 2002. The information about the conference can be found at http://www.civil.columbia.edu/em2002.

The following session topics and organizers were proposed during the committee meeting:

(1) Hydrodynamics/Drs. Chwang and Wang

(2) Environmental Fluid Mechanics/Drs. Ng and Hsu

(3) Experimental Fluid Mechanics/Drs. Hsu and Ting

(4) Integrated Modeling for Environmental Engineering Applications/Dr. Barry

(5) Numerical Methods in Fluid Mechanics/Drs. Cheng and Yost

(6) Modeling and Mitigation of Natural Hazards/Dr. Teng (tentative)

Other committee members are welcome to propose and organize more sessions in the fluids area for EM 2002 (please contact Wang). The abstract submission deadline is tentatively scheduled on Sept. 30, 2001. Each session needs a minimum of 4 papers.

Dr. Chwang suggested that the EM conference be held abroad occasionally.

6. Discussions on Our Committee’s Possible Involvement in the 1^st Virtual Civil Engineering Conference

We feel that the Fluids Committee should have a presence at the 1^st Virtual Civil Engineering Conference. However, at this stage, the details of the virtual conference are unknown. We elected Dr. Cheng to be the representative of the Fluids Committee to participate in the ASCE discussions about the development of a virtual conference.

7. Discussions on the Possible Establishment of a Sub-committee for Poroelasticity and Poromechanics

After some discussions, the committee decided to establish a sub-committee entitled “Poromechanics Sub-Committee” which will be under the Fluids Committee. Dr. Cheng is willing to lead this new sub-committee. We need to work on drafting a proposal for the establishment of the committee and send it to EXCOM for approval.

8. Other Business

Dr. Shen was unable to attend the committee meeting on June 26. She later gave her comments and suggestions for the committee on June 27:

It seems that we may need more colleagues to attend the EM conference in the fluids sessions. Each committee member has a circle of colleagues/friends in his or her specialty area. If we can convince these colleagues to come to attend the ASCE EM conference instead of the conferences in their specialty areas, we can expand our base. Maybe each member can provide Wang a list of colleagues’ names and address so Wang can compile a large mailing list and send out invitations to these colleagues to participate in the EM conference or to submit their papers to the Journal of Engineering Mechanics.