ASCE Fluids Technical Committee Meeting Minutes (Draft)

 

University of Washington, Seattle

July 16 (6:45 pm – 9:15 pm) and July 18 (3:00 pm – 6:30 pm), 2003

 

Present:

 

Name
Affiliation
E-mail address

Andy Chan

The University of Hong Kong

atchan@hku.hk

Alex Cheng (ExCom Contact Member)

University of Mississippi

acheng@olemiss.edu

Chunfang Chen

University of Kentucky

cchen0@engr.uky.edu

Bang-Fuh Chen

National Sun Tat-Sen University, Taiwan

chenbf@mail.nsysu.edu.tw

Allen Chwang

The University of Hong Kong

atchwang@hku.hk

Dave Hill

Penn State

dfhill@engr.psu.edu

Ben Hodges

University of Texas, Austin

hodhes@mail.utexas.edu

C. T. Hsu

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

mecthsu@ust.hk

Nik Katopodes

(Incoming Vice Chair)

University of Michigan

ndk@umich.edu

Joseph Lee (Turbulence Committee Chair)

The University of Hong Kong

hreclhw@hkucc.hku.hk

C.O. Ng

The University of Hong Kong

cong@hku.hk

Brett F. Sanders

University of California, Irvine

bsanders@uci.edu

Michelle Teng (Chair)

University of Hawaii at Manoa

teng@eng.hawaii.edu

Jiyang Xia

Florida State University

jiyang@csit.fsu.edu

Scott A. Yost

University of Kentucky

yostsa@enrg.uky.edu

*: a few attendees were present at one of the two meetings but not both.

 

Issues Discussed:

 

  1. Review of Committee Membership and Nomination of New Members

 

Teng reported that currently, there are 24 members on the fluids committee. Among the 24 committee members, 18 are US scholars and 6 are international members from Asia, Europe and Australia. There are 3 (13%) women members. During the past year, the majority of the committee members actively participated in committee activities including helping organize conference sessions, serving as journal paper reviewers, and planning for activities for the following year. 

 

Dr. Nik Katopodes, Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Michigan, has been nominated (and approved by the ExCom on July 19, 2003) as the incoming Vice Chair starting October 1, 2003. In addition, Dr. Francis Ting from the South Dakota State University has been nominated and approved as a new control group member.

At the meeting, the attendees discussed about the current trend and future directions in fluids research in civil engineering and proposed 6 specific topics (see item 6). It was concluded that new members should be recruited for the fluids committee in the following year in order to maintain a critical mass of active members for each of the important research areas.

 

Committee members are encouraged to submit nominations of new members with their resume to Dr. Alex Cheng, our ExCom contact person, before October 1, 2003.

 

  1. Report on Sessions Organized for EM-2003

 

Under the leadership of Dr. Keh Han Wang, the Fluids Committee organized 6 sessions for the EM-2003 conference. Among them, sessions No.54, 56, 57, 58 were organized in collaboration with the Turbulence Committee. The detailed session topics are given below:

 

Session 53: Sediment Transport

Session 54: Hydrodynamics and Transport Modeling

Session 56: Environmental Fluid Mechanics I: Experimental Studies

Session 57: Environmental Fluid Mechanics II: Numerical Methods

Session 58: Environmental Fluid Mechanics III: Numerical Simulations

Session 59: Fluid Mechanics Applications in Civil Engineering

 

  1. Report on Journal (JEM) Paper Submission and Review Status

 

Teng reported that during the past 10 months (October 2002 – July 2003), the fluids committee received 19 papers submitted to JEM for review. Among the 19 papers, 12 are new submissions and 7 are revised or resubmitted papers.

 

For the 12 new submissions, 8 are from Asia, 1 from Australia, 1 from Canada, and 2 from the US. Here is a summary of the review status of the 12 new submissions:

 

-         3 tentatively accepted, re-review required;

-         1 declined with encouragement for resubmission;

-         2 declined, final;

-         4 currently under review;

-         1 returned to ASCE because the topic did not fit fluid mechanics;

-         1 directed to ASCE for number logging first; the authors sent the papers to the committee directly without going through the journals department first.

 

There is a need to promote JEM among fluid mechanics scholars in civil engineering in the US.

 

4. Report on Completion of Editing of a Special Issue for JEM

 

In collaboration with the ASCE Turbulence Committee, the Fluids Committee (lead editor: Dr. Keh Han Wang) helped to edit a special issue for the J. of Engineering Mechanics with the theme “Advanced Experimental Techniques in Environmental Fluid Mechanics”. The fluids committee invited 6 papers, and after normal review, 4 were accepted and 2 were declined. The accepted papers cover the following topics: flow measurement by using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), new algorithm for PIV, new experimental techniques for studying sediment transport, and field technique for studying waves in harbors. The special issue will be published in October 2003.

 

  1. Report on Committee Web Page Update and Maintenance

 

Dr. Alex Cheng did an excellent job in maintaining the committee web site (http://www.olemiss.edu/sciencenet/fluids/) by frequently updating the committee members’ contact information and adding committee documents (e.g., meeting minutes, conference announcement, etc). In addition, Dr. Cheng also added a history (tracing back to 1979) of the fluids committee by working with senior committee member Dr. Tin-Kan Hung and the ASCE headquarters. All past committee members’ names can be found at the web site. Dr. Cheng will continue to be the webmaster for our committee.

 

6.      Discussions on Current Trend and Future Directions in Fluid Mechanics in Civil Engineering

 

During the annual committee meeting, attendees discussed and proposed what should be considered as the frontier research directions in fluid mechanics with important applications in civil engineering. The following is a summary of the specific topics proposed:

 

(1)   Fluid-structure interaction

(2)   Environmental fluid mechanics

a.       chemically and biologically reactive flows and transport

b.      bio-fluid mechanics (with applications in environmental engineering)

c.       sediment transport

d.      indoor air quality and transport

(3)   Multi-phase flows

(4)   Modeling and mitigation of natural and man-made hazards

a.       oil, chemical, biological spill and release in water systems

b.      spill and release of poisonous gas or disease-causing microorganisms in air (e.g., inside buildings, subways, buses, trains, airplanes or in the streets)

c.       flood in rivers

d.      high waves generated by hurricanes and storms

e.       tsunamis generated by earthquakes and landslides

f.        coastal flooding due to storm surge and tsunamis

g.       beach erosion

 

(5)   Computational fluid dynamics

(6)   Flow with free surface and moving boundary

 

  1. Planning Technical Sessions for EM-2004

 

The 17th ASCE Engineering Mechanics Conference (EM-2004) will be held at the University of Delaware during June 13 – 16, 2004. Detailed conference information can be found at http://www.ce.udel.edu/em2004. The following are the sessions that the fluids committee plans to organize for EM-2004:

 

Sediment Transport (Scott Yost)

Fluid Mechanics of Lakes and Reservoirs (Ben Hodges)

Micro-Sensors for Monitoring and Control (Nik Katopodes)

Flow in Porous Media (Hayley Shen and Alex Cheng)

Fluid Mechanics and Turbulence (general)

Computational Fluid Dynamics (general)

Fluid-Structure Interaction (Keh Han Wang)

 

  1. Discussions on Establishing Best Conference Paper Awards by the Fluids Committee

 

During the meeting, an excellent proposal was made by several attendees to establish the following three awards for fluid mechanics papers presented at each year’s Engineering Mechanics conference:

 

ASCE EMD Fluids Committee Best Annual Conference Paper Award in Research

ASCE EMD Fluids Committee Best Annual Conference Paper Award in Application

ASCE EMD Fluids Committee Best Annual Conference Student Paper Award

 

These awards may attract more participants to the ASCE EM conferences especially in the fluids area in the future.

 

This proposal was reported to the Executive Committee on July 19, 2003 during the ExCom’s meeting with technical committee chairs. ExCom members and other committee chairs made many helpful comments and suggestions on our proposal. The ExCom Chair suggested that our committee develop detailed criteria and procedure for the awards and then present them to the ExCom for approval.

 

Drs. Nik Katopodes, Ben Hodges, and Scott Yost will form the task force to

 

(1)   prepare a document to explain

a.       the background, objective and expected outcome of the awards;

b.      detailed criteria and procedure for selecting papers to receive the awards.

(2)   circulate the draft document among fluids committee members for review and comments

(3)   obtain approval from the ExCom

(4)   serve as the award selection committee at EM-2004

(5)   consider establishing an ASCE EMD Fluid Dynamics Award (min. endowment: $25,000)

 

Donation sources: small donations from individuals in several years; or one donor contributes $25,000 one time. In the latter case, the award will be named after the donor.

 

9.      Discussions on Compiling an Emailing List of Major Fluids Scholars in Civil Engineering

 

In order to effectively promote the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Division and the ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics to the fluid mechanics community in civil engineering, we plan to compile an emailing list of major fluids scholars in civil engineering in the US and abroad. This emailing list will be used by the fluids committee to communicate with the fluids scholars by sending them ASCE conference announcements, solicitation of papers for J. of Engineering Mechanics, solicitation of contribution to task forces organized by the fluids committee, as well as seeking advice and feedback from the broad fluid mechanics community in civil engineering.

 

Teng and Katopodes will prepare the first draft of the list and then send to the entire committee for review.

 

10.  Discussions on Increasing the Number of Papers in Fluid Mechanics for J. of Engineering Mechanics

 

Fluid mechanics is an important branch of engineering mechanics, however, the ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics has remained relatively unknown to the fluids scholars in civil engineering especially in the United States. There is a need to actively promote JEM to the fluids scholars in civil engineering. The following measures were proposed:

 

(1) encourage fluids committee members to contribute papers to JEM;

(2) send promoting messages to reputed scholars in fluid mechanics;

(3) make the journal review process more effective and more efficient:

     Teng has set up an implicit web link http://www.eng.hawaii.edu/~teng/JEM for the

     authors to check the review status of their papers automatically and anonymously starting

     July 23, 2003.

 

  1. Fluids Committee Co-Sponsoring a Special Symposium on Engineering Mechanics in 2004

 

The ASCE fluids committee will co-sponsor the Theodore Y.T. Wu Symposium on Engineering Mechanics to be held in Vancouver, BC Canada during June 20-25, 2004. Our collaborating sponsor is the ASME Ocean Engineering Committee. This special symposium is being organized to celebrate Dr. Wu’s 80th birthday in 2004. The symposium co-chairs are Dr. C. C. Mei and Dr. Allen Chwang, and the secretary is Dr. Daniel Valentine. The Fluids Committee Task Force is formed by: Drs. Alex Cheng, Allen Chwang (lead), Tin-Kan Hung, Michelle Teng and Keh Han Wang.

 

  1. Discussions on Organizing a NSF International Workshop on

 

“Fluid Mechanics Research and Education in Civil Engineering – Current Trend and Future Directions

 

Occasionally, fluid mechanics may appear to some civil engineers as too classical a discipline with fewer applications in civil engineering as compared to solid mechanics and structural engineering. In reality, fluid mechanics has always played an important role in developing civil infrastructure and protecting the natural environment. Along with the development of faster computers and more advanced experimental instrumentation, researchers nowadays can solve more complex civil engineering problems (such as fluid-structure interaction) through fundamental fluid mechanics research (such as large scale numerical simulation) instead of the traditional empirical approach. As environmental issues become more and more important in civil engineering, fluid mechanics will also play a more important role in the civil engineering field since only through fundamental fluid research, we can fully understand the many important environmental processes such as the mixing and transport processes.

 

For the proposed international workshop, well-established and young scholars as well as NSF officers in fluid mechanics will be invited to attend. Participants will present their frontier research results demonstrating the important applications fluid mechanics to civil engineering. In addition, the participants will discuss about the future directions in fluid mechanics education and research relevant to civil engineering. Proceedings produced from this workshop will be published as a special ASCE publication. This special publication can be helpful in promoting fluid mechanics and providing guidance for future research directions, and may even have an impact on future funding levels for research in fluid mechanics in civil engineering.

 

Teng and Katopodes will prepare the first draft of the proposal.

 

  1. Proposal for Editing a Special Issue for J. Engineering Mechanics in 2004/2005

 

Dr. Joseph Lee, chair of the Turbulence Committee, has proposed to edit a special issue for the Journal of Engineering Mechanics on “Environmental Hydraulic Processes”. Drs. Ben Hodges and Scott Yost from the Fluids Committee will collaborate with Dr. Lee as co-guest editors for the special issue.

 

  1. Discussions on Developing a Database for Benchmark Experimental and Numerical Tests for Evaluating Existing Computer Codes in Fluid Mechanics in Civil Engineering

 

It was noted that quite a large number of computational fluid dynamics codes with applications to civil engineering have been developed and commercialized in the US and abroad. However, so far, these codes have not been evaluated by a professional organization using same uniform tests. As a result, aside from the developers’ own descriptions, there is no clear understanding by the engineering community of the true performance (accuracy, efficiency, and robustness) of the existing codes. During the committee meetings, Dr. Sanders made an excellent suggestion that the fluids committee begin developing a database of benchmark experimental and numerical tests for evaluating the performance of existing numerical codes in fluid mechanics. This database can be a great service to both the research community and the engineering community in the fluids area. 

 

Task Force Leader: Dr. Brett Sanders

 

Taskforce Members:

 

Drs. Chwang, Shen and Keh Han Wang – Fluid-Structure Interaction

Drs. Sanders, Lee, Hsu, Hodges, Yost, Ng and Papanicolaou – Environmental Fluid Mechanics

Dr. Cheng – Multi-Phase Flows

Drs. Kirby, Teng, Hodges, Chan and Xia – Modeling and Mitigation of Natural and Man-Made Hazards

Drs. Katopodes, Wang and Sanders – Computational Fluid Dynamics

Drs. Katopodes, Sanders and Hill – Flow with Free Surface and Moving Boundary

 

Tasks:

 

(1)   Prepare a summary report on the following:

 

a.       How many codes exist in each particular area and who are the developers?

b.      Are the codes available at no cost or they are commercialized? What is the price?

c.       What are the main applications and limitations of each code based on the developers’ description?

 

(2)   Design a set of proper benchmark problems for testing each code

(3)   Search for and compile published experimental and numerical data for the benchmark problems

(4)   Conduct tests of the codes against benchmark problems

(5)   Prepare evaluation report and publish as JEM papers or ASCE special publications and at the committee web site

 

  1. Nomination of a Fluids Scholar for the von Karman Award

 

During last year’s committee meeting in New York, Dr. Shen suggested that our committee consider nominating a fluids scholar for the von Karman Award. For the past few months, several committee members have proposed to nominate Prof. Ted Wu (fluid mechanics scholar from Caltech, member of the US National Academy of Engineering) for the ASCE EMD von Karman Award in Mechanics. Teng and Chwang will prepare the first draft of the nomination and will send to the committee for review. The nomination will be submitted to ASCE by endorsing individual members in September 2003.