News

Proceedings

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Dear participants of IWAIS 2015,

The proceedings will be released to the world by Nov 1, 2015.

However, the papers and presentations from IWAIS 2015 are now available for your eyes only until October 31. Log in credentials have been sent to you via e-mail.

6_Lønahorgi 4@Presenters: Please check your files.

Please don’t hesitate to inform me asap of changes required and feel free to to submit missing papers and presentations.

Thank you very much for assisting us, by contributing and being present, in arranging a successful IWAIS 2015!

Greetings – Göran
On behalf of the organizers of IWAIS 2015
http://iwais.org/contact-us/

Lasse Makkonen awarded price

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The Masoud Farzaneh prize 2015 was awarded to Lasse Makkonen, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland at a special ceremony held at the IWAIS conference in Uppsala July 1, 2015.

Dr. Makkonen’s background is in geophysics, meteorology and ice research but his approach is multidisciplinary. He is best known for his work in modeling of icing of structures with applications to power lines, communication towers, ships and wind turbines. These models are applied worldwide in the design of structures. Makkonen has published more than 230 scientific papers, of which 70 are in international journals. He is also author of 11 patents.

Lasse Makkonen’s present main interest is in microphysics of surface phenomena such as phase change, friction and adhesion. The applications include solidification processes in all scales, particularly as they relate to accretion of ice and snow. Another present interest of Makkonen’s is the theory of extreme value analysis and its application to evaluating structural safety and strength of materials.

IMG_8114 (1)

This years winner of the Masoud Farzaneh Award: Lasse Makkonen, Principal scientist at the VTT Technical Research Center of Finland (middle). Left Mustafa Fahmi, Vice-principal at the University of Québec at Chicoutimi and right Masoud Farazaneh, Professor in Electrical Engineering at University of Québec at Chicoutimi.

The University of Quebec in Chicoutimi (UQAC) was represented at the ceremony by its Vice-Rector, Mr. Mustapha Fahmi. Masoud Farzaneh, Professor in Electrical Engineering at University of Québec at Chicoutimi, was also present.

The Masoud Farzaneh Award was established in 2010 by Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC) in honour of Professor Masoud Farzaneh, an internationally renowned researcher in the field of power transmission and distribution in cold climate regions, whose contribution and impact made UQAC a world leader in this domain.

This prize is awarded biannually, every odd year, to an individual for outstanding contributions related to the fields of power transmission and distribution, and high voltage engineering. Priority will be given to a researcher whose contribution takes into account the effects of atmospheric icing. In the evaluation process, the following criteria are considered: importance and impact of research, originality, leadership, publications and quality of the nomination.

A waste of heating

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In Sweden there are some 70 000 surface heating systems, most of them small. By using a smart control system large energy saving are possible.

The energy consumption in the Swedish surface heating systems is 3-5 times higher than necessary, according to Rolf Westerlund, SEO for HoloOptics International AB.
– Sometimes the owners forget about the system and it stays on all year round, he says.
– Other times a poor control system waste a lot of energy because the heating is on at times it’s not needed.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Surface heating systems are often used to stop icicles from forming on the roof of houses.

 

The situation is aggravated by the lack of maintenance.
To reduce the energy consumption better, more sophisticated control systems is needed.
– Unfortunately these are more expensive and require more maintenance. Therefore it is difficult to mount these everywhere, says Rolf Westerlund.
But now Rolf Westerlund and his company has an idea: A system of control centrals in a region sending wireless signal to subscribes to start and stop the heating.
The control central would be situated high to give an early indication and beyond vandalism and spray from vehicles etc.
The technology won the Green Innovation Contest 2014.
– At the moment we’re looking for capital to be able to start a test phase, says Westerlund.

Facts:

IMG_8148 (1)

Rolf Westlund

The surface heating systems are often situated in the ground outside entrances or in downpipes. The size may vary between some 10 m2 up to several 1 000 m2.
Smaller systems normally use direct electric heating and the larger uses district heating. Installed capacity is between 100 and 300 W/m2.
The energy consumption is dependent on many factors, including the meteorological conditions and the performance of the control system.

Press release is out!

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IWAIS_2015_2_265

International Workshop on Atmospheric Icing of Structures

Welcome to IWAIS2015

– the world leading conference on icing.

On-going climate change, opening of new logistic routes, energy and mineral resources as well as increasing tourism feed the growing activity in cold climate regions.

One of the major challenges for operations in these areas is ice and snow accretion. Icing reduces safety, operational tempo, productivity and reliability of logistics, industry and infrastructure.

Climate change is making matters worse, with more humid weather and an increase in the frequency of wet snow, which in turn increases the risk of ice accumulating in structures.

That’s why world leading experts on icing meet in the middle of the summer at the 16th International Workshop on Atmospheric Icing of structures (IWAIS) in Uppsala, 28 June to 3 July.

Overhead transmission lines, bridges, masts, towers and wind turbins are among the exposed structures. Heavy icing could lead to abruption of transmission wires and even fall of steel towers.

For example, during the winter seasons 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 Statnett, the transmission system operator in Norway, experienced cases of severe atmospheric icing causing the collapse of transmission towers and the failure of other components.

One of the affected lines was an entirely new 420 kV transmission line crossing an exposed mountain area just north of the Hardanger Fjord in Norway. The measured ice load was more than double the design load, indicating that the ice loads had been significantly underestimated in the pre-construction phase.

The damage caused by severe icing can lead to enormous costs. In early 2008 unusually cold weather coupled with heavy snow and ice paralyzed Southeast China. According to official figures, approximately 1 million homes were either destroyed or damaged. Infrastructure, especially power and water supply, as well as transportation (roads, railways, air, traffic) came to a complete halt in many areas. The agricultural sector was also hit hard, leading to significant losses of livestock and reduced crop yields.

Direct economic losses were estimated at USD 20 bn, while the total insurance market losses were approximately USD 1.3 bn. The bulk of the insurance loss claims came from the commercial/industrial sector, where power transmission and distribution line operators were particularly affected.

Atmospheric icing can also have a profound effect on wind power production. In certain conditions ice can accrete on the blades of a wind turbine and change its aerodynamic properties resulting in lower output power and possibly increased loads.

Another challenge is ice shedding during operation and during start-up of the turbines after an ice event.

Welcome to learn more about the topics at IWAIS2015 in our Book of Abstracts (här ska vara länk)

Also, feel free to contact program coordinator Göran Ronsten, goran@iwais.org or media contact Jonas Hallen, jonas@iwais.org, 0708-866 844.

http://iwais.org/

IWAIS 2015, c/o WindREN and Meventus, Svartsjö slott, Svartsjövägen 2, SE-179 95 Svartsjö, Sweden