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Conference summary

The 9th Conference „Shell Structures, Theory and Applications”, SSTA2009, took place in Jurata, Poland, on 14-16 October, 2009. The Conference was organized by: Section of Structural Mechanics and Materials of Committee on Civil Engineering and Hydroengineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Department of Structural Mechanics and Bridge Structures of Gdańsk University of Technology, and Professor Pomianowski Foundation on Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Gdańsk University of Technology. Previous conferences in this field were held in Cracow (1974), Gołuń (1978), Opole (1982), Szklarska Poręba (1986), Janowice (1992), and Jurata (1998, 2002, 2005).

The range of conference topics was very wide and comprised theoretical modelling of behaviour of shell structures under external loads, analysis of their strength, stability and dynamics using various analytical, numerical and/or experimental methods, as well as unconventional examples of their design, service, expert assessment and failures.

The Organizers received over 110 summaries of lectures of which 94 were qualified for presentation at the Conference. 88 authors of the qualified lectures submitted full-text papers prepared strictly according to instructions of the CRC Press/ Balkema publisher. Each of these manuscripts was reviewed by two members of the International Scientific Committee.

Some of prospective authors applied to Organizers for financial support. Unfortunately, due to the economic crisis some of our sponsors withdrawn or reduced their financial support to the SSTA Conference. The funds available allowed only to publish the proceedings and to support the Invited General Speakers. The Organizers were not able this time to support the young scientists and our colleagues from some countries with even deeper economic troubles. As a result, some authors of prospective papers were not able to participate in the Conference and withdrawn their lectures.

Finally, 77 papers were accepted to print, then adjusted to the publisher requirements and the English of some texts was somewhat improved. As a result of the editorial work, the volume of Conference proceeding was prepared and published just before the meeting: W. Pietraszkiewicz, I. Kreja (eds.), Shell Structures: Theory and Applications, CRC Press / Taylor & Francis Group, London 2010, pp. XV + 344, ISBN 978-0-415-54883-0. Editing the volume by the leading world publishing house was an important achievement of the Organizers. Now the proceedings are easily available to all specialists of shell structures throughout the world.

The volume of proceedings contains full texts of the following general lectures:

1. J. Błachut (United Kingdom), Developments in strength and stability of shell components used in submersibles.
2. J.N. Reddy, R.A. Arciniega & C.M. Wang (USA), Recent developments in the analysis of carbon nanotubes and nonlinear shell theories.
3. D.J. Steigmann (USA), Recent developments in the theory of nonlinearly elastic plates and shells.
4. W. Wagner (Germany), Modeling of failure mechanisms in laminated composite shell structures.
5. K. Wiśniewski (Poland), Recent improvements in formulation of mixed and mixed/enhanced shell elements.

The remaining papers of the volume are grouped into five chapters: Theoretical Modelling 15, Stability 12, Dynamics 15, Numerical Analysis 14, and Engineering Design 16. All 77 published papers came from 17 countries: 40 from Poland, 7 from Germany, 6 from Russia, 5 from Iran, 4 from Ukraine, 2 each from Azerbaijan, United Kingdom, and USA, as well as 1 each from Austria, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Latvia, North Korea, Romania and The Netherlands.

Finally, 82 participants from 15 countries took part in SSTA2009: 51 from Poland, 10 from Germany, 4 from Russia, 2 each from Austria, Azerbaijan, Italy, Japan and USA, as well as 1 each from Canada, England, Iran, Latvia, Romania, Scotland, and The Netherlands.

Altogether 58 lectures published in the proceedings were presented: 4 general lectures, 39 oral lectures and 15 poster presentations. Unfortunately, Prof. D.J. Steigmann became ill just before the Conference and was not able to come and present his general lecture. On the other hand, an additional lecture not printed in Proceedings was presented by J.G. Simmonds (USA). The authors of general lectures had 45 min. at their disposal (including discussion), the authors of oral lectures had 15 min. (with discussion), while the authors of posters had 3 min. for introduction and then the results were discussed in front of their posters. The Conference was carried out without any parallel sessions so that the participants were able to attend all lectures and discuss their contents directly. This arrangement made it possible to conclude the SSTA2009 within 2,5 days.

Specialities of participants and subjects of presented lectures were representative to the field of research and technical applications of shell structures. Virtually every lecture contained original and/or interesting research results. Several sophisticated experimental works and engineering applications of shell structures were presented. Lively discussions were carried out during the sessions and many of them were prolonged also in lobbies. One should mention excellent organization of the Conference, very good lodging and food service in the “Neptun” hotel as well as a number of successful accompanying events: get-together party, conference banquet, grill party, with some dancing opportunities in the evening. All this helped the participants from different countries and different scientific circles to meet together and discuss their research problems in an informal atmosphere.

Due to a number of very good lectures as well their modern technical presentation, the 9th SSTA Conference became a significant meeting of specialists of shell structures on international scale.

Within the Program, the Organizers prepared the Special Jubilee Session to celebrate the 70th birthday anniversary and the 48th anniversary of scientific activities of Professor Wojciech Pietraszkiewicz. The special album suitable to the occasion was printed containing his brief biography, most important books, awards and honours, many photos from the last three SSTA conferences as well as greetings from his international and Polish colleagues and associates. This was an enjoyable meeting and the celebrator of the jubilee would like to thank very much indeed to J. Chróścielewski and I. Kreja for all their efforts associated with preparation of the Session.

We would like to thank very much indeed our Colleagues from the International Scientific Committee and the Organizing Committee, as well as all the sponsors whose active collective engagement for the common aim has made it possible to successfully organize this so much needed scientific meeting.

International Scientific Committee: W. Pietraszkiewicz (Poland, chairman), I.V. Andrianov (Russia, Germany), H. Altenbach (Germany), J. Awrejcewicz (Poland), J. Chróścielewski (Poland), P.G. Ciarlet (Hong Kong), V.A. Eremeyev (Russia), J. Górski (Poland), A. Ibrahimbegović (France), P. Kłosowski (Poland), K. Kowal-Michalska (Poland), W.B. Krätzig (Germany), I. Kreja (Poland), M. Kuczma (Poland), T. Lewiński (Poland), K. Magnucki (Poland), H.A. Mang (Austria), J. Orkisz (Poland), J.N. Reddy (USA), S. Shimizu (Japan), J.G. Simmonds (USA), D.J. Steigmann (USA), M. Stanuszek (Poland), H. Stumpf (Germany), A. Tylikowski (Poland), W. Wagner (Germany), D. Weichert (Germany) , K. Wilde (Poland), K. Wiśniewski (Poland), Cz. Woźniak (Poland).

Organizing Committee: I. Kreja (Chairman), J. Chróścielewski (vice-chairman), W. Witkowski (secretary), M.K. Jasina, V. Konopińska, Sz. Opoka, Ł. Pyrzowski, M. Rucka, A. Sabik, A. Tomaszewska. At the final stage of preparations and during the conference the Organizing Committee was supported also by A. Banaś and K. Żerdzicki.

Sponsors: SOFISTIK AG, Oberschleiβheim (Germany), GOTOWSKI Ltd., Bydgoszcz (Poland), POKO-AL. Co., Gdańsk (Poland), POLWAR S.A., Gdańsk (Poland).


Wojciech Pietraszkiewicz,
Chairman of the SSTA 2009 Scientific Committee


Ireneusz Kreja,
Chairman of the SSTA 2009 Organizing Committee

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