Past events

     The EUROMECH Colloquium 391 on "Wind tunnel modeling of dispersion in environmental flows" was organized in Prague by the Institute of Thermomechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, on September 13 - 15, 1999 and supported by the Czech Committee of European Mechanics Society. Participants from Europe, U.S., Canada and Japan presented a wide spectrum of topics spanning from wind tunnel modelling of chemical transformations to wind tunnel verification of dispersion models for accident consequence assessment and involving wind tunnel modelling of dispersion under various atmospheric stability conditions above various types of surfaces. Some contributions were devoted to the technical aspects used in the wind tunnel measurements. A discussion dealing with the comparison of the wind tunnel modelling of urban problems with high resolution numerical modelling was also presented.

     In the preface of the Book of Abstracts, the editors (Zbynek Janour, Alan Robins and Michael Schatzmann) have written: "Theoretical models are developed, tested, evaluated and 'harmonized'. In contrast, there has been little equivalent effort in the case of physical modeling, where practitioners largely meet in the framework of various problem-oriented projects such as COST 615, COST 715 and SATURN. The techniques of physical modeling are often well outside of the main aims of the projects and meetings - they seem to play the role of Cinderella. An important reason for this is the lack of clear and consistent messages about the validity of the methods and the validation of the results. We will be very happy if this Colloquium helps to cross these barriers and becomes a starting point for increased co-operation, technique development, verification, and so on."

     From the view point of the fact that there were interesting contributions dealing with physical modelling in the 6^th International Conference on Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling for Regulatory Purposes, Rouen, October 11 - 14, 1999, for example, one can believe that Cinderella gradually becomes a princess. The next meeting is planned to take place in 2001 in Hamburg.

Prague, October 21, 1999

J. Brechler