CHENNAI : Indian Institute of Technology Madras’ (IIT Madras) is hosting an International Conference on Experimental Mechanics 2024 from 20th to 23rd October jointly with the Asian Society of Experimental Mechanics (ASEM) and Indian Society for Applied Mechanics (ISAM).
Topics of National importance are being deliberated during the Conference, including ‘Design Validation’ piloted by Prof. S. Pandian, Former Director Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, ISRO. This is crucial for organizations such as ISRO and in the Defence and Nuclear sectors.
The experimental approach is the final litmus test for verifying and validating any design. This session has the maximum number of contributions highlighting its importance and many are from the various afore-mentioned National sectors as well as from Industries.
A session on ‘In-situ Measurements’, which are used to monitor critical structures built in difficult terrains, is also being held during this conference. This technology has helped in health monitoring of the Pamban Bridge for any structural deficiencies developed due to corrosion. The architect of this project, Prof. U. Saravanan, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras will be delivering an invited lecture, which would greatly benefit students and encourage them to take up complex projects of National importance in their careers.
Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, inaugurated the conference today (21st Oct 2024) in the presence of Prof. Yu-Lung Lo, President, Asian Society of Experimental Mechanics (ASEM), Prof. K. Ramesh, Conference Chair, Department of Applied Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering, IIT Madras, delegates from USA, Australia, Japan, Vietnam, India and other Asian countries besides IIT Madras students and researchers.
Delivering the inaugural address, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said “I am happy to see eminent experts in experimental mechanics from national laboratories and educational institutions across the world who have won many international awards in their fields of study as well as Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awardee Dr. Digendranath Swain from VSSC, ISRO attending this conference. I am sure the students will greatly benefit from their deliberations to hone up their experimental skills.”
Prof. Ghatu Subhash from University of Florida, USA, is the most sought-after plenary lecturer this year in various prestigious conferences across the world and will be delivering an interesting lecture on ‘Riding the Waves for Designing Innovative Experiments and Probing Material Behaviors’ on 22nd October.
SUSTAINABILITY
Another key aspect of the Conference is that it is being entirely coordinated through a Mobile Phone App. The app provides very comprehensive conference information containing abstracts of all papers, schedule in various formats, ability to make one’s own agenda for judicious use of the conference time with multiple features for easy and enhanced networking among the delegates.
With No printing of abstracts, proceedings or even the schedule, the conference is contributing to campus initiatives on Sustainability. This is the first time such an initiative has been taken up at IIT Madras.
Highlighting the importance of this Conference, Prof. K. Ramesh, Department of Applied Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering, IIT Madras, said, “this is the first time in one platform, experts from solids, fluids and bio fields are brought together worldwide for an experimental mechanics conference. This is expected to pave ways for solving complex practical problems that require interdisciplinary approach.”
The conference features five Plenary and 23 Invited talks and around 75 contributed papers with 40 posters.
The conference deliberations will proceed on four tracks
- Experimental Solid Mechanics
- Experimental Fluid Mechanics
- Experimental Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering
- Interdisciplinary Experimental Mechanics
Further, sessions on Cellular and Tissue Mechanics as well as Mechanobiology and Biomaterials will provide crucial inputs for projects like India’s manned space missions.
Sessions on optical precision metrology and digital photoelasticity would enhance measurements on solar panels as well as process monitoring of semi-conductors that are of current emphasis in Make in India. Sessions on Fluid Mechanics such as Optical Diagnostics, Flow visualisation and PIV, Schlieren and Shadowgraph will be very useful in design and optimization of rocket motors, spacecrafts and various aerospace systems as well as several other applications such as defence, electronic and process industries.
