What is IWEF

INTERNATIONAL WIND ENGINEERING FORUM

MOTIVATION

Wind engineering problems, including wind resistant design, wind response and wind environment evaluations have been recently recognized as important issues to be addressed by civil engineering community. Information exchange in this field has been carried out through publications in technical literature, during domestic and international meetings and through personal contacts. Emergence of global economy and its impact on engineering, including wind engineering, brought into attention the need for an improved worldwide information and technology exchange. Although in many respects the international technical information flow in wind engineering has improved in recent years, several obstacles, including language barrier, exist. The International Wind Engineering Forum (IWEF), has been established to aid and bring to a new level exchange of information and cooperation in the area of wind engineering. The idea for the IWEF was first proposed by representatives of the Japanese wind engineering community. As a result of number of meetings with the U.S. representatives, the present concept and the organizational structure of the IWEF have been developed.

PURPOSE AND GOALS

The purpose of the IWEF is to promote and facilitate international exchange of information, collaborative research, and joint education and service activities in the area of wind engineering. Specific goals of the IWEF include:

(A) Exchange, disseminate and synthesize wind engineering technical information;
(B) Organize, facilitate and promote educational activities focused on selected topics of wind engineering;
(C) Promote and aid wind engineering technology transfer;
(D) Offer wind engineering technical expertise;
(E) Promote beneficial to wind engineering activities in other areas of engineering and science.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

The IWEF is currently headed by two Co-Chairmen, Prof. T. Ohkuma (Kanagawa University) and Prof. B. Bienkiewicz (Colorado State University), representing the two founding sides, Japan and the U.S. The Co-Chairmen are aided by the Advisory Board, proposed to consist of four U.S. and four Japanese members. The IWEF has presently two offices, one in the U.S., at Colorado State University, and one in Tokyo, at the Japan Association for Building Research Promotion.

PLANNED ACTIVITIES

A tentative plan of the IWEF activities includes:

(1) Collection of publications and information on wind engineering research facilities and activities in Japan. A data base will be established in English language and it will be made available to interested countries.
(2) Establishment of data base on wind engineering publications, facilities and activities in other countries.
(3) Establishment of data base on wind disasters, damage and mitigation and facilitation of surveys of damaged sites.
(4) Organizing lecture meetings and seminars on wind resistant design of buildings and structures, and new developments in wind engineering.
(5) Planning and promotion of advanced wind engineering research projects.
(6) Publishing the semi-annual newsletter describing current activities of the IWEF, and providing updates on the IWEF data base and available publications, as well as other relevant wind engineering information.

          JAPAN ASSOCIATION FOR    COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
    BUILDING RESEARCH PROMOTION    ENGINEERING RESEARCH CENTER
5-26-20, Kenchiku-kaikan, Shiba    Department of Civil Engineering
        Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan    Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
            Tel: (03) 3453-1281    Tel: (303) 491-2545
            Fax: (03) 3453-0428    Fax: (303) 491-8200

CO-CHAIRMEN OF THE IWEF

       Prof. Takeshi Ohkuma(KU)    Prof. Bogusz Bienkiewicz(CSU)

ADVISORY BOARD OF THE IWEF

    Prof. Arthur N.L. Chiu (UH)    Prof. Hiromasa Kawai (TDU)
          Dr. Kunio Fujii (WEI)    Prof. Ahsan Kareem (UND)
  Prof. James R. McDonald (TTU)    Dr. Hisashi Okada (BRI)
     Prof. Tetsuro Tamura (TIT)    Prof. Yukio Tamura (TIP)
  Dr. Hiroyuki Yamanouchi (BRI)

BRI: Building Research Institute, Japan       CSU: Colorado State University, USA
CU : City University, Hong Kong               KU : Kanagawa University, Japan
TDU: Tokyo Denki University, Japan            TIT: Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
TIP: Tokyo Institute of Polytechnics, Japan   TTU: Texas Tech University, USA
UH : University of Hawaii, USA                UND: University of Notre Dame, USA
WEI: Wind Engineering Institute, Japan

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