Preface

A. Jakoviċs

Laboratory for Mathematical Modeling of Environmental and Technological Processes, University of Latvia, 8 Zeļļu str., Rīga, LV-1002, Latvia

Abstract

The International Scientific Colloquium "Modelling for Material Processing" took place last year on June 8-9. It was the fourth time the colloquium was organized. The first colloquium took place in 1999. All colloquia were organized by the University of Latvia together with Leibniz University of Hannover (Germany) that signifies a long-term tradition (since 1988) of scientific cooperation between researchers of these two universities in the field of electrothermal process modelling.

During the last colloquium scientific reports in the field of mathematical modelling in industrial electromagnetic applications for different materials (liquid metals, semiconductor technology, porous materials, melting of oxides and inductive heating) were presented.

70 researchers from 10 countries attended the colloquium. The contributions included about 30 oral presentations and 12 posters. The most illustrative presentations (oral and poster) in the field of MHD were selected for publication in a special issue of the international journal "Magnetohydrodynamics".

Traditionally, many reports of the colloquium discuss the problems of MHD methods and devices applied to the metallurgical technologies and processes of semiconductor crystal growth. The new results illustrate the influence of combined electromagnetic fields on the hydrodynamics and heat/mass transfer in melts.

The presented reports demonstrate that the models for simulation of turbulent liquid metal flows in melting furnaces, crystallization of alloys and single crystal growth in electromagnetic fields have become much more complex. The adequate description of occurring physical phenomena and the use of high performance computer and clusters allow to reduce the number of experiments in industrial facilities.

The use of software and computers for modelling technological and environmental processes has a very long history at the University of Latvia. The first modelling activities in the field of industrial MHD applications had led to the establishment of the chair of Electrodynamics and Continuum Mechanics in 1970, the first head of which was professor Juris Mikelsons.

In the early 90's, when all research institutions in our country underwent dramatic changes, not all research directions and institutions managed to adapt successfully to the new conditions. Fortunately, the people who were involved in computer modelling of physical processes were among the most successful. First, the existing and newly established contacts in Western Europe were used actively to reorient the applied researches in the directions actively studied at the universities and companies, which were the partners of the University of Latvia.

As a result, research groups involved in these activities successfully joined the international effort related to the application of computer models to industrial processes, and the scientific laboratory for Mathematical Modelling of Environmental and Technological Processes was founded in 1994. The second direction of modelling development was related to the application of computer-based models for the environmental and technological processes (e.g., sediment transport in harbours, heat transfer in building constructions) that were important for the companies and state institutions in Latvia.

Currently, the field of engineering physics, the core of which is the computer modelling of technological and environmental processes, is one of the largest and most successfully developing parts of researches and educational programs at the Department of Physics of the University of Latvia with very good perspectives in the future for the development of new technologies and knowledge transfer.