PREFACE

A. Montisci

PAMIR 2016 Conference Chairman, Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, University of Cagliari, Italy

Abstract

It is a personal honor to present the special issue of the MagnetoHydroDynamics Journal for the 10th edition of the International Conference on Fundamentals and Applied MagnetoHydroDynamics, PAMIR, which was held in Cagliari, Italy, on June 20-24, 2016. The Conference provided a wide forum for discussion on experimental and theoretical aspects of magneto-fluid-dynamics. This general acceptation includes a very large number of disciplines, which at a first glance appear quite unrelated to each other, such as turbulences caused by magnetic fields in conducting fluids, space applications, liquid metals technologies for nuclear coolants, metallurgy, magnetoelectrochemistry, magnetic levitation, ferrofluids, static energy conversion, propulsion systems. All these fields have in common a conducting fluid, which interacts with a magnetic field; therefore, despite the distance among the specific topics, they can be regrouped based on the simple fact that they obey the same system of equations. In tradition of PAMIR, the Conference was an opportunity for presenting new ways of research, emphasizing that MHD is still a young discipline, and it offers even new prospects to researchers aiming to begin new paths in science. In the 10th edition of PAMIR, special attention was paid to possible applications of MHD to aerospace, including materials processing, energy conversion and transport, propulsion, and use of nuclear sources. Embedded in the PAMIR Conference, a dedicated Summer School offered the possibility to 10 students to develop their knowledge and abilities in MHD sciences.

I would like to thank all the people and institutions that, at any level, have contributed to the success of the Conference, including the co-chairmen, the Organizing Committee, the Scientific Committee, the Helmholtz Alliance LIMTECH (Germany) and Respect Company (Italy) for having jointly organized the Conference, and all the sponsors, which made this event possible.

I feel the nice obligation to thanks the two persons, who since 1991 have dedicated every effort to the success of the PAMIR Conference, Antoine Alemany and Beatrice Collovati, who granted me a privilege to chair of the 10th edition. It is my firm belief that their contribution to the growth of the MHD Community is invaluable.

I would like to thank the authors who contributed to this issue, the session chairmen who executed their duty, and the anonymous reviewers for giving their fundamental contribution to ensure the high quality of the papers included in this special issue. Among the 142 papers presented at the Conference, 70 extended papers have been submitted for peer review, 43 of which have been selected for publication in this issue. I am especially grateful to the Editorial Board of the MagnetoHydroDynamics Journal for having dedicated two issues to the publication of the selected papers of the 10th PAMIR Conference, and for exploiting their editorial expertise in preparing this dedicated special issue.

I believe that all the papers published in this volume will bring forward new ideas, which will initiate new ways of research, for the benefit of all our innovative projects.