For the past 19 years, the International Water Mist Association (IWMA) have organized an annual conference solely dedicated to the water mist technology. In 2019, the event will take place in Berlin, Germany from 23rd – 24th October 2019. The conference venue will be the Ameron Hotel Abion Spreebogen Waterside, beautifully situated by the Spree river.
Part of the programme and the highlight of day one (Applications Day) will be a panel discussion entitled: “Grenfell, Notre Dame – How can water mist systems help prevent loss of lives, jobs and property?” Several presentations prelude this discussion. A keynote speech will be delivered by Quentin de Hults (Modern Building Alliance) on “a European framework to ensure fire safety in taller buildings”. Giuseppe Amaro (GAe Engineering) and Massimo Ferretti (Marioff Italy) will speak about “water mist and tall buildings”. Rüdiger Kopp (Fogtec) will deal with “fire protection for sensitive roof structures”. Joachim Gabran (Marioff) will focus on “water mist fire protection for historic sites”. And Hans Schipper (Johnson Control International) will complete this set of presentations with his talk on the “protection of heritage buildings with water mist”.
The highlight of the second day of the conference (Research and Testing Day) will be the bestowal of the IWMA Young Talent Award through IWMA President Are W. Brandt and the chairman of the IWMA Scientific Council Hong-Zeng Yu. In 2019, the award will go to the author of the best Ph.D. thesis which is Topi Matti Sikanen. His winning thesis is entitled: “Simulation of transport, evaporation, and combustion of liquids in large-scale fire incidents.” Topi started working for VTT Technical Research Centre in 2008 and focused on fire safety related topics. He defended his Ph.D. thesis in January 2018 at Aalto University in Finland. His research interests have been numerical simulation of fire phenomena, especially high-speed sprays and pool fires. He now works as a consultant at Fire Safety Design and Consultants Markku Kauriala Ltd.
IWMA have invited Topi to Berlin to present his thesis. Part of the award, apart from the assumption of travel and accommodation expenses through IWMA and a one year free IWMA membership, is also a prize money of e1,000. In 2020, the IWMA Young Talent Award will again go to the author of the best master thesis. Details are available on the IWMA webpage.
Another highlight on day two will be a sneak preview into the future during two presentations by Max Lakkonen (IFAB) and David Sherrington (Ultra Fog UK).
Max Lakkonen will speak about the development of the SUVEREN (safety of city underground structures due to the use of new energy carriers) Research Project. The title of his presentation will be: “new energy carriers and related new fire risks for underground facilities – possibilities for water mist firefighting”. Last year, at the 18th International Water Mist Conference in London, Max began his report on this research project when he spoke about “water mist and NECs”.
David Sherrington will talk about “opportunities for water mist fire fighting in a low carbon future”.
Additionally, Alex Palle (VID Fire-Kill) will update the audience on the development of the European Standard prEN 14972. And Kamil Swietnicki (VdS) will give an overview of the VdS Guideline 3188 and highlight important improvements.
“All information regarding the programme, the speakers, the presentations plus travel and accommodation are available from the conference webpage,’’ says Bettina McDowell, IWMA General Manager.
People who are interested in getting hold of one of the 150 tickets, can access the conference webpage via the IWMA webpage. The first day of the conference can be booked separately. The conference homepage provides the attendee list and the registration tool, which will close on 18th October.
For more information, go to www.iwma.net
