First held in 1961, and there after every three years, the International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress (ISSC) is one of the most prestigious global forums for information exchange by leading experts undertaking and applying marine structural research. This summer ushered in the 20th ISSC held jointly between Liege, Belgium and Amsterdam, the Netherlands in early September. Dr Adam Sobey and Dr Yikun Wang were invited to attend the congress as observers, representing FSI/SMMI and the University of Southampton.
The first day of the congress was held in the Palais des Congrès Liège with with a tour of the experimental facilities at the University of Liège in the afternoon and dinner at the Chateau Colonster, before a second day travelling down the river Meuse with an afternoon visit to the test facilities at the Flanders Hydraulic Research Laboratory and the final two days held in Egmond ann Zee, a small village near the sea in Holland.
Unique to ISSC, the four-day event was composed of presentations and formal discussions given by eight technical and eight specialist committees. Each committee is formed of a number of multi-national experts from a wide range of marine structure related disciplines from Ultimate Strength to Loads and Environment. Committees have worked over the last three years prior to the congress to generate reports reviewing recent research outcomes, as well as identifying future research areas requiring attention. During the congress, each committee chair has to summarise the report, which is followed by comments given by the official discusser. The chair is required to present responses on behalf of the committee. All comments and responses are captured as part of the ISSC 2018 publications.
As the first time attending the congress, both Adam and Yikun appreciated the comprehensive reports written by each committee, participated in the professional discussions on relevant research topics and enjoyed networking with experts from universities, research institutes, navy/defence and classification societies. For the next three-year period, Southampton is well represented with Adam on Committee IV.2 – Design Methods, Yikun on Committee III.1 – Ultimate Strength and Dr Blair Thornton on Committee V.8 – Subsea Technology. We look forward to hearing their committee experience in Vancouver 2021!
If you are interested in reading the congress proceedings, please follow this link.
