Prof. Eugenio OÑATE

Centre Internacional de Metodes Numerics a l'Enginyeria
Cl Gran Capitan
08034   Barcelona
SPAIN
Tel: +34-93-2057016
Fax: +34-93-4016517
onate@cimne.upc.es  

Anna Font Jornet
Project Manager - CIMNE
Edifici C1, Oficina C6. Campus Nord UPC.
Gran Capità, s/n,

08034 Barcelona
T.: +34 93 401 73 99.

Fax: +34 93 401 65 17.
www.cimne.com

annaf@cimne.upc.es

CIMNE’s description and facilities

DESCRIPTION

The International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) was created in March 1987 as a consortium between the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).

CIMNE employs currently some 150 scientists and engineers from different technical fields and nationalities (over 15 different countries), working in the development and application of numerical methods (basically the finite element method) to a wide class of engineering problems. The research activities of CIMNE cover non linear analysis and safety studies of structures, shape optimisation in structural and fluid dynamic problems, computational fluid dynamics studies for both external and internal flow problems, numerical simulation of material deformation and forming processes for the manufacturing industry. CIMNE has developed a Virtual Learning Centre devoted to teach advanced engineering topics via Internet.

CIMNE takes an active part in R&D and innovation projects in different fields of engineering, in cooperation with universities, research organisations and companies worldwide. In the last fifteen-year period, CIMNE has taken part in more than 490 R+D  projects with the financial support of the European Community and the Spanish Government, among other organisations as well as some 240 Spanish and international enterprises. The outcome of the research is recorded in books, monographs, research reports and software published by CIMNE (over 700 scientific publications, technical reports and educational software codes have already been published by CIMNE). CIMNE has also successfully organised some 270 courses and seminars and 43 international conferences, in the field of numerical methods and their applications in engineering.

CIMNE is the Secretariat of SEMNI (Sociedad Española de Métodos Numéricos en Ingeniería), IACM (International Association for Computational Mechanics) and ECCOMAS (European Community in Computational Methods in Applied Sciences).

In the last years, CIMNE has gained experience in the field of decision support systems and is currently the coordinator of an European funded project with acronym RAMFLOOD (Risk Assessment and Management of FLOODs).

FACILITIES

CIMNE is located on the North side of the Campus of the UPC, in a new annex (800 m²) built on one of the buildings of the School of Civil Engineering. CIMNE’s premises were inaugurated by the catalan government in December 1992.

Apart from the facilities that CIMNE has in the North Campus in Barcelona, and due to the needs of improving collaborations and growing capabilities, in the last two years CIMNE has bet on the creation of new spaces.

o        On the one hand, CIMNE has opened a new branch office in Terrassa (city situated about 35 Km from Barcelona). Terrassa is situated in a very industrial area and allows CIMNE to exploit the collaboration with large companies and SMEs, established there. Besides, UPC has also branches in Terrassa. Both factors (industry and university presence) were considered very positively when the decision of moving part of the team to Terrassa was made.

o        On the other hand, CIMNE has opened a series of CIMNE Classrooms all over the world (Mexico, Argentina, Barcelona, La Havana, etc.). CIMNE Classrooms (CC) are a forum for cooperation in education and research and technological development (RTD) activities created jointly by CIMNE and one or several university centres and departments. The main objective of the so called CIMNE Classrooms is the promotion of education and training activities at graduate and postgraduate levels and the development of RTD projects in cooperation with enterprises, making use of CIMNE’s experience and human resources and the ones coming from the departments/ university centres.

CIMNE could actively participate in the activities devoted to spread excellence (B.4.3.). CIMNE could cooperate (or even lead) the tasks devoted to the organisation of workshops, conferences and meetings. You can see the experience of CIMNE in this field at www.cimne.com , cliking on Congresses

CIMNE, as RAMFLOOD coordinator (Risk Assessment and Management of FLOODs), can take part in B.8.-Joint Programme of Activities – Fl (CARiMan in Flood emergencies). More information about RAMFLOOD in www.cimne.upc.es/ramflood

Dr. Eugenio Oñate

He is director of CIMNE and has over 20 year’s experience in the development and application of computational methods and software for solving a wide range of problems in science and engineering. He has a Ph.D. in civil engineering solid experience in EU projects and has co-ordinated a number of them within the Esprit, Growth and IST programmes. He is the author of a textbook, 20 edited books, 85 papers in scientific and technical journals and over 200 papers presented at international conferences.

Javier Marcipar

He is a civil engineering with wide experience in the integration of IT systems and combining distributed databases multilevel user interfaces and computer simulation codes. He is currently the coordinator in CIMNE of a team formed by 5 computer scientists and 3 engineers responsible for development and maintenance of an internet portal providing e-work services to the construction industry (see www.structuralia.com).

Francisco Zárate

He has a Ph.D. in civil engineering. He is responsible for the development of MonteCarlo methods and their applications to stochastic analysis and design in engineering. He is author of some 30 papers on the applications of numerical methods to solid mechanic problems. He has also experience in coordinating EC projects within the Leonardo, Growth and IST programmes.

RAMFLOOD

Decision support system for Risk Assessment and Management of FLOODs

Action Line: Environment - Intelligent systems and services for civilian and environmental crises management

The objective of the project is to develop and validate a new decision support system (DSS) for the risk assessment and management of emergency scenarios due to severe floods. The new DSS will combine environmental and geo-physical data from earth observation, satellite positioning systems, in-situ sensors and geo-referenced information with advanced computer simulation and graphical visualisation methods for generating knowledge contributing to the risk and damage assessment prevention of floods and the design of effective response actions maximising the safety of infrastructures and human life.

Work description:
The project work will be split into the following workpackages:
WP1: Specification of the RAMFLOOD DSS features and user requirements;
WP2: Collection and management of geo-physical and environmental data;
WP3: Multiscale analysis of environmental and geo-physical data;
WP4: Risk analysis and computer simulation of floods;
WP5: Integration of the RAMFLOOD DSS system for risk assessment and management of floodplain areas;
WP6: Validation of the new RAMFLOOD DSS for the forecast and management of emergency scenarios due to severe floods in two European regions;
WP7: Pre-standardisation guidelines for design and management of flood prevention and control scenarios;
WP8: Dissemination and exploitation plans;
WP9: Project management;
WP10: Assessment and evaluation. Pre-standardisation activities leading to harmonised models for capturing and filtering the necessary environmental data, the functionalities of the flood computer simulation and visualisation tools and the general architecture of the new decision-support system will also be a relevant part of the project work. Additional tasks will focus on the definition of a consistent approach for the design and management of flood prevention scenarios including the definition of adequate emergency policies.

Milestones:
Specifications of RAMFLOOD DSS features (month 3);
Processed remote sensing data (month 9);
Multiscale analysis system (month 13);
Database of flood risk criteria (month 16);
RAMFLOOD DSS (month 20);
Validation of the RAMFLOOD DSS in two flood plain scenarios in Spain and Greece (month24);
Dissemination and exploitation plan (month 24).

Participants
Agricultural University of Athens	GREECE
Association of Municipalities and Communities for The Protection of The Environment of Pendelikon Mountain	GREECE
Euromap Satellitendaten-Vertriebsgesellschaft Mbh	GERMANY
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya	SPAIN
Agencia Catalana de l'Aigua	SPAIN