8 th Symposium on Mechanics of Slender Structures 2019 (MoSS2019)
Authors: Kang H , Kaczmarczyk S , Zhu W 
Published: May 2020

This issue of Journal of Physics: Conference Series contains ten selected technical papers that were presented at the 8th Symposium on the Mechanics of Slender Structures (MoSS2019) and show a wide research and application of slender structure. The meeting was held in Changsha, China, from 24th to 26th May 2019. This conference runs under the auspices of the Institute of Physics Applied Mechanics Group and forms a continuation of a successful meeting series on the Mechanics of Slender Structures first held in Northampton, UK, in 2006, followed by the events hosted in Baltimore, USA in 2008, in San Sebastian, Spain in 2010, in Harbin, China in 2013, in Northampton, U.K. in 2015, in Shanghai, China in 2016, and in Mérida, Spain 2017. This conference is also sponsored by the Chinse Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and jointly organized by Hunan University, Harbin Institute of Technology and Xi’an University of Technology.
The aim of MoSS 2019 is to bring together the international leading scientists of mechanics of cable, string and other slender structure and to present their original and latest research work. Slender structure refers to a component whose size in one dimension is much larger than that in other dimensions. Applications of slender structures include terrestrial, marine and space systems. With the development of science and technology, slender structures are developing in both large and micro directions, and the working environment is becoming more and more diverse and complex. Moving elastic elements such as ropes, cables, belts and tethers are pivotal components of many engineering systems. Their lengths often vary when the system is in operation. The applications include vertical transportation installations and, more recently, space tether propulsion systems. Traction drive elevator installations employ ropes and belts of variable length as a means of suspension, and also for the compensation of tensile forces over the traction sheave. In cranes and mine hoists, cables and ropes are subject to length variation in order to carry payloads. Tethers experiencing extension and retraction are important components of offshore and marine installations, as well as being proposed for a variety of different space vehicle propulsion systems based on different applications of momentum exchange and electrodynamic interactions with planetary magnetic fields. Furthermore, cables, beams, columns, towers and other slender poles and rods are used extensively in mechanical and civil engineering; they are common in machinery, automotive components, rails, tunnels, girder bridges, arch bridges, cable-stayed bridges, suspension bridges, high-rise buildings, masts and large-span roof systems of buildings and stadiums.
Also, suspended cables are applied as electricity transmission lines. Chains are used in various power transmission systems that include such mechanical systems as chain drives and chain saws. Moving conveyor belts are essential components in various material handling installations and textile manufacturing systems involve slender continua such as yarns composed of staple fibers.
This meeting brought together experts from various fields: structural mechanics, thermomechanics, dynamics, vibration and control, structure-media interaction, structural health monitoring, materials science and applied mathematics to discuss the current state of research as well as rising trends and direction for future research in the area of mechanics of slender structures. The event is aimed at improving the understanding of structural properties and behaviour of slender structures. The papers presented at the conference covered analytical, numerical and experimental research in various applications of slender structures. The conference programme was arranged around the following seven keynote lectures:

Keynote Lecture 1: On the interesting behaviour of a beam with an inclined roller by Stefano Lenci, Polytechnic University of Marche (Italy).

Keynote Lecture 2: The seismic design and safety control of high-speed railway track-bridge system based on train safety traveling performance by Lizhong Jiang, Central South University (China).

Keynote Lecture 3: Historical development and challenges in aeroelastic flutter of long-span bridges by Zhengqing Chen, Hunan University (China).

Keynote Lecture 4: Flutter control of long-span bridges by Walter Lacarbonara, Sapienza University (Italy).

Keynote Lecture 5: Energy harvesting enhanced by double-jumping: an l-shaped beam case by Li-Qun Chen, Harbin Institute of Technology (China).

Keynote Lecture 6: Time as an imperfection: what do we know about the effect of dynamics on buckling? by Gert van der Heijden, University College London (UK).

Keynote Lecture 7: Dynamics of continuous media: from time-varying and nonlinear systems to flexible multibody systems by Weidong Zhu, University of Maryland Baltimore County (USA).
Additionally, eight minial sessions involving i) cable, string and other soft-slender structure, ii) beam, bridge, railway engineering and structure-media interaction, iii) plate, membrane, panel and sandwich structures and iv) material, conductors, control and numerical method were addressed in this symposium.
The articles presented in this volume are arranged alphabetically by the first author details and are extended peer-reviewed versions of the papers presented at the conference. The Editors and Organizing Committee gratefully acknowledges support received from the co-sponsoring institutions and would like to thank the authors for their hard work and high quality contributions.