20th International Workshop on Atmospheric Icing of Structures (IWAIS)

The International Workshop on Atmospheric Icing of Structures (IWAIS) will take place in Narvik, Norway, from June 18-21, 2024. Norway has a long-standing commitment to IWAIS and is hosting this event after 40 years as previously Norway hosted this  in 1984 at  Trondheim. IWAIS gathers a vibrant community of researchers, consultants and utility stakeholders who are eager to innovate, share and implement effective solutions to mitigate icing on structures.

Human activities are increasingly extending in ice prone cold regions, where atmospheric icing on structures can affect its design and safety. Atmospheric icing on structures is an area of concern from operational, maintenance, safety, and financial perspectives. Therefore, there is a growing need to improve knowledge and strengthen expertise about atmospheric icing on structures. The International Workshop on Atmospheric Icing of Structures (IWAIS) have been one of the most important scientific forum for disseminating research results about atmospheric icing and its effects on structures. IWAIS brings together specialists in this field to disseminate information  about the complex physics of atmospheric icing. In addition, inseparable acquaintances and friendships have sprung up, giving this scientific forum an added value. During last 44 years, participants have gathered for 19 IWAIS meetings in 13 different countries around the globe. The first IWAIS conference was organized in 1982 in Hanover, USA, and the 19th meeting was hosted in Montreal, Canada in 2022.

The core focus of IWAIS is about atmospheric icing on structures, where key research topics include:

• Icing on structures: power lines, telecommunication towers, buildings, bridges, railway, roads, aviation, etc.
• Icing modelling (analytics, numerical & experimental)
• Ice detection & mitigation
• Anti-icing, de-icing, and ice-phobic materials.
• Icing climate & forecasting (incl. climate change)
• Ice disaster management & logistics
• Green energy in icing conditions.

IWAIS 2024 will be organized at UiT-The Arctic University of Norway (Narvik campus) . Arctic Technology & Icing Research Group (arcICE) will coordinate this event with the support from UiT staff and IWAIS technical/advisory/scientific committees. As COVID restrictions around the globe are lifted now, so IWAIS 2024 will take place in person. A detailed schedule of the events related to IWAIS 2024 will be posted on this website soon.

IWAIS has established a strong collaboration with CIGRE  on topics related to icing on structures that has now resulted that for the first time CIGRE will join the IWAIS organization for this joint CIGRE- IWAIS event in Narvik, Norway. This joint event will allow experts from all fields to share knowledge about icing, cutting-edge research and discoveries, raise issues or questions, discuss directions and develop relationships with experts around the world. The CIGRE study committee B2 'Overhead Lines' and IWAIS already share many experts involved in both organizations. A selection of papers from the IWAIS conference will be submitted in the e-cigre library to ensure the sustainability of this knowledge.  Moreover, the best paper of the IWAIS conference will also be published in the journal CSE (CIGRE Science & Engineering). 

All accepted papers for IWAIS-2024 will be published in the IWAIS conference proceedings as OPEN ACCESS under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), where authors retain the copyrights. We warmly welcome all pointers from prospective participants at all stages of the preparations.

Conference Chairman:

Professor. Muhammad Shakeel Virk