Call for Paper for New Methods, Technologies, Advances, and Applications in the Inspection, Assessment, Strengthening, and Retrofit of Energy Engineering Structures
Published 15 July, 2026
Energy infrastructure is critical to energy production, transmission, storage, and utilization, and is essential to the safe and stable operation of energy systems. With increasing service life, energy infrastructure is affected by multiple factors, including complex loads, environmental corrosion, fatigue damage, seismic actions, and functional upgrades. As a result, it faces engineering challenges such as complex damage evolution, significant performance degradation, difficulties in inspection and assessment, demanding requirements for strengthening and retrofit, and insufficient reliability of connections. To improve the safety, durability, and resilience of energy infrastructure, it is necessary to develop advanced methods for structural inspection, assessment, strengthening, and retrofit.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
1.Mechanical properties of materials used in Energy Infrastructure;
2.Identification and assessment of Energy Infrastructure;
3.3D printing and material additive manufacturing technologies for Energy Infrastructure;
4.Intelligent inspection and monitoring of Energy Infrastructure;
5.Performance and resistance of Energy Infrastructure under earthquakes, strong winds, impacts, and other extreme loads;
6.Connection technologies for Energy Infrastructure;
7.Strengthening and retrofit of Energy Infrastructure.
Timeline:
Submission Deadline: 15 January 2027
Acceptance Deadline: 31 March 2027
Guest editors:
- Wen-Da Wang, Lanzhou University of Technology, China. Email: wangwd@lut.edu.cn
- Liang Zong, Tianjin University, China, Email: zongliang@tju.edu.cn
- Ou Zhao, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Email: ou.zhao@ntu.edu.sg
- Long Zheng, Lanzhou University of Technology, China. Email: zhenglong@lut.edu.cn
Guest Editors' brief introductions:
Professor Wen-da Wang
Lanzhou University of Technology, China
Professor Wen-da Wang is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology. He currently serves as director of the Engineering Research Center for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation in Civil Engineering of Western China, Ministry of Education. His research interests primarily include steel–concrete composite structures, hybrid structures, and structural engineering for energy infrastructure.
Professor Wang has been recognized as a Leading Talent of Gansu Province. He also leads a Gansu Provincial Basic Research Innovation Group and a Collaborative Innovation Team of Universities in Gansu Province.
He has served as principal investigator for more than 40 research projects, including four projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has received several prestigious awards, including the First Prize of the Ministry of Education Natural Science Award, the Second Prize of the Gansu Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award, and the Second Prize of the National Teaching Achievement Award.
He has co-authored one academic monograph and published more than 260 journal articles, more than 110 of which are indexed in the Science Citation Index (SCI). He holds 19 granted patents and two registered software copyrights. In addition, he has served as chief editor or contributing editor of 10 standards and seven textbooks.
Professor Liang Zong
Tianjin University, China
Professor Liang Zong is a professor, doctoral supervisor, and deputy head of the Department of Civil Engineering at Tianjin University. He is a recipient of the National Natural Science Foundation of China’s Excellent Young Scientists Fund and has been selected for the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship for Foreign Researchers, the first cohort of Tianjin Young Science and Technology Talents, and the Tianjin Innovation Talent Promotion Program. He serves on the editorial boards of SCI-indexed journals, including Scientific Reports and Buildings, and as a young editorial board member of Earthquake Engineering and Resilience. He also serves as Deputy Secretary-General of the Testing, Appraisal, Strengthening and Renovation Branch of the China Construction Metal Structure Association, as well as a council member of both the Stability and Fatigue Branch and the Bridge Branch of the China Steel Construction Society.
Professor Zong has long been engaged in research and engineering practice in the field of steel structures. His research focuses on the evolution mechanisms of the life-cycle performance of steel structures, as well as the seismic damage mechanisms and failure modes of modular steel structures, in which he has achieved a series of significant research outcomes. He has undertaken four projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, two subprojects under the National Key Research and Development Program of China, and one key project funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin.
Professor Zong has published more than 50 SCI-indexed papers, with an H-index of 23, and has been granted 16 invention patents. He has served as the chief editor of two standards issued by the China Association for Engineering Construction Standardization (CECS) and contributed to the preparation of two national standards. His research achievements have received the Second Prize of the Tianjin Science and Technology Progress Award as the first-ranked contributor, the Second Prize of the Henan Science and Technology Progress Award as the second-ranked contributor, and three First Prizes of the Science and Technology Award of the China Steel Construction Society.
Dr. Ou Zhao
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Dr. Ou Zhao is currently a tenured Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. His principal research interests lie in the areas of high-performance steel and composite structures as well as 3D metal printing and automation for construction. He has published over 230 top-tier journal papers in Thin-Walled Structures, Engineering Structures, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, and Journal of Structural Engineering. He is listed in the Top 2% Scientists (Career and Single year) by Stanford University/Elsevier. According to ScholarGPS, he is ranked 5th in the category of 'Structural Engineering' and 2nd in the category of 'Design' over the past five years and ranked 5th in the lifetime category of 'Design'. He received the Young Researcher Award at the Sixth International Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation (SEMC 2016). He is recognised as a Built Environment Young Leader by Building and Construction Authority, Singapore. He serves as an Editor of Thin-Walled Structures and Assistant Editor of Engineering Structures. He is also passionate about teaching and won the prestigious Nanyang Education Award (School) 2021.
Dr. Long Zheng
Lanzhou University of Technology, China
Dr. Long Zheng is an associate professor and master's supervisor at the School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology. He is also a postdoctoral researcher at the China Institute of Building Standard Design & Research. He serves as a young editorial board member of several academic journals, including the Journal of Energy Infrastructure.
His research focuses on disaster prevention and mitigation, resilience enhancement, and intelligent inspection and monitoring technologies for innovative composite and modular structures. He is also engaged in the development of intelligent inspection and monitoring technologies for engineering infrastructure. By integrating technologies such as multi-source sensing terminals, edge computing, and foundation models, he has developed an intelligent inspection and visual monitoring platform for engineering structures.
Dr. Zheng is currently leading more than ten research projects, including projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. His research achievements have received provincial science and technology progress awards, awards from the China Association of Inventions, and science and technology innovation awards from provincial associations.
He has published more than 40 academic papers in leading journals such as Engineering Structures and Thin-Walled Structures and has been granted more than 20 patents. He has also served as a session chair at international conferences and delivered more than 30 academic presentations, including an invited presentation at a technical session of the 1st International Conference on Engineering Structures.
