Book excerpt: Containing papers presented at the seventeenth in a series of biennial meetings organised by the Wessex Institute and first held in 1984, this book includes the latest research from scientists who perform experiments, researchers who develop computer codes, and those who carry out measurements on prototypes and whose work may interact. Progress in the engineering sciences is dependent on the orderly and concurrent development of all three fields. Continuous improvement in computer efficiency, coupled with diminishing costs and rapid development of numerical procedures have generated an ever-increasing expansion of computational simulations that permeate all fields of science and technology. As these procedures continue to grow in magnitude and complexity, it is essential to be certain of their reliability, i.e. to validate their results. This can be achieved by performing dedicated and accurate experiments. At the same time, current experimental techniques have become more complex and sophisticated so that they require the exploitation of computers, both for running experiments as well as acquiring and processing the resulting data. The papers contained in the book address advances in the interaction between these three areas. They cover such topics as: Computational and Experimental Methods; Fluid Flow; Structural and Stress Analysis; Materials Characterisation; Heat Transfer and Thermal Processes; Advances in Computational Methods; Automotive Applications; Applications in Industry; Process Simulations; Environmental Modelling and Applications; Computer Modelling; Validation of Computer Modelling; Computation in Measurements; Data Processing of Experiments; Virtual Testing and Verification; Simulation and Forecasting; Measurements in Engineering.