On the morning of 4 March 2026, the National Rail Transit Electrification and Automation Engineering Technology Research Centre (Hong Kong Branch) (CNERC-Rail) at PolyU hosted an academic seminar entitled “Challenges and Progress in Superconducting Multi-field Coupled Mechanics under Extreme Environments.” The seminar was held in Room Z414 at PolyU and featured Prof. You-He Zhou, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences from Lanzhou University, and Prof. Xiao-Jing Zheng, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences from Xidian University, as the invited speakers.
During the seminar, Prof. Zhou introduced the research background and key scientific challenges associated with superconducting multi-field coupled mechanics under extreme environments. He highlighted the team's recent advances in the theoretical development of multi-field coupled superconducting solid mechanics, the establishment of experimental research platforms, and the development of effective solution methods for strongly nonlinear multi-field coupled mechanical problems.
Prof. Zheng then focused on gas–solid two-phase turbulence in sandstorms and presented research on field observations and wind-tunnel investigations of sandstorm dynamics. She introduced long-term observational studies based on the Qingtu Lake Observation Array and discussed the statistical characteristics of turbulent structures in sandstorm flows as well as the interactions among turbulent motions at different scales. The presentation also addressed the applications of these findings in understanding wind–sand disaster mechanisms and improving numerical simulation approaches.
