This special issue of Studies in Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics (by IOS PRESS) is devoted to papers presented at the International Symposium on Electromagnetic Fields in Electrical Engineering ISEF'09, organized jointly by the Laboratory of Electrical Systems and Environment (LSEE), University of Artois, France, and Institute of Mechatronics and Information Systems, Technical University of Lodz, Poland. The Conference venue was Arras, a city which is like an open-air museum, with its interesting history, architecture and heritage, including Flemish baroque squares, Art Deco buildings, a gothic Town Hall and a belfry, and many 18^th century monuments. The maze of underground tunnels offers special sightseeing opportunities. The venue was simply perfect for the conference.

The aim of ISEF symposia is to discuss recent developments in modelling and simulation, control systems, testing, measurements, monitoring, diagnostics and advanced software methodology in application to electrical and electronic devices and mechatronic systems. ISEF is a forum for applied mathematicians, computer and software engineers, and electronic and electrical engineers, to exchange ideas and experiences ranging from fundamental developments of theory to practical industrial applications. The conference is popular with academics, researchers and practising engineers.

Over the past 35 years ISEF has gained a prominent position in electromagnetic community. Since the first meeting in Uniejow Palace near Lodz in 1974 – organised as a National Symposium on “Electrodynamics of Transformers and Electrical Machines” – ISEF has travelled around Europe visiting, in addition to venues in Poland, several interesting places such as Pavia (twice), Southampton, Thessaloniki, Maribor, Baiona and finally Prague in 2007.

For the meeting in Arras, almost 300 papers had been submitted as digests and, after the reviewing process, 276 papers were accepted for presentation at the Conference. The short papers were published in the Book of Digests, while full versions included on a CD distributed to participants before the conference. Those versions were considered by session chairs for possible inclusion in the post-conference special issue.

The program of the conference comprised three invited papers, 5 oral and 8 dialogue sessions. The established conference topics were well represented, but supplemented by two new areas:

• artificial and computational intelligence,

• noise and vibration in electrical machines.

Another novelty was a special session with presentations by PhD students working in the field of electromagnetism. In fact, computational and applied electromagnetics is traditionally always strongly represented at ISEF by theoreticians, applied scientists and engineers, together offering a nice blend of fundamental methods, modelling techniques and practical solutions. We have no doubt that the small, but faithful, group of outstanding ‘electromagneticians’ regularly attending ISEF will continue to support future meetings providing a particular flavour and focus. But it is also very pleasing to see other areas emerging strongly as new conference topics, in particular computer engineering, software methodology, CAD techniques, artificial intelligence and material sciences.

The present special issue of Studies in Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics contains 101 papers selected by the Guest Editors as a result of a two-stage qualification process: first, recommendations of the chairmen of the sessions, and secondly, reviews by two independent referees. Computational and modelling aspects feature prominently, although design, measurement and performance issues are addressed as well.

The papers selected for this volume, entitled: “Computer Field Models of Electromagnetic Devices”, have been grouped in three chapters which cover the above topics:

Chapter 1 Advanced Computational Techniques

Chapter 2 Recent Developments of Electromagnetic Devices

Chapter 3 Special Applications – Computational Electromagnetics

Chapter 4 Power Losses Computations

Chapter 5 Computer Modelling of Isolations Systems

The first chapter is devoted to fundamental and computational problems which appear in electromagnetics. The spread of topics and methods is very broad. Also, there are some papers in the chapter which show analytical solutions of the electromagnetic field problems. The analytical approach is nowadays mostly out of interest for researchers, especially those of younger generation but this attitude seems to be not supported by the reality of electromagnetism. The analysis of electromagnetic field sometimes requires deeper insight into the structure of mathematical model and this can be done just by means of analytical approach. The presented methods include analytical, numerical and hybrid methods. The development of calculation methods speeds up the calculation process significantly, on the other hand it triggers a temptation to solve the problems treated so far in simplistic fashion. The methods presented have been extensively illustrated with practical examples. Hybrid methods have been of particular interest. These methods combine virtues of various methods available, thus opening new opportunities.

The second chapter is devoted to problems widely discussed at many conferences, namely how to improve the techniques of optimal design of electromagnetic devices. The special attention has been paid to design of electrical machines. This chapter has been divided into a number of sub-chapters dedicated sequentially to induction machines, PM machines, Micro DC reluctance machines and drives. The overall chapter presents many new non-typical solutions resulting from the materials used, innovative constructions and technologies.

The third chapter contains papers which are a good mirror of what ISEF conference is. Most of these papers deal with some applications of electromagnetic field and the stress in these papers is put on the phenomena or devices or both. Computational technique is there just as a tool to understand the phenomena, to design a device or to know what hazards can occur. It seems to be very difficult, even impossible, to find some common idea which joins the papers in some groups because, in fact, each paper deals with its particular problem. We could stress that some specific problems, even electrical installation and anti-lightning protection, have been discussed. Prospective readers are recommended to look at this chapter very carefully and find the paper of their personal interest.

The fourth chapter was introduced at the request of the conference participants and was prepared with the assistance of specialists in the calculation of losses in electrical machines. It addresses a number of issues like shape and slot effect. Thanks to this a very good accordance of calculations and measurements has been achieved. It is to be noted that an accurate estimate of losses, as well as understanding of factors that create these losses enables the improvement of electrical machine design. Energy efficiency has become the key topic in recent years.

The sixth chapter addresses the issues of insulation and it's deterioration. It encompasses the problems of isolation materials, proposed methods of the isolation damage control and prevention of the internal short-circuit effects resulting from the isolation damage.

As Editors of this special issue we would like to express our thanks to IOS Press for giving us the opportunity to share the ISEF symposium with a wider community and to our many colleagues for their help, efficiency and valuable contribution to the reviewing process. At the end of these remarks let us, the Editors of the book, be allowed to express our thanks to our colleagues who have contributed to the book by peer-reviewing the papers at the conference as well as in the publishing process. We also convey our thanks to IOS Press Publisher for their effective collaboration in shaping this editorial enterprise. As ISEF conferences are organised biannually we do hope to keep our strong links with IOS Press in the future.

Ewa Napieralska-Juszczak, Chairman of the ISEF 2009, Organizing Committee

Sławomir Wiak, Chairman of the ISEF Symposium