The Washington Accord is an international accreditation agreement for professional engineering academic degrees, between the bodies responsible for accreditation in its signatory countries. Established in 1989, the signatories as of 2007 are Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The agreement recognizes that there is substantial equivalency of programs accredited by those signatories. Graduates of accredited programs in any of the signatory countries are recognized by the other signatory countries as having met the academic requirements for entry to the practice of engineering. It is important to note that recognition of accredited programs is not retroactive but takes effect only from the date of admission of the country to signatory status.
Waveguide
A waveguide is a structure which guides waves, such as electromagnetic waves or sound waves. There are different types of waveguide for each type of wave. Waveguides differ in their geometry which can confine light in one dimension such as in slab waveguides or two dimensions as in fiber or channel waveguides.
Wear
In materials science, wear is the erosion of material from a solid surface by the action of another surface. It is related to surface interactions and more specifically the removal of material from a surface as a result of mechanical action. The need for mechanical action, in the form of contact due to relative motion, is an important distinction between mechanical wear and other processes with similar outcomes.
The definition of wear does not include loss of dimension from plastic deformation, although wear has occurred despite no material removal. This definition also fails to include impact wear, where there is no sliding motion, cavitation, where the counterbody is a fluid, and corrosion, where the damage is due to chemical rather than mechanical action.
Wear can also be defined as a process in which interaction of the surfaces or bounding faces of a solid with its working environment results in dimensional loss of the solid, with or without loss of material. Aspects of the working environment which affect wear include loads (such as unidirectional sliding, reciprocating, rolling, and impact loads), speed, temperature, type of counterbody (solid, liquid, or gas), and type of contact (single phase or multiphase, in which the phases involved can be liquid plus solid particles plus gas bubbles).
Wind engineering
Wind engineering is a field of structural engineering devoted to the analysis of wind effects on the natural or built environment to protect it from possible damage. It includes strong winds which may cause discomfort as well as extreme winds such as tornadoes, hurricanes and storms which may cause widespread destruction.
Wind engineering draws upon meteorology, aerodynamics, Geographic Information System, Wind energy, Air Pollution and a number of specialist engineering disciplines. The tools used include climate models, atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnels and numerical models. It involves, among other topics, how wind impacting buildings must be accounted for in engineering.
Wind engineering may be considered closely related to earthquake engineering and explosion protection.
