NAT L INST. OF STAND & TECH

AlllDti Dfi27m

NJST

PUBLICATIONS

BUILDING & FIRE RESEARCH LABORATORY

2 a a a o 1

QC

100

.U57

Nisr

National Institute of

Standards and Technology

Technology Administration,

U.S. Department of Commerce

2002 e.O.
CONTENTS

BFRL at a Glance ... 1

Director's Message ... 3

BFRL Accomplishments ... 4

I^^l^ Advanced Construction Technology ...4

CONSIAT: Construction Integration and Automation Technology .... ...4

... 7

^^^^1 High Performance Building Materials . . 10

Service Life Prediction of High Performance Polymeric Construction.

.

. . 10 HYPERCON Partnership for High Performance Concrete Technology .

.

. . 14

j iSbal 'S:] Enhanced Building Performance . . 18

Healthy and Sustainable Buildings . . 18

Cybernetic Building Systems . . 21

. . 25

. . 26

. . 26

. . 30 Advanced Measurement and Predictive Methods

for Reducing Fire Losses ..33

Standards Activities . . 38

. .48

. . 50

. . 57

More about BFRL . . 60
BFRL AT A GLANCE

BFRL MISSION

Meet the measurement and standards

needs of the building and fire safety

communities.

BFRL VISION

The source of critical tools - metrics,

models, and knowledge - used to modernize the building and fire safety communities. Our programs are identified,

developed, carried out, the results

implemented, and consequences measured in partnership with key customer

organizations.

BFRL GOALS

The building and fire communities

(builders, suppliers, owners and fire

safety professionals) strive to increase

productivity, construct better buildings,

faster, at lower cost, own buildings that

are fire safe, less costly to operate, and

have less impact on the environment. To

meet the needs of these communities

BFRL is focussing on four goals.

Advanced Construction

Technology: to enable technologybased innovation to modernize and

assure safety of construction. The strategy to meet this goal includes process

innovation addressing construction integration and automation, and product

innovation addressing construction systems and safety.

High Performance Building

Materials: to provide the means for

evaluating and predicting the performance of next generation building materials. The strategy to meet this goal is

to develop and apply metrics for service

life and performance prediction and

establish science-based tests and data

resources.

Enhanced Building

Performance: to provide the means

to assure buildings work (better)

throughout their useful lives. The strategy

for meeting this goal is to provide

knowledge, measurements and tools to

optimize building life cycle performance.

Fire Loss Reduction: to enable

engineered fire safety for people, products, facilities and enhanced firefighter

effectiveness. The strategy to meet this

goal is to reduce the hsk of flashover

in buildings, to advance fire safety technologies, to make advanced measurements and develop predictive methods.

BFRL RESOURCES

150 full time staff (126 professional)

with expertise in:

measurement,

material and system performance,

mathematical modeling,

non-destructive testing, and

diagnostics

$31 million annual budget

Unique facilities including:

Integrating Sphere UV exposure

chamber

Electron microscope

Tri-directional test facility

12 million pound test machine

Solar tracker

Large scale fire test facility

Environmental chambers

BFRL WEB SITE

www.bfrl.nist.gov

1

Directors message

BUILDING &

FIRE RESEARCH

LABDRATDRY

Activities,

Accomplishments &

Recognitions

This is the first report of the

NIST Building and Fire Research

Laboratory (BFRL) in the new century.

It reflects major changes that we are

nnaking to serve our customers and

stakeholders better. We serve those

who design and build facilities and the

many products of which they are constructed; those who own, occupy operate and maintain them; and those who

oversee them for fire, life safety and

hsk management. The changes we are

making include sharpening our vision

and mission, narrowing our program on

four specific goals, and strengthening

our resources to address these stretch

goals. We are in the process of working

with customers and stakeholders to

develop strategies and roadmaps for

achieving each of them. The work

described herein reflects our progress in

this effort. This report presents the

impacts, accomplishments, recognition

and activities of our staff over the two

previous years, and a view of where we

are heading.

These are challenging times. The

attacks of September 1 1

, 200 1

, on the

World Trade Center and the Pentagon

have had a great impact on the Nation

and the economy and also on the entire

BFRL staff. We responded by redirecting

$2 million to a number of projects aimed

at deriving lessons learned from the

attacks, and providing the knowledge,

tools and data that building owners,

designers, fire and emergency responders, and occupants need to operate

more effectively and safely in the future. We are providing leadership in the

development of a broader public-private

response effort as well.

This is a time of great change for the

building and fire safety communities.

Owners want facilities that are delivered

faster and at less cost, perform better

over their life cycles, positively influence

the productivity of those who occupy

them, and are sustainable. Additional

"drivers" include globalization; rapid

advances in information, sensing, simulation and automation technologies;

and increasing pressures for resource

and environmental management.

In all we do, we seek to understand

these changing needs of those we

serve, and focus our efforts to achieve

best value for the public investment we

are entrusted to manage. Our four

goals address advancing construction

technology opening the way for high

performance building materials,

enabling enhanced building life cycle

performance, and reducing vulnerability

to and losses from fire and other disasters. In each of them, we are partnering

with private and public sector bodies to

assure that what we do achieves the

intended consequences in a timely and

cost-effective manner. We recognize that BFRL is but one of

a number of players involved in advancing the performance, productivity and

cost-effectiveness of built facilities. Our

primary focus is on measurement and

prediction. Increasingly, we see ourselves as a node in a larger network of

organizations dedicated to better, more

efficient, safer and less costly facilities. We are constantly looking for opportunities to extend our impact through

partnerships and collaborations, and

encourage your thoughts and suggestions on how, working together, we

may be an even greater influence for

beneficial change and growth.

BFRL is a closely-knit community of

extraordinarily talented and dedicated

public servants. I hope that after reading this report you will be motivated to

develop even closer relationships with

this outstanding collection of people.

We love what we do and having the

opportunity to be of service to you.

I urge you to visit our web site

(www.bfrl.nist.gov) and look forward

to hearing from you.

CONTACT: DR. JACK E SNELL DIRECTOR, BUILDING AND

FIRE RESEARCH LABORATORY

(301) 975-5850 jack.snell@nist.gov

3
;OAL 1 BFRL ACTIVITIES, ACCOMPLISHMENTS & RECOGNITIONS

ADVANCED

CONSTRUCTION

TECHNOLOGY

To enable technology-based innovation to modernize and assure

safety ofconstruction.

The strategy to meet this

goal includes process and

product innovation.

Thefirst element, process

innovation, addresses construction integration and

automation (CONSLAT).

Construction Integration

and Automation

Technology (CONSIAT)

INTENDED OUTCOME AND BACKGROUND

The intended outcome of CONSIAT is

to achieve breal<through cycle time

and lifecycle cost reductions in the

delivery of construction projects by

providing, within five years, the critical science-based performance measurement tools that will enable early

industry integration and automation

of the construction process. The Construction Industry Institute

(Cll) - an organization with about 100

members representing the Nation's

leading owners, contractors, and suppliers of constructed facilities - has

made the development of Fully

Integrated and Automated Project

Processes, FIAPP, a top priority.

However, the construction industry

faces special challenges including low

R&D investment, the fragmentation of

the industry, and the strong projectoriented nature of its processes.

The construction industry has

already achieved reductions of 20 percent or more in project delivery time,

costs, and worker injuries through

implementation of best practices over

the past decade, but the industry is

dedicated to doubling these gains.

Achieving FIAPP requires moving

beyond best-practices to considering

breakthrough process and product

innovations.

The CONSIAT program will produce

the critical science-based performance

measurement tools to enable: integration of construction site metrology

data and other field information into

project information management systems; delivery of just-in-time information to guide field operations; and

automation of the construction

process.

Cll, with the support of NIST, has

created FIATECH, a collaborative, notfor-profit consortium that will conduct

leveraged research and development

in partnership with suppliers, with

firms in the software/information

technology industries, and with the

public sector. NIST is working in close

partnership with the FIATECH

Consortium to maximize the relevancy

of the projects and the leveraging of

resources on both sides, and to minimize the time to implementation of

the program results. NIST is also participating in the FIATECH-led Capital

Projects Technology Roadmapping

effort. The resulting industry roadmap

will help guide the CONSIAT program.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

LADAR-scanned Long-Range

Bar Codes Developed

One potential breakthrough technology that stands to revolutionize construction surveying and status

monitoring is known as laser range

imaging. The device used to obtain the

field data is known as a LADAR (Laser

Distance and Ranging). With LADAR it is

possible to rapidly capture true 3D data

for an entire construction scene.

Essentially, the LADAR acquires hundreds of thousands to millions of survey

"shots" - creating a point cloud - that

covers a field of view from the sensor

location. In the land surveying and

stake-out business, such point clouds

could be considered as instantaneous

"stake-outs" with a degree of precision

Photo 10 m 20 m 40 tn

Actual Intsnstty Plot

10 m 20 m 40 m

Intensity plots of retroreflective bar codes.
and speed that lends itself both to webbased volume take out deternnination

and billing and, even more powerfully,

enables the automation of the machines

that move the dirt. In the case of constructed facilities, such data could be

further processed to create accurate 3D

surface models from which the positions

and orientations of individual parts

could be deduced automatically to high

accuracy through object recognition

thus producing automatic "as-built"

models of the facility In short, LADARs

will likely pave the way for improved

survey accuracy and speed, will make

possible automated construction status

assessment and will enable the first

instances of truly automated construction processes.

Object recognition is one of several

key tools necessary for widespread

implementation of LADARs. Various

methods of object recognition exist, but

they require intensive manual intervention and are limited in scope.

Furthermore, because point cloud data

carry no intelligence, current object

recognition algorithms - which aim to

extract knowledge of manufactured

components within a scene of several

million data points - must operate on

an entire data set. From the viewpoint

of dramatically enhancing this process,

it would be most advantageous if those

components could, at the very least,

indicate their ID number and approximate location within the point cloud. To

that end, a hybrid LADAR is needed—

a

LADAR that can simultaneously acquire

"intelligent" information about an

object in addition to existing generic

spatial position. The combined information from this type of sensor would be a

major step towards automatic object

identification, or auto-ID.

Efforts in FY01 at NIST were focused

on using the intensity information that

is currently obtained by the LADAR to

read "macro" bar codes. The effects of

distance and angle of incidence of the

laser on the intensity value were examined. The investigation included the

maximum distance at which the bar

codes were readable, the determination

of maximum bar size and bar spacing at

100 m, and the investigation of image

processing techniques. The work in

FY01 has already produced the ability to

read 1 byte of data at 40 m using purely passive macro bar codes fabricated

from retroreflective material. A 1 byte

barcode measures 572 mm using current technology. Because the system is

passive, it has the capability of 24/7

auto-ID without the use of any auxiliary

power requirements.

Planned work will further investigate

the effect of the angle of incidence on

the intensity value, establish target symbology for construction sites, and automated extraction of bar codes in a

scene.

CONTACT: DR. WILLIAM STONE STRUCTURES DIVISION

(301) 975-6075 wiinam.stone@nist.gov

Use of Standard Interface

Protocols to Transfer Data to

and from Construction Site

Demonstrated

Ms. Karen Furlani, along with

colleagues Mr DeWitt Latimer,

Dr. Kent Reed, Mr Robert Lipman and

Mr Andreas Besier, and Dr. Dave Gilsinn

of NIST's Information Technology

Laboratory demonstrated the use of

standard interface protocols for the

transfer of real-time metrology and

metrology-based data to and from a

construction site. The demonstration

involved tracking the final location of

structural steel members at the Emission

Control System addition to the Large

Fire Laboratory on the NIST,

Gaithersburg campus.

The steel-tracking, field-data collection system, called Comp-TRAK, operates via an interactive web interface

running on a belt-wearable computer

The system integrates field sensors, for

real-time data collection of part identification and 3-D coordinate measurements, and a wireless data link for communications, with a remote server hosting a Part Locator Service (PLS) and

Project Information Management

System (PIMS). A user in the field scans

a bar code attached to a steel member

for the part ID. The ID is used as a key

to retrieve part information from the

PIMS, including a 3D Virtual Reality

Markup Language (VRML) model of the

scanned member with fiducial point
ADVANCED

CDNSTRUCTIDN

TECHNDLDGY

locations marked to guide a user

througin the collection 3-D coordinate

data for at least three fiducial points. A

field-agent module transforms the coordinate data to a global site frame based

on the set-up calibration of the field

measurement system and sends the

data to the PLS. The PLS returns the

location of the member computed from

the transformed coordinate data and

the known fiducial-point characteristics.

The field-agent module can then register the part location with the PIMS and

either end the session or track a new

steel part. The part information in the

^1 PIMS, including the VRML models, and

the functionality of the PLS are consistent With the CIMsteel Integration

Standards Release 2 recently endorsed

^1 by the American Institute of Steel

Construction for representing information about structural steelwork. (See the

related article on Electronic Data

Interchange for Steel Construction.)

The successful implementation and

integration of the Comp-TRAK, PLS and

PIMS systems demonstrate the feasibility

of automatically transferring information

in real-time from the construction site to

project management databases and

associated applications, specifically for

the identification and tracking of structural steel subsystems.

CONTACT: MR. ALAN LYTLE STRUCTURES DIVISION

(301) 975-6048 ^^^H alan.lytle@nist.gov

^1

Electronic Data Interchange

for Steel Construction

Mr. Robert Lipman and Dr Kent

A. Reed have been working to

support the American Institute for Steel

Construction (AISC) Electronic Data

Interchange Initiative. The purpose of

the initiative is to create a means for

collaboration and data sharing among

the various parties involved in steel construction. Dr. Reed participated in the

AISC task force whose final recommendation to endorse Version 2.0 of the

CIMsteel Integration Standards (CIS/2) was adopted by the AISC Board of

Directors. These product data standards

were developed in Europe and the U.K.

primarily to support steel design, analysis, detailing, and fabrication activities.

This year, Dr Reed assessed the capability of the CIS/2 product data model to

support construction site activities. He

has authored a report summarizing this

assessment and making recommendations for enhancements to the standards. This work shows that using

CIS/2-conforming translators in project

information management systems

would enable erectors and construction

managers to reuse information already

becoming available in electronic form

from the software used by designers

and fabricators. This reuse would eliminate the current laborious, time-consuming, and error-prone manual task of

extracting information from drawings

and schedules for reentry into electronic

form.

Mr Lipman has been participating in

the AlSC-facilitated technical workshops

and CIS/2 translator implementation

activities. His technical work culminated

this year in the creation of the CIS/2

Visual Interoperability Testbed. This Web-based service translates a CIS/2 file

of a steel structure into a 3D interactive

model in the form of a VRML (Virtual

Reality Modeling Language) file. Users

can visualize CIS/2 files and make them

available on the web and software

developers can verify their CIS/2 export

capabilities. Commercial software vendors immediately began using this service as they developed and tested their

translators.

CONTACTS: DR. KENT A. REED

BUILDING ENVIRONMENT DIVISION

(301) 975-5852 kent.reed@nist.gov

MR. ROBERT LIPMAN

BUILDING ENVIRONMENT DIVISION

(301) 975-3829 robert.tipman@nist.gov

6
The second strategic elementfor

achieving the advanced construction goal ofenabling technologybased innovation to modernize

and assure safety ofconstruction

deals with product innovation.

Construction Systems

and Safety (CONSAFE)

INTENDED OUTCOME AND BACKGROUND

The intended outcome of CONSAFE is

to achieve life-cycle cost reductions

and enhanced public safety for new

and existing construction by providing, within five years, the critical science based performance measurement

tools that will enable early industry

adoption of innovative constructed

systems with assured safety and performance.

There are large, unmet industry and

public safety needs in construction.

Among the highest priority goals identified by the U.S. Industry are the need

for construction cycle-time reductions

in the delivery of constructed facilities,

life-cycle cost reductions in the maintenance and repair of such facilities,

and increases in facility durability and

flexibility to meet economic and sustainability objectives.

In addition, there is a critical need to

reduce the debilitating impact of

extreme (natural and man-made)

events to the U.S. economy and the

public-at-large. Total property losses

from recent disasters - including earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, and fires - exceed $22 billion per

year. CONSAFE will be conducted in two

major thrusts. The first will develop

measurement-based predictive models

and performance criteria for innovative constructed systems. This work

encompasses the current priority topics listed below:

curing of high-performance concrete

to ensure strength and durability;

mitigating explosive spalling of highperformance concrete exposed to fire;

structures with passive and semiactive structural control devices;

strength, ductility and fire performance of Fiber Reinforced Polymer

(FRP)-reinforced structures;

NDE methods to assess condition of

FRP-reinforced structures; and

innovative structural connections to automate construction.

The second thrust will develop

measurement- and reliability-based

simulation models to predict structural

performance under extreme loads. The current priority topics Include:

extreme wind loads and effects on

structures accounting for space-time

variation, directionality and topography;

fire performance of concrete, steel and FRP composite structures;

optimal performance of structures

with control systems under earthquake and wind loads; and

progressive structural collapse under

multiple threat scenarios.

NIST will conduct post-disaster and

construction failure investigations of

selected events to document facility

performance, examine the adequacy

of current standards and practices, and

identify research needs to mitigate the

impacts of future disasters/failures

through improved standards and

practices.

ACCDMPLISHMENTS

Next Generation Standards for

Wind Loads

Electronic provisions for wind loads

entail the use of large aerodynamic

and climatological databases and can

result in structures that are considerably

safer and more economical than structures designed by using conventional

provisions. Originally proposed by NIST,

their use is accepted by the current ASCE 7 Standard. Software for calculating peak effects from aerodynamic

databases is complete and operational.

The methodology used to develop the

software, and typical results, were

presented in a paper given at the 3rd

European Conference on Wind

Engineering in July, 2001 . Software for

including effects of wind directionality

has also been completed. In preparation
ADVANCED

CDNSTRUCTIDN

TECHNDLDGY

for the development of a reliabilitybased module for the assessment of

building safety under wind loads, a

paper is being prepared on sampling

errors in the estimation of peaks in 20

min. to 1 hour records obtained from

wind tunnel pressure measurements.

Preparatory work for extension of database-assisted design to dynamically sensitive structures was performed. Data to

be used in this extension have been

selected from a menu offered, within

the framework of a joint project, by the

University of Western Ontario.

CONTACT: DR. EMIL SIMIU STRUCTURES DIVISION

(301) 975-6076 emit.simiu@ni5t.gov

Seismic Performance of

Buildings with Hybrid Control

Large earthquakes routinely result in

structural damage, casualties, significant economic losses, and disruptions in critical life-supporting facilities.

Such consequences can be reduced

through the use of innovative systems

that assure safety and performance.

Installation of control devices, such as

seismic isolation and energy dissipators,

in numerous buildings throughout the

world has proven that they enhance

structural performance, allowing the

structure to survive extreme loading and

assuring the safety of the buildings'

occupants. Even when properly

designed, there are limitations to how

well isolated and controlled structures

perform. Some of these limitations may

be overcome by using hybrid control

systems, which combine passive or

semi-active energy dissipators with isolation systems; however, the use of semiactive devices for this purpose requires

additional studies to fully understand

their performance.

Dr. Fahim Sadek, research associate,

and Dr. Michael A. Riley research structural engineer, are developing analytical

models and control algorithms for predicting the response of buildings with

hybrid control systems. This study

which is a joint effort of NIST, Southern

Methodist University (SMU), and the

Polytechnic School of Tunisia, has developed an innovative approach to controlling hysteretic structures using stochastic

linearization and static output feedback.

Recent results were published at the

Society for Experimental Mechanics,

Conference on Structural Dynamics in

the paper "Stochastic Linearization for

Control of Hysteretic Structures Using

H-x Algorithm," by M. Ben Ftima, F.

Sadek, S. El-Borgi, and M. Riley This

publication describes the analytical

models and control algorithms that

were developed for nonlinear structures. A series of Matlab and Simulinkbased programs has been developed to

simulate the performance and response

of structural systems with nonlinear

behavior, and controlled with passive,

active, or semi-active control devices.

These programs can model various

semi-active and passive devices including variable viscous dampers, magnetorheological dampers and a vahety of

isolation devices. The programs use a

variety of algorithms, including Hoc, linear quadratic regulator and sliding

mode control to regulate the control

devices. The programs are being used in

numerical studies in which the performance of various combinations of structures, devices and algorithms is being

compared. This study will determine

which systems are cost-effective and

what classes of algorithms best improve

the performance of controlled structures. The study will also identify the

types of buildings that will benefit the

most from using hybhd systems. The

final result of this effort will be design

guides and simulation tools to assist

practitioners who are designing buildings that are protected with hybrid

systems.

CONTACTS: DR. FAHIM SADEK

STRUCTURES DIVISION

(301) 975-4420 fahim.sadek@nist.gov

DR. MICHAEL RILEY STRUCTURES DIVISION

(301) 975-6065 michael.riley@nist.gov
Strength, Ductility and Fire

Performance of FRP-reinforced

Structures

Much of the U.S. infrastructure is

in need of repair or replacement as a result of damage caused by

heavy use and exposure to the environment. Additionally some of the nation's

infrastructure facilities are in need of

retrofit to either increase their capacity

or to improve their seismic performance.

The use of fiber-reinforced polymer

(FRP) composites is emerging as an economical solution to the repair and retrofit of reinforced concrete structures,

BFRL's current efforts focus on the use

of FRP in strengthening concrete

masonry walls, one of the most com- mon forms of construction in the U.S.

This strengthening takes the form of

thin glass fiber rods, epoxied into groves

cut in the mortar joints or the concrete

blocks, and can be applied to existing

(as opposed to new) construction. These

Bond strength test of glass fiber rods epoxied in mortar joints of concrete bloclcs.

near-surface mounted rods cause mini- mum change in the appearance of the

walls, yet they provide significant

improvement in strength and deformation capacity Research in 2001 concentrated on bond and anchorage of the

rods to mortar or concrete, and

strengthening against out-of-plane

bending, as encountered under wind,

blast or seismic loads. With proper

bonding, the rods could develop their

full tensile strength, and walls that normally could not withstand their own

weight when placed sideways, could

resist several times their weight before

the rods ruptured.

CONTACT: DR. DAT DUTHINH

STRUCTURES DIVISION

(301) 975-4357 dduthinh@nist.gov

Quantitative NDE of FRP

Using Infrared Thermography

Nondestructive evaluation (NDE)

techniques are required to

ensure desired performance of FRP

materials when used to repair or retrofit

concrete and masonry structures.

Nondestructive testing of thin laminated

FRP bonded to concrete presents, however, a variety of difficulties due to

material characteristics such as

anisotropy non-magnetic properties and

high ultrasonic attenuation. Infrared

thermography has been identified as a

promising method for meeting this measurement need.

Infrared (IR) thermography remains a

recent inspection method that needs

Ms. Monica Starnes using an infrared camera to

assess the condition of FRP laminates bonded to

concrete.

further development to allow its standardization and widespread use for

assessment of the condition of bonded

FRP laminates. Ms. Monica Starnes and

Dr. Nicholas J. Carino of the Structures

Division are developing the technical

basis required for a standard methodology for testing of FRP strengthened

structures using IR thermography The

researchers used finite-element modeling to investigate the effects of various

variables on the thermal response of

simulated defects in FRP laminates

applied to a concrete substrate. The

studies focused on establishing the

potential for quantitative infrared ther- mography that is, not only detecting a

flaw but also being able to describe its

physical characteristics. Controlled-flaw

experiments are being conducted to verify the finite-element predictions.

CONTACT: MS MONICA STARNES STRUCTURES DIVISION

(301) 975-5286 monica.starnes@nist.go\/
HIGH PERFORMANCE

BUILDING MATERIALS

BFRL ACTIVITIES, ACCOMPLISHMENTS & RECOGNITIDNE

To provide the meansfor evaluating andpredicting the performance

ofnext generation building products.

The goal ofHigh Performance

Building Materials is to provide

the meansfor evaluating and

predicting the performance of

next generation buildingproducts. The strategy to meet this

goal is to develop and apply metrics for service life andperformance prediction and establish

science-based tests and data

resources.

Thefirstfocus ofHigh Performance Building Materials is to

develop scientific methodsfor

measuring andpredicting the

service life ofpolymeric building

materials. Accurate and accelerated methodsfor predicting the

service life is an enabling technology to significantly reduce the

time to marketfor newproducts.

Service Life Prediction

of High Performance

Polymeric Construction

INTENDED OUTCOME AND BACKGROUND

The intended outcome of the program on service life prediction of high per- formance polymeric construction is to

improve the reliability and reduce the

time-to-market for new products. The

focus is on development and implementation of advanced methods and

metrologies for quantitatively and reliably predicting the service life of existing and new products. This is accomplished by partnering with industry

and other federal agencies in developing and implementing use-inspired scientific and technical advances in

methodologies and metrologies for

improving and advancing the appearance, service life and structural performance of polymeric construction

materials.

Currently, time-to-market for many

construction materials is controlled by

the time required to generate a performance history for a product.

Performance histories are established

through a series of time-consuming

field and laboratory exposure studies.

typically taking between 5 and 15

years to complete. For U.S. construction companies to remain competitive,

time-to-market, and hence, the time to

generate these durability performance

histories, must be reduced to months

instead of years. The methodology

that is being used to accomplish this

target is called reliability theory and

life testing analysis, which has proved

successful in other industries. The reliability-based methodology

is being applied in five different,

but highly overlapping, project areas

including: appearance (the primary measure of durability for a coating

system), coatings and pigments, composites, polymeric interphases and

sealants. In all five areas, BFRL has

strong interactions with industry and

other NIST laboratories. Industry

interactions include three on-going,

or soon to be established, consortia

involving approximately 20 Cooperative Research and Development

Agreements (CRDA's) with the strong

expectation that a fourth consortium

(on advanced appearance metrologies

as they relate to service life measurements) will be begun within FY02.

10

I
Mr. Ned Embree and Mr. Roy McLane install the

first temperature/humidity environmental chamber

into a BFRL-developed

integrating sphere making

it possible to control the temperature and humidity, as well as the spectral

ultraviolet flux to which

polymeric construction specimens are subjected.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Reliability Approach to

Prediction of the Service Life

of Coatings

Over many decades, there have

been repeated efforts to find a way of making reliable predictions of

the outdoor performance of organic

coating systems from the results of laboratory tests. The objective of this multiyear project led by Drs. Jonathon W.

Martin, Jonnie Chin and Tinh Nguyen is

to use a reliability-based methodology

to link laboratory and field test results,

as has been done successfully in the

electronics and aerospace industries and

in the medical field. The laboratory

experiments are designed to cover

the range of exposure conditions and

degradation factors that coating products will be exposed to in service, and

outdoor exposures are characterized in

exactly the same manner. In this phase

of the project, the feasibility of applying

reliability theory to link outdoor performance and laboratory tests is being

demonstrated for an epoxy coating.

Since sample surfaces must be smooth

and free from defects to allow use of

sensitive techniques such as gloss and

atomic force microscopy (AFM)

measurements, a successful effort has

been made to develop a procedure for

producing smooth, defect-free films of

different thicknesses. With the films

produced, measurements have been

made of water vapor sorption isotherms

at 30° C to provide data needed for the

next phase in which the carefully-characterized coatings will be exposed to

precisely-known levels of the degradation factors (temperature, relative

humidity, and UV light) for known periods of time, and precise measurements

will be made of the damage done.

The data obtained will then be used in

models to: a) describe changes of outdoor exposure with time and location,

b) quantitatively describe degradation

processes, c) relate physical changes in

the material to chemical changes, and

d) relate degradation in outdoor exposures to that in laboratory tests.

CONTACT: DR. TINH NGUYEN

BUILDING MATERIALS DIVISION

(301 ) 975-6718 tinh.nguyen@nist.gov
HIGH PERFORMANCE

BUILDING MATERIALS

Characterization

of Polymer Surfaces

The objectives of this project, led

by Dr. Mark VanLandingham, are

to develop measurement techniques for

evaluating surface mechanical properties

of polymeric materials as a function of

time and loading rate, to relate material

properties to deformation behavior

under complex stress states, and to

assess the impact of surface deformation on appearance. The project is a

contribution to a government-industry

consortium led jointly by BFRL, the NIST

Materials Science and Engineering

Laboratory and the NIST Chemical

Science and Technology Laboratory.

Preliminary results have shown the feasibility of mechanical property measurements on polymenc materials using

depth-sensing indentation using nanoindentation; they have also shown, for

the first time, that a clear relationship

exists between material microstructure

and appearance. It is expected that this

project will lead to the establishment of

relationships among mar resistance,

appearance, and service life.

CONTACT: DR. MARK VANLANDINGHAM

BUILDING MATERIALS DIVISION

(301 ) 975-4686 mark.vanlandingham@nist.gov

Service Life Predictions

for Building Joint Sealants

Buildings rely heavily on joint

sealant materials to provide waterproofing and moisture barrier protection. This project, led by Dr. Christopher

White, recognizes that in a recent annual survey of homeowners the secondmost-cited complaint was water leaking

into their homes and, from other studies, it is known that building joint

sealants carrying warranties for 30 years

or more frequently fail at much shorter

times. In spite of the importance of joint

sealants in the performance of building

envelopes, quantitative information on

factors affecting their service lives is not

available. The objective of the project is

to meet this need for information by

developing methods for predicting the

service lives of building joint sealants

and by suggesting how the information

should be made available to those who

need it. An instrument to mechanically

cycle joint sealant specimens at pro- grammed rates and amplitudes, and

monitor their performance under controlled environmental conditions has

been constructed. Equipment for automated analysis of chemical changes in

the joint sealants has been assembled,

and will be used in a government-industry consortium that will become operational in November 2001.

CONTACT: DR. CHRISTOPHER WHITE

BUILDING MATERIALS DIVISION

(301) 975-6016 christopher.white@nist.gov

Dr. Christopher White and Ms. IVIona Baghai Anaral<i, a student, are working on the high-throughput analysis

device for characterizing optical, chemical and physical degradation changes in polymeric construction materials. At present, the device can automatically make 9 analytical measurements on each of 70 specimens in one

hour. This data is then automatically and electronically downloaded to an informatics system for further

analysis.
Measurement Science for

Optical Reflectance and

Scattering

This 5-year competence project, led

by Dr. Mary McKnight, is a cooperative effort involving the Physics

Laboratory, Manufacturing Engineering

Laboratory, Infornnation Technology

Laboratory and the Building and Fire

Research Laboratory The primary objectives are: a) to develop and validate

mathematical models to predict optical

scattering from morphology and

microstructure coating data, and b) to

produce a computer rendering of the

appearance of a coated product for two

model coating systems. These objectives

have been successfully completed. The

model systems were specimens of a

clear epoxy coating with varying surface

roughnesses and a metallic-pigmented

coating system with either varying orientations of the flakes or varying flake

sizes. New competencies were developed in characterizing the morphology

and microstructure of coatings using

confocal and scanning white-light interference microscopies, in determining the

directional reflectance properties of

materials, and in computer rendering.

CONTACT: DR. LI PIIN SUNG

j BUILDING MATERIALS DIVISION

(301)-975-6737

li-piin.sung@nist.gov

2D projection of a 3D confocal image in which the Vases rendered with two different metallic-flalce distance from the bottom surface is mapped in pigmented coatings. The vase on the left is coated

color The flakes closest to the surface are red. with a material having larger flakes than the one

on the right and appears more specular, consistent with reflectance measurements.

Dr. Li Piin Sung

using confocal microscope to

characterize microstructure of a metallic

flake pigmented

coating.
HIGH PERFORMANCE

BUILDING MATERIALS

The secondfocus for achieving

the goal ofHigh Performance

Building Materials is to enable

the reliable application ofhighperformance concrete (HPC) in

buildings and the civil infrastructure. HPC refers to any

concrete that has desirable performance attributes that cannot

be met routinely with traditional materials and traditionalprocessing. Examples are more

durable, stronger, tougher, and

more-easily-placed concrete.

Barriers to full use ofHPC

include inadequate understanding ofperformance attributes, a

lack oftest methodsfor evaluating performance, a lack of

guidelines for practice, and inefficient dissemination ofknowledge to potential users.

Partnership for High

Performance Concrete

Technology (HYPERCON)

INTENDED OUTCOME AND BACKGROUND

To enable the reliable application, by

2005, of high-performance concrete

(HPC) in buildings and the civil infrastructure, HYPERCON, a computer-integrated knowledge system, will be

developed, and demonstrated in partnership with industry. HYPERCON will

incorporate verified multi-attribute

models for prediction and optimization of the performance, life-cycle

cost, and life-cycle environmental

impact of HPC.

Recognition of the advances In

concrete technology has led to com- mon use of the term "high-performance concrete" to refer to any concrete

that has desirable performance attributes that cannot be met routinely

with traditional materials and traditional processing. The national HighPerformance Concrete plan produced

under BFRL leadership and published

by the Civil Engineering Research

Foundation (CERF) in 1993 drew attention to opportunities for development

of more durable, stronger, tougher,

and more-easily-placed concretes, and

for an integrated knowledge system

to deliver the technology to practice.

High-performance concrete (HPC) technology has a potential for contributing

to a 20-25% expansion of the

$100B/year U.S. concrete construction

market. A white paper, developed in

partnership with industry, stimulated

the American Concrete Institute (AC!)

to form the Strategic Development

Council (SDC) in 1997 with the goal of

encouraging formation of consortia to advance concrete technology. The

growth of the SDC, to where it now

has about 50 active members, attests

to the industry's commitment to the

advancement of HPC technology.

The HYPERCON program focuses

on advancing concrete technology by

developing and fostering application

of performance measurements and

science-based predictive tools for

optimizing production of reliable

high-performance concrete and making

the knowledge gained available in

an effective way. The program is

comprised of seven technical themes:

Development of a ComputerIntegrated Knowledge System (CIKS);

Processing of HPC, (a) Mixing and

Flow, (b) Curing Characterization of

Concrete and Concrete Materials;

Simulation of the Performance and

Service Life of HPC;

Fire Performance of High-Strength

HPC (HSC);

Structural Performance of HPC; and

Economics and Environmental Impact

of HPC.

14
ACCDMPLISHMENTS

Fire Performance of

High-Strength Concrete

"\'A7"7hile, at normal temperatures,

VV high-strength concrete (HSC)

possesses superior engineering properties compared with conventional concretes, this is not true at temperatures

encountered in fires. Specifically, compared with conventional concrete, HSC

undergoes a larger relative strength loss

even at temperatures below 400°C and

is susceptible to explosive spalling at

temperatures less than 300°C. To provide data to help assess risks to HSC in

a fire, Dr Long Phan is conducting a

comprehensive research program that

has provided new insights into the heatinduced transformations that occur in

fire-exposed HSC. It has made possible

quantification of the effects of temperature, test method, and mixture composition on strength degradation and the

tendency for explosive spalling. A new

strength-temperature relationship for HSC has been developed that will be

proposed for standardization. The program is also examining methods to

eliminate explosive spalling.

Measurements of internal pressure during heating have permitted, for the first

time, quantitative assessment of the

effectiveness of short, random

polypropylene fibers in mitigating the

build-up of internal pressure of water

vapor that is believed to cause explosive

spalling. The data are being used in the

modification and validation of material

models, such as the existing Portland

Cement Association heat-and-mass

transport model, for predicting the

behavior of HSC when exposed to fire.

CONTACT: DR. LONG PHAN

STRUCTURES DIVISION

(301) 975-6077 long.phan@nist.gov

Mr. Frank Davis and Dr. Long Phan examine a concrete specimen

tested at high

Computer simulation of flow of spherical aggregate between rebars.

Processing of HighPerformance Concrete:

Measurement of Flow

Properties

The rheological properties of fresh

concrete—its yield stress and plastic viscosity—are important factors in

determining suitability for use in each

application. In practice, because of the

lack of an adequate standard for measurement of the flow properties, these

properties are usually determined by the

standard "slump" test, which gives a

crude measure of the yield stress, but

no information about the plastic viscosity. To provide objective methods for

determining the flow properties of fresh

concrete, this project, led by Dr. Chiara

Ferraris, is developing a dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) model for mortar

and concrete, methods of measurement
HIGH PERFORMANCE

BUILDING MATERIALS

of the rheological properties of cement

paste and mortar, and guidelines for

optimizing the proportioning and processing of high-performance concrete.

The DPD model has been developed by

Dr. Nicos Martys. In addition, during the

year, a round robin intercompanson of

five existing types of concrete rheometers was carried out under the auspices

of the AC! Subcommittee 235A Fresh

Concrete Workability (that Dr. Ferraris

chairs) with financial support from ACI's

Concrete Research Council and industry.

The intercompanson was performed at

the Laboratoire Centrale des Ponts et

Chaussees in Nantes, France, in October

2000. Each of the five instruments gave

the same ranking for the concretes tested, but the absolute values were not

identical. A further step in the intercomparison will be earned out in the U.S. in 2002 and the DPD model will be

applied to simulating the flow in the

various rheometers to seek to account

for differences between results obtained

with the different instruments. This

study should lead to more widespread

use of concrete rheometers in the field,

thereby aiding the multi-attribute optimization of high-performance concretes.

CONTACT: DR. CHIARA FERRARIS BUILDING MATERIALS DIVISION

(301) 975-671 1 chaira.farraris@nist.gov

Virtual Cement and

Concrete Testing Laboratory

Optimization of concrete is a

labor-intensive, time-consuming,

and costly process because of the variability of the starting materials and the

current practice of basing concrete formulations on measurements of 28-day

strength. This project, led by Mr. Dale

Bentz, IS intended to develop a virtual

cement and concrete testing laboratory

(VCCTL) as a tool to reduce the number

of physical concrete tests needed in the

thousands of cement and concrete testing laboratories. Applications envisaged

include research and development, mixture proportioning and optimization,

and troubleshooting. Version 1 .0 of the

VCCTL software was installed on the

Internet following publication of a VCCTL user's guide. Numerous

researchers from around the world have

accessed and used the software during

the past year. A VCCTL Consortium was

established in January, 2001, with the

initial participants being six industrial

organizations and three NIST laboratories. Initial research topics of the consortium are: 1) enhancement of the

cement hydration model to predict pore

solution composition and incorporation

of the chemical reactions for slag and

limestone additions to portland cement,

2) prediction of the rheological properties of fresh concrete, including the

effects of air entrainment, and 3) prediction of the elastic moduli of cement

paste, mortar and concrete. Significant

progress has been made in each of

these three areas.

CONTACT: MR, DALE BENTZ

BUILDING MATERIALS DIVISION

(301) 975-5865 dale.bentz@nist.gov

CURING

adiabatic, isothennal, T-programmed

sealed, saturated, sealed/saturated

variable evaporation rate

CEMENT

psd phase distribution ctiemistry

AGGREGATES

gradation volume fraction saturation

X

VIRTUAL CEMENT

AND CONCRETE

TESTING

LABORATORY

(VCCTL)

PREDICTED PROPERTIES

degree of hydration chemical shhnkage

pore percolation concrete diffusivity (service life models)

set point strength deselopment

interracial transition zone slump (yieid stress, viscosil] elastic mxluli

MIXTURE PROPERTIES

w/c ratio fibers chemical admixtures

air content

MINERAL ADMIXTURES

psd, composition

silica fume, fly ash

slag, kaolin.limestone

A schematic diagram of how the Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory (VCCTL) works. The small boxes to the left represent the information from the well-characterized starting materials that are input to the VCCTL, and the broad arrow to the right represents the results of the various sophisticated computer

models that make up the core of the VCCTL.
Six views, from various rotation angles, of a real aggregate particle taken from an x-ray tomographic image (orange), and the same particle, re-creat- ed using spherical harmonic analysis (yellow). The

mathematical analysis correctly captures the real three-dimensional shape of the irregular aggre- gate particle.

Application of X-Ray

Tomography to Determine

Sizes and Shapes of Aggregate

Particles.

The rheological and mechanical

properties of concrete are determined by many factors including the

sizes and shapes of the aggregate particles. In the past, there have not been

precise methods for determining these

characteristics of aggregates. Now, Dr.

Edward Garboczi has shown how to

analyze data obtained by X-ray tomography using a spherical harmonic mathematical approach to obtain the desired

information on the sizes and shapes.

The tomographic data was provided by

the Federal Highway Administration

(FHWA) in a collaborative effort. The new mathematical analysis technique

should eventually make possible the

selection of aggregates of the optimal

size and shape distributions for a given

application in high-performance concrete by investigating the effects of

incorporating mathematically characterized real aggregates in various concrete

models. The data from this study will be

used with the dissipative particle

dynamics (DPD) model to predict concrete flow properties. It will also be used

to predict properties of hardened concrete and will be incorporated in the

VCCTL software mentioned above.

CONTACT: DR. EDWARD GARBOCZI

BUILDING MATERIALS DIVISION

(30 1 ) 975-6708 edw3rd.garboczi@ni5t.gov

Economics of HighPerformance Concrete

Higher strength and higher durability concrete mixes, when compared with conventional mixes, have the

potential to reduce significantly the first

costs and maintenance costs of large

infrastructures. In a study of high-performance concrete bridges. Dr. Mark

Ehlen found these structures to save

over $100,000 in life-cycle costs when

compared with comparable conventional-concrete structures. To help engineers, designers, and analysts estimate

these potential savings. Dr. Ehlen and

Ms. Amy Rushing have integrated the

BFRL concrete chloride attack, sulfate

attack and freeze-thaw models into

BridgeLCC 2.0, life-cycle costing software for highway bridges. This software

is based on ASTM E 917 standard practice for measuring life-cycle costs, and

includes comprehensive sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo analysis routines,

which allow designers to investigate the

effects of uncertainty in concrete performance on life-cycle costs.

CONTACT: MS. AMY RUSHING

OFFICE OF APPLIED ECONOMICS

(301 ) 975-61 36 amy.ru5hing@nist.gov

BridgeLCC 2.0 allows

for comprehensive

probabilistic life-cycle

cost analysis of bridges

made of high-perform- ance concrete and

other materials.
AL3

ENHANCED BUILDING

PERFORMANCE

BFRL ACTiv CCQMPLISHMENTS & R

To provide the means to assure buildings work (better) throughout

their useful lives.

The strategy for meeting this

goal is to provide knowledge,

measurements and tools to

optimize building life cycle

performance.

Thefirst strategic focus to

achieve the goal ofEnhanced

Building Performance is to

develop measurement methods,

fundamental data, simulation

models, and life cycle environmental and economic analysis

tools to support the wide-spread

use ofsustainability in design,

construction, operation, and

demolition ofbuildings and

their systems/subsystems.

Healthy and

Sustainable Buildings

INTENDED OUTCOME AND BACKGROUND

The intended outcome of the healthy

and sustainable buildings program is

to make available measurement methods, test methods, fundamental data,

simulation models, and life cycle environmental and economic analysis tools

to support healthy buildings, and the

wide-spread use of sustainability in

design, construction, and operation of

buildings and their systems/subsystems.

Global climate change is considered

by many as one of the most pressing

challenges of the 21st century. Scientific opinion on this matter varies significantly, from the view that contributions to global warming are negligible,

to the view that man-made carbon

emissions are a disaster in progress,

requiring immediate substantial reductions In the emission of the so-called

greenhouse gases, principally carbon

dioxide.

The purpose of the International

Climate Change Conference, held in

Kyoto, Japan in 1997, was to accelerate the pace of International action

on climate change. If adopted by the

U.S., the legally binding International

protocol would translate for the U.S.

into a 7% reduction In 1990 levels of

carbon emissions by 2010. The U.S.

building sector shares almost equally

with the Industrial sector and transportation sector in such emissions.

Beyond regulated carbon emissions,

the "green movement" is sweeping

the building industry. All major

building product companies, building

designers, and building operators

need measurement methods, test

methods, fundamental data, and life

cycle environmental and economic

analysis tools to promote their

approaches and products to achieve

sustainability.

BFRL will apply Its expertise in

refrigeration systems, thermal

Insulation, building integrated photovoltaic systems, indoor air quality, and

life cycle economic and environmental

analysis methods to promote healthy

and sustainable residential and commercial buildings.

BFRL's research on Healthy and

Sustainable Buildings will produce a wide range of data, measurement

methods, test methods, simulation

models and analysis tools that will

assist the U.S. in this "transition

towards sustainability". These BFRL

"products" include:

Building for Environmental and

Economic Sustainability software

(BEES);

performance data on flammable and

natural refrigerants;

artificial intelligence-aided design

procedures for refrigeration heat

exchangers, new apparatuses/test

methods/standard materials for

advanced thermal insulation/low temperature insulation/high temperature

insulation;

validated design models for building

integrated photovoltaic systems;

contaminant-based design procedures

for predicting indoor air quality; and

new/revised test methods and rating

procedures for evaluating the energy

performance of residential and commercial appliances and products.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Efficient Lubricants

for Refrigeration and

Air-Conditioning

Lubricants are essential in virtually

all modern refrigeration systems,

yet their role as potential heat-transfer

enhancers is not understood and thus

not exploited. The refrigeration industry

selects lubricants based solely on lubrication characteristics required by the

compressor. In most situations, lubricants selected this way cause a degradation of heat transfer and system efficiency. But with the proper choice of

the lubricant, a significant enhancement

of heat transfer and efficiency is possible.

The goal of the refrigerant/lubricant

heat transfer project is to develop tools

to enable the U.S. refrigeration and airconditioning industry to design or to

use lubricants that enhance boiling heat

transfer which in turn increase efficiency

and/or reduce capital costs. Toward

achieving this goal, BFRL's Dr. Mark

Kedzierski has developed a unique fluorescence measurement technique that is

being used to gain fundamental understanding of the phase-change mechanisms of refrigerant/lubricant mixtures.

The BFRiyDepartment of Energy(DOE)

fluorescence spectroscopy project has

brought together expertise across NIST

from process analytical chemistry, fluid

properties, optical analysis, and heat

transfer. The fluorescence measurement

technique relies on the fluorescent

properties of the lubricant to measure

the mass of lubricant that has accumulated on the surface as induced by the

heat transfer. The properties of the

lubricant that has accumulated on the

evaporator surface closely influence

refrigerant heat transfer, system performance and efficiency. Consequently,

the research is designed to benefit the

refrigeration and air-conditioning industry by unraveling the processes that

connect the excess layer to the bulk

fluid and its properties and, in this way,

establishing a fundamental understanding of refrigerant and lubricant interaction in refrigerant boiling.

CONTACT: DR. MARK KEDZIERSKI BUILDING ENVIRONMENT DIVISION

(301) 975-5282 mark.kedzierski@nist.gov

Building Integrated

Photovoltaic Test Bed

Residential and commercial buildings consume more than twothirds of the electricity in the United

States. The incorporation of photovoltaics into buildings, referred to as

building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV)

offers an aesthetically pleasing means of

displacing centrally located utility generated power with distributed renewable

energy. Building integrated photovoltaics replace conventional building

elements such as roof tiles, asphalt shingles, fagade elements, and shading

devices with photovoltaic modules that

perform the same functions but also

provide electrical power.

To enable building owners, designers,

and architects to make informed economic decisions regarding the use of

building integrated photovoltaics, accurate predictive tools and performance

data are needed. To address this need,

BFRL has installed a building integrated

photovoltaic test bed that is located on

the south wall of NIST's Building

Research Laboratory. This test bed incorporates photovoltaic panels that would

Fluorescence measurement

technique being used to gain fundamental

understanding of the phase-change

mechanisms of

refrigerant/lubricant

mixtures.
ENHANCED BUILDING

PERFORMANCE

Single Crystalline

Polycrystalllne Triple Junction

Amorphous Silicon

NIST's Building Integrated Photovoltaic Test Bed.

replace the exterior fa(;ade of a commercial or office building. The initial

configuration of this test bed incorporates four different photovoltaic cell

technologies - crystalline, polycrystalllne, silicon film, and triple junction

amorphous. Each cell technology is represented by two panels within the test

bed - one without any thermal insulation behind it - representative of widow

and skylight applications - and one

insulated to simulate opaque wall applications.

The energy produced by each of

these panels and the coincident meteorological conditions are recorded every 5

minutes for a year. The resulting data is

being used to improve computer simulation tools that predict the performance

of BIPV for various geographic locations

and building orientations.

CONTACT: DR. HUNTER FANNEY

BUILDING ENVIRONMENT DIVISION

(301) 975-5864 hunter.fanney@nist.gov

Multizone Modeling

Website Developed

The Building and Fire Research

Laboratory has recently developed

a website to foster the development

and facilitate the application of multizone ventilation and indoor environmental modeling in the areas of building design, operation, maintenance,

investigation and research. The website

currently provides software tools for

performing multizone analysis,

3 M5T MulLizune Modeling Komepdgc - Hkrotoll Internet Explor ^ g.dit Vfew Favorites locb Hi^

information on the applications of multizone modeling, multizone modeling

case studies and references to multizone

modeling publications. The central feature of the site, the multizone-modeling

tool CONTAMW, developed by BFRL's

Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation

Group, has been downloaded by an

average of 80 people per month since

it became available in June of 2000.

The audience for the CONTAMW pro- gram and the website include building

designers, manufacturers of HVAC and

other building products, lAQ diagnosticians and researchers. Future plans for

the website, include the addition of

input data for use in modeling analyses,

software tools to support modeling

efforts, and descriptions of new applications and case studies. The website,

documented in a NIST report NISTIR

6728, IS www.bfrl.nist.gov/IAQanalysis.

CONTACT: MR. STUART DOLS, BUILDING ENVIRONMENT DIVISION

(301) 975-5860 sdols@nist.gov

*>B«» • * - 3 g| a ! ta(5Mtch SlFsvorltes Q(Hstoy | Igr ^ S • 3

~3 lJute

IJIST Multizone Home

|\J|5r Multizone Modeling Website /

^aT.IKM vloi^l lie

I Internet

NIST's CONTAMW web site.

20
The second strategic focus for

achieving Enhanced Building

Performance is to develop, test,

integrate, and demonstrate open

Cybernetic Building Systems.

The word "cybernetics" comes

from the Greek work "steersman"

and is defined as the science of

control and communication of

complex systems. A Cybernetic

Building System involves energy

management, fire detection,

security, transport systems, energy providers, one or more utilities, an aggregator, numerous

service providers, and information handling and complex control at many different levels.

Cybernetic

Building Systems

INTENDED OUTCOME AND BACKGROUND

The intended outcome of the

Cybernetic Buildings Program is to make available tested and demonstrated open Cybernetic Building

Systems for improved productivity,

life cycle cost savings, energy conservation, improved occupant satisfaction

and market leadership. This work will

be carried out in close cooperation

with the U.S. building industry.

industrial partners, building owners/

operators and newly developing

service companies.

During the next ten years, the

building controls industry in the

United States will be undergoing a

radical change from one with a vertical structure to one with a horizontal

structure. Building control companies,

equipment and system manufacturers,

energy providers, utilities, and design

engineers will be under increasing

pressure to improve performance and

reduce costs. Cost reduction can be

achieved by developing Cybernetic

Building Systems that integrate more

and more building services, including

energy management, fire and security,

transportation, fault detection and

diagnostics, optimal control, the real

time purchase of electricity and the

aggregation of building stock. A Cybernetic Building System involves

energy management, fire detection,

security and transport systems, energy

providers, one or more utilities, an

aggregator, numerous service providers,

and information handling and complex

control at many different levels.

The BFRL program, which will include

a full-scale demonstration of one or more Cybernetic Building Systems, will

involve the following tasks:

develop standard communication

protocols;

develop enabling technologies, such

as fault detection and diagnostic (FDD)

methods;

develop advanced measurement

technologies, including smart multifunctional sensors;

develop performance evaluation

tools;

develop a standard based program

infrastructure supporting the design,

commissioning, operation and maintenance of heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration systems;

construct a Virtual Cybernetic

Building System in the laboratory to

facilitate the development and evaluation of new products and systems by

manufacturers;

conduct basic research on the

dynamic interactions of a fire,

HVAC/distribution and the zones of a

commercial building through utilization of existing and new simulation

models, and validate this new simulation program through both laboratory

and field studies;

develop a consortium of manufacturers and service providers interested in

producing, testing, demonstrating and

selling Cybernetic Building Systems;

test and evaluate different security

concepts and supervisory security systems for the critical infrastructure protection of integrated building systems;

and

conduct a full-scale demonstration

of a Cybernetic Building System in a government owned office building

complex.
ENHANCED BUILDING

PERFORMANCE

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

BACnet

Demonstration

in Iowa

BFRL is working with the State of

Iowa and the National Guard

Bureau to demonstrate the benefits of

BACnet"^'^ technology for integrating

building control systems over a wide

area network. The Iowa Army National

Guard (lA-ARNG) Smart Building

Demonstration Project links 12 buildings

in 7 different cities across the Hawkeye

State using building control products

from five different manufacturers.

The objectives of the project are to:

assist the lA-ARNG in meeting its

energy and water conservation goals;

monitor energy consumption and sys- tem alarms from a central site;

improve maintenance by providing

facilities staff with effective tools that

can access all of the buildings from any

site in the state; and

to reduce overall facilities management cost.

The lA-ARNG Smart Building Demonstration Project links 12 buildings in 7 cities using BACnet control products from 5 different manufacturers.

Like the National Guard in most

states, Iowa does not have enough staff

to maintain facilities experts at each

site, and building systems are not well

controlled to maintain comfort conditions while minimizing energy costs. BACnet is a standard communication

protocol (ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135-

1995) developed by BFRL and industry

experts that provides a way to integrate

building control products made by different manufacturers. Using BACnet

allows the lA-ARNG to simultaneously

improve building control, reduce energy

costs, integrate facilities state-wide, and

procure building control products using

a competitive process that lowers cost.

In addition to working with industry

to develop and maintain the BACnet

standard, BFRL researchers developed an

integration plan for the lA-ARNG and

are providing technical assistance for

design, installation, and operation of

the state-wide BACnet network.

The project is funded by National

Guard Bureau and is expected to influence the practices and policies for the

use of building control systems throughout the U.S. military.

CONTACT: MR. STEVEN T. BU5HBY

BUILDING ENVIRONMENT DIVISION

(301) 975-5873 steven.bushby@nist.gov
Model-based

FDD Tool for Chillers

Detecting degradation faults in

vapor compression systems

remains a challenge in spite of the

advances in monitoring and controls

software. Basic monitoring equipment

can be used to detect the most obvious

faults. However, degradation faults

can have a small effect on the system's

ability to control building conditions and

occupant's comfort while having a large

effect on energy consumption and

expected equipment life. NIST has conducted research in this area with the

aim of developing a fault detection and

diagnostic method that can be embedded as software in a building energy

management system (BEMS) and enable

it to identify typical and costly system

faults, generating warning alarms if the

system performance begins to degrade.

NIST has developed a model-based

approach to fault detection and diagnostics for a reciprocating chiller and

examined the performance of the method using simulation and experimental

data. MATCH (model-based assessment

tool for chillers), the implementation of

the classifier and expert rule set in the

software, was first applied to fault-free

and faulty experimental data using 7

performance indices. As expected, the

ability to detect faults is influenced by

the severity of the fault and the operating conditions. MATCH successfully

detected and diagnosed condenser

fouling, refrigerant undercharge, and

Development of

a Model-based Assessment Tool

for Chillers (MATCH).

Test Data / Naturally Varying Weather Conditions

Data from Normal

1 Operation

Data from

Faulty Operation

-

Condenser

Fouling

Data from

Faulty Operation- Evaporator

Fouling

Data from

Faulty OperationLiquid Line

Restriction

Data from

Faulty OperationRefrigerant Undercharge

Data from

Faulty Operation- ; Refrigerant Overcharge

steady-State Detection/ ACmodel Residual Calculation

Training Data for Detection and Diagnosis

Clustering of ttie tttree largest residuals into two classes

Prototypes and

l^enil)erstiip Functions

Extracted for Fault Detection

Classification of Training Data, Fault Class Data Latieled

Rules Fomiulated based on Dominant

Residuals for Fault Qagnostics

refrigerant overcharge at a fault level of

20% or greater and evaporator fouling

and liquid line restriction at a fault level

of 30% or greater. Published results are

scheduled to appear in the ASHRAE

Transactions, 2002.

CONTACT: rVlS, NATASCHA S. CASTRO

BUILDING ENVIRONMENT DIVISION 301-975-6420 mtascha.castro@nist.gov

The Virtual Cybernetic

Building Testbed

The Virtual Cybernetic Building

Testbed (VCBT) is a real-time

emulator consisting of state-of-the-art BACnet speaking control systems interfaced with simulation models running

over a network. BFRL researchers, control systems manufacturers, service companies, and software developers can use

this unique hybrid software/hardware

testbed to develop and evaluate control

strategies and products. The VCBT is

able to emulate three modes of building

operation; normal operations, fault conditions, and emergency conditions such

as a fire or hazardous materials release.

The VCBT models a three-story building including a variable air volume (VAV)

HVAC mechanical system, the indoor

building environment, a building shell

model and heat sensors for detecting
fires. Each floor is served by an independent air liandling unit (AHU).

Controllers for the AHUs and VAV boxes

are supplied by several different manufacturers. The VCBT is capable of simulating a fire in the building. The simulation components may each run on different computers, passing data to each

other through the use of a central communications and management component. The communications infrastructure

is provided by the Common Object

Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). A

sophisticated user interface was created

using Virtual Reality Modeling Language

(VRML).

The VCBT has the capability to reliably

produce simulated mechanical system

faults and outdoor weather conditions.

and is being used to test prototype tools

for detecting common faults in HVAC

mechanical systems. It is also being used

to develop a sensor-driven fire model

for the next generation of smart fire

panels that can predict how a fire will grow and spread in the building.

Planned future enhancements include

adding central plant and lighting controls, and developing a more flexible

and sophisticated VCBT building modeling scheme using product data information represented by Industry Foundation

Classes (IPCs).

CONTACT: MR. MIKE GALLER

BUILDING ENVIRONMENT DIVISION

(301) 975-6521 mikeg@nist.gov

Virtual Cybernetic

Building Testbed

Control System

Hardware. ybur Connection to the Future

Sensor-Driven Fire Model

The Sensor-Dhven Pire Model

(SDPM), currently under development at NIST, is designed to use signals

from building sensors to predict the size

and growth of fires in buildings.

Algorithms have been developed that

use the signals from heat, smoke, or gas

sensors to determine the Heat Release

Rate (HRR) or fire size in each room.

Based on the HRR of each fire, the

SDPM then predicts the temperature,

smoke and gas concentrations, and

smoke layer heights in all rooms of the

building. With these predictions, an

overview of the current fire situation in

a building can be transmitted to the fire

service. The SDPM is being tested using

the Virtual Cybernetic Building Testbed

(VCBT). The VCBT provides a simulation

of a multi-room building where fires are

simulated using the fire model CPAST.

Additional testing will be done using

fire expehments such as the one shown

on the following page.

Algohthms are being developed for

use in the SDPM to discriminate

between fire and nuisance sources.

Testing of these algorithms will be

accomplished using the Pire Detection

Laboratory (PDL) at NIST The PDL is

equipped with ceiling mounted heat,
Typical fire experiment used to test the SDFIVI.

smoke and gas detectors that are

designed to investigate the response of

detectors to snnall fires and nuisance

signals. Signals from both nuisance

sources and fire sources will be transmitted from the FDL to the SDFM

through the VCBT. The object of these

experiments will be to determine a nuisance signal rejection rate for the SDFiVl.

Additional information is available about

the SDFM from the publication "A

Sensor-Driven Fire Model Version 1.1,"

NISTIR 6705.

CONTACT: DR. WILLIAM DAVIS

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301) 975-6884 william.davis@nist.gov

The third strategic focus for

achieving the goal ofenhanced

building performance is to

optimize building life cycle

performance.

Optimized Building Life

Cycle Performance

INTENDED OUTCOME AND BACKGROUND

The intended outcome of the

Optimized Building Life Cycle

Performance program is to develop,

implement, test, demonstrate and

standardize an integrated informationsimulation infrastructure for optimizing the life-cycle performance of commercial buildings and enabling effective decision support throughout the

entire life cycle. This work will be carried out with academic and industry

partners and will focus on both predicting life-cycle performance and on

enabling the automation and integration of building processes and services

across life-cycle phases.

Today there is a desperate need

within the building industry for:

standardized models and protocols

for representing and exchanging information and knowledge on building.

building systems and equipment, control and operating procedures, expected performance, commissioning-operation-maintenance-security requirements and practices, and internal and

external services;

credible performance predictive models and tools that will allow users to compare and optimize on a life-cycle

basis alternative designs, products,

operation and maintenance practices,

and services; and

standardized information-simulation

infrastructure that will tie all these

information-simulation requirements

together.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

his is a new program starting in

FY 2002.
OAL4 BFRL ACTIVITIES, ACCDMPLISHME

m

FIRE LOSS REDUCTION To enable engineeredfire safety for people, products, facilities and

enhancedfirefighter effectiveness.

The strategy to meet this goal is

to reduce the risk offlashover in

buildings, to advancefire service

technologies, and to make

advanced measurements and

develop predictive methods.

Thefirst element, reducing the

risk offlashover, is a key factor

in reducingfire deaths.

Reduced Risk of

Flashover

INTENDED OUTCOME AND BACKGROUND

The intended outcome of this program

is to eliminate the risk of flashover

cost-effectively by enabling: new/

improved materials whose fire resistance does not negatively impact performance, cost, or the environment;

and early and certain fire and environment sensing and automatic fire suppression technologies compatible with

occupants and the environment.

Flashover is the dramatic and sudden transition from a relatively small,

slowly developing fire, spreading systematically across adjacent fuel surfaces within a room, to a much larger

and dangerous fire in which all flammable surfaces within the enclosure

are involved. Estimates based on the

extent of fire damage indicate that

the roughly 30% of reported fires

that transitioned to flashover were

responsible for 80% of the fires deaths

and property damage in buildings

during 1999. Clearly, reducing the risk

of flashover offers an opportunity to

reduce significantly the high human

and property costs of fire to the Nation.

Reducing the risk of flashover can

be equated with reducing fire spread,

fire growth, and the maximum value

of the heat release rate. There are two

general approaches for accomplishing

these goals. The first is to limit the

availability of fuel (e.g., though the

use of fire-retarded fuels) and air (e.g.,

by controlling ventilation) such that a

fire cannot become sufficiently intense

to induce flashover. The second is to

provide physical intervention (e.g.,

through automatic sprinklers, or by a

fire company following early detection) to reduce the fire size before it

can grow to a dangerous level. Both

approaches are important and will be

included in this program.

Experimental and theoretical understanding of fire growth and spread

within enclosures will be improved,

with the goal of developing a modeling capability for real-world room contents that can be reliably used for fire

safety engineering, product design,

and materials assessment.

BFRL will develop cost-effective

approaches that reduce the flammability of polymers while maintaining

or even improving their physical

characteristics. Success in this approach

will provide a strong Incentive for

polymer producers and product manufacturers to utilize these safer materials in commodity applications.

Active measures to limit fire growth

require reliable early fire detection

and effective suppression approaches.

Directed research designed to enhance

fire detector sensitivity while reducing

the number of false alarms and to

improve suppression effectiveness will

be carried out.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Particle Image Velocimetry

Provides Improved

Measurements of

Fire-induced Doorway Flow^

Flashover represents a substantial

upward jump in the hazard presented by a room fire and the potential

for further fire loss. As flashover

approaches, there is a transition toward

control of the rate of burning by the

oxygen supply available through room

surface openings. BFRL is seeking to

quantify the rate of gas flow through room surface openings, specifically

doorways, with a higher accuracy than

has been the case in the past. Particle

Image Velocimetry (PIV) is a non-intrusive laser-based measurement technique

that is being applied to measure twodimensional fields of velocity vectors in
the lower layer of a fire-induced doorway flow. The technique significantly

improves upon the spatial and temporal

resolution of traditional bi-directional

probe measurements. It also offers at

least 2 orders of magnitude increase in

the amount of data available when

compared to a traditional probe array

Instantaneous vorticity field.

Instantaneous velocity field.

The present challenges of the technique

are associated with illuminating and

seeding a large spatial region such as a

doorway

The first year of the project resulted in

the design and demonstration of a particle distribution system. It was demonstrated, at a slightly reduced-scale, in an

isothermal flow that simulated the conditions of large fire experiments. Twodimensional images of gas velocity vectors were recorded using the PIV technique for a 26cm x 26cm region along

the axis of a surface opening. The figures included display samples of the

instantaneous velocity field, instantaneous vorticity field, and mean flow

streamlines, respectively The measurement location was the vertical plane

perpendicular to the doorway plane and

vertically centered at the intersection of

the vertical and horizontal axis of the

doorway for a small enclosure. The flow

direction was left-to-right and into the

enclosure. The two-dimensional instantaneous images demonstrate that flow

direction and flow rotational structure

can be realized, which is another

improvement over probe measurements.

Current efforts focus on increasing the

measurement region to 100cm x 100cm

and adding a buoyant source to better

simulate fire conditions and characterizing the resulting flow field.

CONTACT: DR. RODNEY A. BRYANT

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301) 975-6487 rodney.bryant@nist.gov

Bench-Scale, High Throughput

Flame Retardancy Measures

Current methods used to study the

flammability properties of materials focus on individual sample compositions or "one-at-a-time" methods for

each set of experiments. New "high

throughput" approaches to knowledge

discovery in a variety of other scientific

fields (chemical catalysis, drug discovery)

have demonstrated an order-of-magnitude greater rate of technology discovery and a 50 % faster time to complete

implementation of the technology The

number of important material and engineering parameters associated with fire

retardant products is large (>10), and

the number of permutations within

each parameter is also large (5-10).

Furthermore, the number of application

specific performance properties is large

(5-10). Consequently millions of expenments and measurements need to be

done to build a reasonable understanding of the fundamental issues controlling the performance of flame retardant

materials. To meet this challenge we are

developing high-throughput flammability characterization methods.

We have developed the compositionspread or gradient approach. These

samples essentially represent a range of

samples within one gradient sample.

We have optimized the extrusion of gradient samples with continuously varying

concentrations of additives using a computer-controlled gravimetric-fed twinscrew extruder. A model flame retardant
FIRE LOSS REDUCTION

Computer-controlled gravimetric-fed twin-screw

extruder used to optimize the extrusion of gradient samples with continuously varying

concentrations of additives.

system (ammonium polyphosphate

(APP), pentaerythretol (PER), in polystyrene (PS)) was extruded into gradient

slab-shaped samples. These were characterized off-line using automated-thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and high

throughput x-ray absorption (XRA), to

determine the gradient of additives

within the extruded samples. We are in

the process of developing online characterization methods of the gradients as

they are formed using fiber-optically

coupled Fourier Transform Infrared

(FTIR), and visible spectroscopy (Vis).

Special cells for these devices will be

built and installed on the extruder. The

feasibility of characterizing the flammability properties of the gradient samples

will be done using several approaches;

evaluation of self-extinguishing behavior and upward flame spread of the gradient samples in a UL94 test chamber;

evaluation of ignition properties using

the horizontal ignition and flame test

apparatus; and

evaluation of pyrolysis properties using

the radiative gasification apparatus.

CONTACT: DR. JEFFREY GILMAN

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301) 975-6573

Jeffrey, gilman@nist.gov

Smoke Alarm

Performance Measured

in Residential Buildings

Smoke alarms are often the primary

life safety strategy for occupants in

the event of an unwanted residential

fire. As the number of residential fire

deaths (about 3000) far outpaces the

number of commercial and industrial

fire deaths (just over 100 in all non-residential structure fires) it is crucial to

understand the level of safety provided

by smoke alarms in the residential environment. With funding from a consortium of government agencies and private sources of more than $1 million,

BFRL researchers are evaluating the current state of residential smoke alarm

requirements.

The overall purpose of the project is

to determine how different types of fire

alarms can respond to threatening residential fire settings in order to permit

egress of typical occupants. BFRL is conducting real-scale tests of current smoke

alarm and related technologies in actual homes with actual contents as fuels.

Fire scenarios (including ignition source,

first item ignited, room of origin, time

of day and season that affect occupant

location and building condition) were

selected based upon a statistical analysis

of available fire loss data. Selected fires

include a mattress fire in a bedroom, an

upholstered chair fire in a living area,

and a grease fire in a kitchen.

BFRL has completed two series of

Instrumentation for smoke alarm tests in a manufactured home.
Fire in two-story home used to test performance

of current smoke alarms.

tests, one in a single-story manufactured liome in tine NIST fire research

test facility and one in a two-story

single-family home in Kinston, NC.

Test results are available online at

http://smokealarm.nist.gov. Data presented include CO, CO^, 0^, smoke

obscuration, and temperature.

Additional measurement of smoke

particle size and concentration, additional gas species, and gas velocities

and directions will be included in

upcoming reports.

CONTACT: MR. RICHARD BUKOWSKI

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301) 975-6853 richard.bukowski@nist.gov

Technologies for Building Less

Flammable Mattresses Assessed

Fires in which bed-clothes or a mattress are the first item ignited result

in hundreds of deaths each year in the

United States. In an effort to alleviate

this problem, the mattress industry is

working with NIST on defining the technical parameters of the problem and on

assessment methods that will help point

the way to assured solutions. The typical

bed fire is started by a small flame contacting the bed covers. The bed covers

then begin to burn in a manner that becomes a greatly enlarged challenge to

the mattress. However, the heat stress

they impose on the mattress is highly

variable and difficult to reproduce. As a

first step in this program, NIST characterized that thermal stress and then

developed much more reproducible gas

burners to simulate it. These burners

have been applied to a range of potentially less flammable mattress designs to

assess the most promising available

technologies for building less flammable

mattresses. NIST is now looking in detail

at the hazard represented by a given

bed fire size in an attempt to assess the

potential for relating fire size reduction

to lives that may be saved. This involves

looking not only at the bed fire directly

but also at the potential of this fire to

initiate other nearby fires on other

objects in the same room. To enable this

NIST has measured the transient heat

flux distributions around a wide variety

of bed fires burning in isolation and in a

compartment. Surrogate materials, representing a variety of other possible

flammable objects in proximity to a bed

fire, are being characterized for their

ease of ignition. The combined impact

of a bed fire and a secondary object fire

can be judged in the context of Hazard I,

a NIST smoke and heat transport model.

In a closely related study, NIST is working with the Consumer Products Safety

Commission to define a test method by

which CPSC will be able to assess the

flammability of mattresses purchased on

the market. CPSC has announced its

intent to consider regulating residential

mattress flammability.

CONTACT: DR. THOMAS OHLEMILLER

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301 ) 975-648

1

tiiomas.ohlemiler@nist.gov

Bed fire about two minutes after ignition with a match sized flame.
FIRE LOSS REDUCTION

The second strategic element in

achieving the goal ofFire Loss

Reduction is to advancefire

service technologies. A key factor

in reducingfirefighter and

building occupantfatalities and

hum injuries is to develop

advanced technologies for the

fire service.

Advanced Fire Service

Technologies

INTENDED OUTCOME AND BACKGROUND

The intended outcome of this program

is to help achieve a 50% reduction in

line-of-duty fatalities and burn injuries

in the U.S. by 2012, through the products of research, and to enhance fire

fighter safety and effectiveness.

Fire fighting operations, inside and

outside of structures, proceed with

very limited information about the

extent of fire involvement, structure

safety, hazards, and even the location

of fire fighters. In order to be safer

and more effective, incident commanders, and fire fighters need access

to reliable and timely information

regarding fire conditions, developing

hazards, and the location and condition of resources.

The program includes the following

elements:

The heat transfer model for fire

fighter protective clothing under wet

and dry conditions with associated

material property database will be

advanced by further development of

standard measurement methods. This

model will be used to generate training tools to allow fire fighters to visualize the limits of performance of their

protective gear.

Working with a consortium of fire

alarm manufacturers and the laboratory effort in Cybernetic Building

Systems, develop a wireless means to

deliver timely emergency information

about conditions inside of buildings.

Predictions of developing hazards to

first responders before they arrive at

the scene will be demonstrated.

Interacting with the industry, BFRL

will focus on expanding the capabilities of thermal imagers for improved

sensing for fire hazard and fire rescue

applications

A fundamentally based computational model will be developed to predict

major features of the interaction of

structures with wind-driven fires utilizing the present Fire Dynamics

Simulation technology as a starting

point.

Through a university grant, the capabilities of acoustic sensing to determine weakness in roof structures will

be explored.

Nano-particles added to polymer gels

used to protect external structures

against fire have been shown in laboratory scale experiments to greatly

increase the durability of the gel. A

standard method to determine the

performance in full scale will be investigated to allow durable agents with

different nano-particle formulations to

be evaluated.

To aid the fire services in keeping

abreast of developments in research

activities around the world, information about fire service related research

will be collected and distributed by

electronic means.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Cherry Road Simulation CD

NISTIR 6510, includes a re-creation

of a multiple fatality fire, which

occurred at 3146 Cherry Road,

Washington D.C. on May 30, 1999. At

the request of the District of Colunnbia

Fire & Emergency IVIedical Services

Department Reconstruction Committee,

a team from BFRL visited the fire scene,

documented critical dimensions, and

collected samples for additional materials property characterization. After

entering the dimensions and material

thermal properties into the Fire Dynamic

Simulator model, the team utilized

Smokeview software to display the

model simulation for the investigating
Computer simulation of the Cherry Road fire.

Representation of the Cherry Road residence using Smokeview.

committee. As the reconstruction committee combined the model output with

the fire service timeline and other fire

ground data, the investigators were better able to understand the fire behavior

and how fire fighter fatalities occurred.

The committee asked the NIST team to

simulate several alternate "what if ?"

scenarios to understand how fire fighters could avoid similar situations in the

future. The team packaged still figures

and animated images of the simulation

with all the timelines, floor plans, and

material properties into a single CD,

NISTIR 6510. To access the report and

view the animations, fire fighters may

simply insert the CD into a CD drive and

use self-loading software on the CD.

The impact of this fire simulation/recreation is already evident as fire departments have requested over 7000 copies

of the CD since its release last summer.

Fire service training instructors are incorporating the simulation into training

programs for fire fighters. Fire protection engineers have reviewed the model

output, obtained copies of Fire Dynamic

Simulator {http://fire.nist.gov), and are

beginning to use the model to develop

more fire safe structures. Fire investigators who have seen the animations have

requested the BFRL team to assist with

their investigations in numerous fire

scene reconstructions, including multiple

fatality fires in Keokuk, lA, New York,

NY, and Houston, TX.

The NIST Cherry Road Report was the

basis of a front page Wasliington Post

story which appeared July 31, 2000. A

Discovery Science News piece was

developed and has aired. Numerous

websites have picked up the report

information, these include, www.firehouse. com, www.wp.com, www. firefighting.com and interfire.org. EENET, a

satellite broadcasting station of the U.S.

Federal Emergency Management

Administration (FEMA) is in the process

of producing a program based on the

Cherry Road incident.

CONTACT: MR, DANIEL MADRZYKOWSKI

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301) 975-6677 daniel.madrzykowski@nist.gov

Video on How

Fast Fire Spreads

Fire experts know that blazes depicted in movies and TV give the

wrong impression about how fast a fire

can really grow and how much time is

truly available for a person to escape.

This misinformation may cause people

to underestimate fire dangers and make

bad, sometimes tragic, decisions in a

real fire situation.

BFRL has assembled a 10-minute

video collection of fire taken from

recent large-scale tests conducted in

BFRL's large fire test facility The video

clearly portrays how fires grow from

ignition to flashover in furnished rooms

(flashover occurs when all combustibles

in a room burst into flames and the fire

spreads rapidly). Segments on the video

show the ignition and burning of (1) a

dry Christmas tree in a living room

(flashover in 45 seconds), (2) an upholstered sofa in a living room (flashover in

four minutes), and (3) a wastebasket

near an office workstation (flashover in

about five minutes). Over 3000 copies

have now been distributed to fire

departments around the world.

CONTACT: MR. NELSON BRYNER

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301) 975-6868

nelson. brynenSniSt. gov
FIRE LOSS REDUCTION

Single-Family Home Fire

Experiments Featured in

Phoenix Fire Department

Training Video on Structural

Collapse

During October 2000, a BFRL team

of engineers and teclnnicians

instrumented and burned four singlefamily homes in Phoenix, AZ. The

Phoenix Fire Department plans to

include video and temperature data in a

training video to educate fire fighters

about the hazards of structural collapse.

The BFRL team, headed by Mr David

Stroup, monitored the first floor and

attic spaces from ignition through structural collapse. Instrumented mannequins, dressed in full turnout gear

with air tanks, kneeling and standing,

were placed on the roof of each structure to simulate the static loading of fire

fighters on a residential roof. The BFRL

team also collected data on related

ongoing projects including Fire

Dynamics Simulator Model Verifications,

Burn Pattern Analysis, Characterization

of Thermal Environments, Performance

of Thermal Imaging Systems and

Protective Turnout Gear for Fire Fighters.

The real fire experience of the Phoenix

Fire Department and the large-scale fire

experiment capabilities of the BFRL team

Phoenix Fire Department burn instrumented single family home for training video.

were combined to yield a better understanding of how and when structural

collapse occurs during a residential

structure burn. This insight and the

training video will help improve the

safety of fire fighters involved in the

suppression of residential fires.

CONTACT: MR. DAVID STROUP

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301) 975-4701 david.stroup@nist.go\/

In-Situ Oil Spill Marshland

Burns featured on CNN

Earthwatch

In

November, 2000, CNN Earthwatch

featured interviews and video from a

series of crude oil fires conducted to

evaluate the impact of intentional burning of crude oil and diesel fuel spilled in

a marshland environment. Oil spilled in

sensitive wetland environments poses

unique problems associated with

cleanup because mechanical recovery in

wetlands may result in considerable

damage to the wetlands. In situ burning

of oiled wetlands may provide a less

damaging alternative than traditional

mechanical recovery. In a series of 10

burns, 240 plants were positioned at

different soil/water elevations for 700

second exposure to burning crude oil or

diesel fuel. CNN filmed the set-up of a

burn and the burn itself for its

Earthwatch series. Interviews with members of the BFRL team were conducted

before and after the burn. Soil, water

and air temperatures were monitored

throughout each burn exposure and for

a 4800 second post-burn period. The

soil temperature data will be combined

with the plant re-growth and recovery

rates to develop guidelines for oil spill

Test burn to study effects of intentional burning of

oil spills in marshland environment.

32
response teams to use when considering in-situ burning as an alternative to

mechanical recovery. This project is part

of ongoing worl< funded by the Mineral

iVianagement Service, U.S. Department

of Interior.

CONTACT: MR. NELSON BRYNER

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301) 975-6868 nelson.bryner@nist.gov

Fire Research Experiments

Featured During Week Long

"Fire Dynamics in A Live Burn

Situation" Seminar Series

Seven townhouse apartments and

six attached rooms were furnished,

instrumented, and set on fire in Pinal County AZ, as part of a seminar series

sponsored by the International

Association of Arson Investigators.

Arson investigators were given the

opportunity to view each apartment or room before and after ignition. A film

crew from the Bureau of Alcohol,

Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) filmed each

of the burns for inclusion in a fire scene

re-creation video which will be used as

a training tool for arson investigators.

Chemists from the Federal Bureau of

Investigation (FBI) were on hand to

demonstrate proper evidence gathering

Burn of instrumented townhouse for arson investi- gation study.

techniques. Mr. Dan Madrzykowski and

Mr. David Stroup taught sessions on

Fire Dynamics and Computer Modeling.

The BFRL team also collected data for

a number of ongoing research projects

including: Personal Alert Safety Systems

(PASS) Project, and Improved Fire Safety

for Kitchens. These experiments demonstrate NIST's leadership in the field of

fire dynamics and large-scale fire experiment capabilities, and enhance the

training and education of fire investigators.

CONTACT: MR. DANIEL MADRZYKOWSKI

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301) 975-6677 da niel . madrzyko wski@nist.gov

The third strategic element of

achieving Fire Loss Reduction is

to advance measurement and

predictive methodsfor reducing

fire loss. The development ofless flammable materials and the

design ofbuildings with

improvedfire safety requires the

development ofadvanced meas- urement andpredictive methods.

Advanced Measurement

and Predictive Methods

for Reducing Fire Losses

INTENDED OUTCOIVIE AND BACKGROUND

The intended outcome of this program

is to be a world leader in fire measure- ment and predictive methods, enabling

engineered fire safety for people, products, facilities, and first responders.

This work underpins the Advanced

Fire Service Technologies and Reduced

Risk of Flashover programs and will be

carried out in close coordination with

those programs and their partners.

To preempt the anticipated increase

in fire-related deaths and injuries associated with a larger and more aged population, new fire safety technologies

and performance-based codes are
FIRE LOSS REDUCTION

needed. These can be achieved only

through a higher level of understanding of the dynamics of fire, and more

certain measurement methods.

During the next 10 years, the building industry in the United States and

the rest of the world will be undergoing a radical change as prescriptive fire

codes for built facilities are replaced

by performance based codes. BFRL will

create the knowledge base to allow

the development of accurate and

appropriate predictive tools and test methods that will enable the implementation of performance based

design of fire protection systems.

Fundamental experiments and

analyses will be coordinated with fullscale measurements and data to expand our ability to simulate numerically and visualize real fire phenomena

with increasing certainty. Direct

numerical simulation and computational fluid dynamic models of transport processes will be further expanded to encompass higher accuracy radiation, droplet and sprays models; and

semi-empirical sub-models will be

developed of phenomena at the

fuel/flame interface and of the condensed phase. New instrumentation

and test methods will be developed to

support these models, and reference

data will be produced as input parameters for the models, against which

predictions can be compared at multiple levels: sub-scale, single item

response to fire, second item burning,

and full scale demonstrations.

The program is organized around

four main areas:

advanced measurements;

advanced predictive methods;

standards and codes; and

information.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Pollution Abatement System

for the Large Fire Laboratory

(LFL) Installed

Solid progress has been made to

advance measurement capabilities

and refurbish/upgrade the Large Fire

Laboratory. The pollution abatement

system for the Large Fire Laboratory

(LFL) has been installed and passed

Maryland emission requirements.

Equipment for the heat release rate

measurements for the 6-m hood has

been installed and has been used for

measuring heat release for a project

involving mattress burns. Velocity and

pressure probes have been deployed in

and around the LFL for monitoring the

velocity field external to the LFL.

Progress has been made on both the

droplet imaging and the two- dimensional imaging of flow velocity In the

first case, the instrumentation has been

assembled and calibration measurements for droplet size have been completed. Two dimensional flow fields

have been imaged over a 26 cm x 26 cm

area in the vicinity of the opening of an

enclosure. An uncertainty analysis has

been completed for a widely used radiant

Newly

installed

pollution abatement

system

for the

Large Fire Laboratory.
heat flux gauge and preliminary results

were obtained on the optical properties

of soot in the infrared part of the spectrum, which are needed for modeling

radiant transport.

CONTACT: DR. ANTHONY HAMINS

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301) 975-6598 anthony.hamins@nist.gov

FIREDOC EXPRESS and

FASTData Expand Fire

Information Dissemination

In

FY 01, approximately 2300 articles

were added to FIREDOC, the online

bibliographic database to the Fire

Research Information Services literature

collection. Five new customers were

signed up to FIREDOC EXPRESS, the sys- tem for obtaining articles in FIREDOC by

overnight mail. The BFRL 2000 publications CD was released in May 2001 . The

second version of the FASTData CD was

put into review. FASTData 2.0 has 50%

more fire tests than version 1 .0. A grant was started to further increase the data

in FASTData with test data presently

only in paper format and develop tools

to make use of this data. Templates for

a single subject CD were developed.

Tools for creating an electronic "report

of test" were developed in conjunction

with the Home Fire Alarm Project also know as Dunes II.

CONTACT: DR. ANTHONY HAMINS

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301) 975-6598 anthony.hamins@nist.gov

Tools for Developing

Data Base for PAH Reaction Rates and

Particle

Inception. y

c:\ CHEMRATE

Data Base for PAH Reaction

Rates and Particle Inception

being Developed

BFRL IS developing a critically evaluated, gas-phase chemical kinetic

database describing the transformation

of fuel molecules to their desired end

products of COj and and the undesired PAH. The first quantitative soot

particle inception model based on

experiments is also being developed.

The model will streamline the military's

particulate mitigation strategies based

on computer-based engine design and

fuel additive development.

Federal and state environmental

agencies have been authorized to regulate the amounts of particulate matter

(PM) and PAH emitted from local

sources. Military bases and local airports

are increasingly being considered point

sources of these pollutants and are

starting to be held responsible for their

particulate and PAH emissions.

Additionally, government personnel are

constantly exposed to soot particles and

PAH emitted from military diesel and

gas turbine engines; this is a concern

since fine particles are a health hazard

and certain PAH are carcinogenic.

Motivated by these factors, the military

and their engine manufacturers are

working to reduce PM and PAH formation in existing and future engines.

The first quantitative kinetic rates for

heptyl radical branching have been

measured in the effort to generalize

combustion models for real fuels. The

PAH distribution of early soot has been

quantified. New soot sampling methods

that can be applied in PAH-laden environments have been developed.

CONTACT: DR. GEORGE W. MULHOLLAND

FIRE SCIENCE DIVISION, PHONE: (301 ) 975-6695 george.mulholland@nist.gov
Fire Hazard Analysis

Techniques Developed

for Railcars

Mr. Richard Peacock, Mr. Jason

Averill, and the Integrated Fire

Performance Group are developing

advanced fire hazard analysis techniques

for application to the fire-safe design of

passenger rail and transit vehicles. This

effort has included a systematic study of

the fire performance characteristics of

current rail car materials including characterization of the heat release and

smoke production of actual rail car

materials in the NIST-developed Cone

Calorimeter, full-scale assembly tests of

components such as seats and interior

panels constructed of these same

materials in a furniture calorimeter, and

finally real-scale tests of passenger rail

cars incorporating the tested components. Comparison of the results of fire

hazard analysis of passenger rail vehicles

compared to the real-scale test results showed the techniques are capable of

predicting times to untenable conditions

in the vehicles to within 13 percent. It is

expected that this work will lead to the

recognition of fire hazard-based methods as an alternative to the current prescriptive requirements for passenger rail

and transit vehicles.

CONTACT: MR. RICHARD D. PEACOCK

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301) 975-6664 richard.peacock@nist.gov

Fire growth in real-scale gas burner fire tests in a passenger rail coach car.

Planar Laser Measurement of

Large Scale Sprinkler Flows

The widespread use of advanced

computer models for fire environment prediction has been accompanied

by the desire for sophisticated modeling

of fire suppression. In order to predict

multiple sprinkler activation, the interaction of fire plumes and sprinkler sprays,

and the suppression of fires by sprinklers, high quality input and validation

data are needed. To provide the necessary data, advanced measurement techniques under development at NIST, in

cooperation with the University of

Michigan, can simultaneously measure

droplet size and velocity within largescale sprinkler flows at scales capable of

capturing large-scale unsteady behaviors.

Existing measurement methods are

unable to provide instantaneous largescale measurements of droplet size and

velocity The imaging technique under

development provides qualitative and

quantitative droplet size and velocity

information over an area of 1 m by 1 m

in size with low levels of uncertainty. In

this technique, water droplets are fluoresced with pulsed laser sheets, and the
image recorded by a camera perpendicular to the flow. The measurement

method allows for the determination of

the velocity distributions of a given size

droplet, as well as the mass and

momentum fluxes throughout the flow

field. The technique is being developed

for use in the study of sprinkler flows

with the goal of understanding scaling

behaviors and providing input and validation data for computational models.

CONTACT: MR. ANTHONY PUTORTI

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301) 975-6172 anthony.putorti@nist.gov

Impact of Sub Lethal Fire

Smoke Estimated

Most U.S. fire deaths and injuries

result from smoke inhalation,

and thus smoke toxicity is of prime concern to fire safety professionals.

However, after more than four decades,

there continues to be difficulty and controversy in addressing the contribution

of the effects of smoke in fire hazard

and risk analyses. Under the sponsorship of the Fire Protection Research

Foundation (FPRF), the NIST Fire

Research Division (FRD) and the National

Fire Protection Association (NFPA) have

embarked on a public/private fire

research initiative, the "International

Study of the Sublethal Effects of Fire Smoke on Survival and Health" to provide scientific information on these

effects for public policy makers. FRD fire

scientist Dr. Richard Gann leads the

effort. The project objectives are: to

identify fire scenarios where sublethal

exposures to smoke lead to significant

harm; compile the best available toxicological data on heat and smoke and

their effects on escape and survival,

identifying where existing data are

insufficient for use in fire hazard analysis; develop a validated method to generate product smoke data; and generate

practical guidance for using these data

correctly in fire safety decisions.

The first year's effort has produced

groundbreaking results:

the first estimates of the magnitude

and impact of sublethal exposures to

fire smoke on the U.S. population;

evaluation of the best available lethal

and incapacitating toxic potency values

for the smoke from commercial products;

the first methodology for relating

smoke lethal toxic potency data for rats

to incapacitation data for people;

the potential for various sizes of fires

to produce smoke yields that could

result in sublethal health effects; and

state-of-the-art information on the

production of the condensed components of smoke from fires and their

changes during transport from the fire.

These are reported in: Gann, R.G.,

Avenll, J.D., Butler, K, Jones, W.W.,

Mulholland, G.W., Neviaser, J.L.,

Ohiemiller, TJ., Peacock, R.D., Reneke,

PA., and Hall, Jr, J.R. "International

Study of the Sublethal Effects of Fire Smoke on Survivability and Health

(SEFS): Phase I Final Report," NIST

Technical Note 1439, National Institute

of Standards and Technology 137 pages

(2001); the report can be accessed from

the BFRL web site. Articles on these

technical findings will comprise a forthcoming issue of Fire Technology.

CONTACT: DR. RICHARD G, GANN,

FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301 ) 975-6866,

rggann@nist.gov
Standards activities

Through active participation

and leadership in many Standards Development Organizations, BFRL staffcontributes

significant time and technical

expertise to the process ofdeveloping national and international standards. Standards involvement is listed by organization.

AASHTO

(AMERICAN ASSOCIATION

OF STATE HIGHWAY AND

TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS)

AASHTO Materials Testing

Laboratory (AMRL)

Established at NIST (then NBS) in 1965,

the AASHTO Materials Reference

Laboratory (AMRL) is a research associateship with a staff of 40 that provides

AMRL research associate Kathryn lice preparing hot performance graded asphalt binder test samples for placement in a pressurized aging vessel.

a highly-valued quality assurance

mechanisnn for laboratohes that use AASHTO standards for highway matehals; it also provides technical assistance

to the AASHTO Accreditation program

(AAP) which currently accredits about

700 laboratories. With Mr James Pielert

as Manager and Mr Peter Spellerberg as

Assistant Manager the AMRL provides,

upon request, as reimbursible services,

laboratory inspection and proficiency

sample programs. In 2001, over 1000

laboratories participated in AMRL programs. For those laboratories that wish

to participate in the AAP, results of the

relevant laboratory inspections carried

out by the AMRL and the ASTM-sponsored Cement and Concrete Reference

Laboratory (CCRL) are the basis for

accreditation. AMRL's quality assurance

services are complemented by standards-related research carried out in

collaboration with BFRL researchers.

ACI

(AMERICAN CONCRETE INSTITUTE)

Dr Geoffrey Frohnsdorff, Building

Materials Division, has been elected

to ACI's Board of Direction.

ACI Connmittee 236 Materials

Science of Concrete

Dr Chiara Ferraris chairs ACI Committee

236 Matehals Science of Concrete, and

its Subcommittee 236a Fresh Concrete

Workability. In her role as chair of

Subcommittee 235a, Dr Ferraris led an

international comparison of concrete

rheometers at the Laboratoire Centrale

de Ponts et Chaussees, Nantes, France,

in October 2000. A report on the findings has been published by NIST.

ACI Builcding Cocie Committee

Dr H.S. Lew, Structures Division, serves

on the Amencan Concrete Institute

Committee 318, which is responsible

for developing the ACI Building Code

Requirements for Structural Concrete.

Dr Lew introduced new curing provisions

for concrete based partly on research

on curing requirements for durability

and strength led by the Structures Dr

Nicholas J. Carino as part of BFRL's HYPERCON Partnership for High Performance Concrete Technology.

ACI Committee 440 Fiber

Reinforced Polymers

Dr Dat Duthinh, Structures Division,

plays an active role in the American

Concrete Institute's Committee 440 that

produced the Guide for tfie Design and

Construction of Concrete Reinforced

with FRP Bars. The guide was published

as the first in a new category of ACI

documents dealing with emerging technologies. The construction industry considers the guide an important milestone

toward the more widespread use of

composites in infrastructure.
ACI High Performance

Concrete Committee

Dr. Geoffrey Frohnsdorff was appointed

chair of the Subcommittee on HighPerformance Concrete of the American

Concrete Institute's Technical Activities

Committee. The mission of the subcommittee is "to provide leadership and guidance on high-performance concrete for

all ACI activities." He also chairs an ad

hoc task group of three ACI committees

Hydraulic Cements, Knowledge-Based

Systems and Mathematical Modeling of

Materials, and Materials Science —to

oversee a cooperative pilot activity in the

development of an interoperable guide to

selection and use of cements.

ACI Specifications Committee

Dr. Nicholas J. Carino, Structures

Division, was recently appointed Chair

of the Specifications Committee, which

is responsible for coordinating the standard specifications issued by ACI and

maintaining the Specification Manual

covering the standard format of ACI

specifications.

ACI Committee 216

Fire Resistance and

Fire Protection of Structures

Dr. Long Phan, Structures Division, was named Chair of the joint ACI Committee 216 Fire Resistance and Fire Protection of Structures. The committee produced Standard Method for Determining Fire Resistance of Concrete and

Masonry Construction Assemblies (ACI

216.1R-97).

AISC

(AMERICAN INSTITUTE

OF STEEL CONSTRUCTION)

Mr. Robert Lipman, Building

Environment Division, and Dr. Kent

Reed, in the same division, have been

working for the past several years to

support the AISC Electronic Data

Interchange Initiative. The purpose of

the initiative is to create a means for

collaboration and data sharing among

the various parties involved in steel construction. Dr. Reed participated on the

AISC Task Force whose recommendation

to endorse Version 2.0 of the CIMsteel

Integration Standards (CIS/2) was adopted by the AISC Board of Directors. Mr.

Lipman has been participating in the

AlSC-facilitated technical workshops

and translator implementation activities.

AISC Committee on Specifications

Dr. John L. Gross, Structures Division,

was appointed to serve on the American

Institute of Steel Construction Committee

on Specifications. The Committee on

Specifications is responsible for developing requirements for the design, fabrication, and erection of steel buildings.

ASCE

(AMERICAN SOCIETY

OF CIVIL ENGINEERS)

SEI/ASCE's Executive Committee

on Codes and Standards

Dr. H. S. Lew, Structures Division, serves

on the SEI/ASCE's Executive Committee

on Codes and Standards. He worked

closely with standards committees that

develop standards for seismic evaluation

and rehabilitation of buildings, and for

the testing and evaluation of seismic

isolation systems and components. The

latter standard is based on work carried

out by the Structures Division.

ASCE Committee ASCE-7

Dr. Emil Simiu, Structures Division, is a member of the American Society of

Civil Engineers' Committee on Minimum

Design Loads for Buildings and Other

Structures (ASCE-7).

ASCE Committee on

Structural Condition Assessment

of Existing Buildings

Mr. James Pielert, AASHTO Materials

Testing Laboratory, chairs the American

Society of Civil Engineers' Standards

Committee on Condition Assessment of

Existing Buildings which recently updated Guideline for Structural Condition

Assessment of Existing Buildings

(SEI/ASCE 1 1-99), and prepared the new

Guideline for Condition Assessment of

ttie Building Envelope (SEI/ASCE 30-00).
Standards activities

ASHRAE

(AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HEATING,

REFRIGERATING AND AIR CONDITIONING

ENGINEERS, INC.)

ASHRAE standards Committee

Mr. Brian Dougherty, Building

Environment Division, began a four-year

term on tlie Standards Committee in July

2001, replacing Dr. Piotr A. Domanski,

also of the Building Environment Division.

The committee is responsible for overseeing the development and maintenance of all ASHRAE standards, guidelines, and code language documents.

Mr. Dougherty is a member of the

Inter-Society Liaison and the Technical

Committee Liaison Subcommittees

while having specific responsibility as

the liaison to the ten technical committees within Section 8.

ASHRAE 37R Methods of Test for

Rating Electrically Driven Unitary

Air-Conditioning and Heat Pump

Equipment

Mr. Brian Dougherty is the lead editor

on this revision of the standard, which

was last updated in 1988. The standard

is being updated to reflect current laboratory practices and instrumentation

and to better address newer equipment

features. The laboratory test methods

described in the standard are used to

obtain the performance data that is

ultimately used in calculating federallymandated seasonal rating descriptors.

The document is presently in the public

review process.

ASHRAE Standard 62 Ventilation

for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

Dr. Andrew Persily, Building Environment

Division, chairs the committee responsible for revising ASHRAE Standard 62

Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air

Quality. This committee is converting

the current version of the standard into

code language suitable for adoption by

code bodies and is updating the technical content of the document. This standard contains HVAC system and building design and operation requirements

for providing acceptable indoor environments. The committee's work has

focused on system design requirements

and calculation methods for determining design ventilation rates. The efforts

of the committee have led to the publication of the first revision of the standard in 10 years. Standard 62-1999.

This new version of the standard contains information relating ventilation to

indoor carbon dioxide levels that is

based upon BFRL research.

ASHRAE Standard 118.2 Method

of Testing and Rating Residential

Water Heaters

Dr. William Healy Building Environment

Division, is a voting member of ASHRAE

SRC 1 18.2 Method of Testing and

Rating Residential Water Heaters. This

standard governs the evaluation of the

energy factor which rates the thermal

efficiency of residential water heaters

and the first-hour rating which provides

a metric for the amount of hot water

provided by a tank. The committee is

currently considering changes in this

test procedure to correct errors in calculations and to make the procedure more

consistent. Work has been undertaken

to determine the differences between

the ASHRAE procedure and the

Department of Energy's procedure in an

effort to align the two methods of test. A first draft of a revised document is

currently being prepared for public comments.

ASHRAE 1 35.1 P Method of Test

for Conformance to BACnet

Mr. Steven T Bushby Building Environment Division, was the principal author

of a draft standard, ASHRAE 135. 1P, Method of Test for Conformance to

BACnet. This proposed standard defines

detailed testing procedures for verifying

that control products correctly implement

the BACnet communication protocol.

Although still in the public review

process, 1 35. 1 P has already been

adopted by the newly-created BACnet

Manufacturers Association and the

BACnet Interest Group - Europe (BIGEU) as the basis for testing and listing

programs in the United States and

Europe.

Mr. Bushby is Chairman of ASHRAE

Standing Standard Project Committee

135 (SSPC 1 35) that maintains the

BACnet communication protocol standard for building automation and control systems. Three other new additions

to the BACnet standard were developed
in cooperation with industry. Addendum

c contains new features to meet the

special communication needs of life

safety systems. Addendum d defines a

concept called BACnet Interoperability

Building Blocks (BIBBs) used to make it

easier to specify BACnet systems.

Addendum e provides an interoperable

mechanism for manufacturers or other

organizations to extend the capabilities

of BACnet and publish the extensions

for others to use. BACnet was recently translated into

Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. It has

been adopted as a Korean national

standard, a European Community

prestandard, and has been proposed

as an ISO standard.

ASME

(AMERICAN SOCIETY

OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS)

ASME Solar Energy Division

Dr. A. Hunter Fanney, Building

Environment Division, is a member

and past chairman of the ASME's Solar

Energy Division. This Division is responsible for coordinating all solar energy

activities within ASME including the

Journal of Solar Energy Engineering,

annual conferences, student activities

related to solar energy, and awards.

ASTM

ASTM Committee C01 Cement

Mr. James Pielert, is committee

secretary and a member of the

Executive Subcommittee of ASTM

Committee C01, Cement; he also chairs

the Joint Subcommittee on International

Activities of ASTM C01 and C09. Dr.

Geoffrey Frohnsdorff, vice chair of the

committee also serves on the Executive

Subcommittee of C01

.

ASTM C01.23 Subcommittee

on Computational Analysis

Mr. Paul Stutzman, Building Materials

Division, chairs the task groups on X-Ray

Diffraction Analysis and Petrographic

Analysis in ASTM Subcommittee

C01.23, Compositional Analysis. Under

his leadership, standards for improved

characterization of portland cements in

terms of the phases present using these

two techniques have been established.

ASTM Committee C09

Concrete and Concrete

Aggregates

Dr. Nicholas J. Carino, Structures

Division, is writing draft revisions to ASTM C 42 (Test Method for Obtaining

and Testing Drilled Cores and Sawed

Beams of Concrete). The revisions will

take into account new research findings

on the effects of moisture conditioning

before testing cores for strength. He

also developed a revision of ASTM C 900

Test Method for Pullout Strength of

Hardened Concrete, that enhances the

procedure for calibrating test instruments.

Dr Carino also chairs Subcommittee

C09.64, Nondestructive and In-Place

Testing and the task group on testing

high strength concrete.

Mr. James Pielert is a member of the

Executive Subcommittee of ASTM C09.

Mr. Raymond Kolos, Research Associate

with CCRL, chairs ASTM Subcommittee

C09.97, Manual of Testing (for concrete

and concrete aggregates).

ASTM Committee D04

Road and Paving Materials

The following CMRL research associates

participate in Committee D04 activities:

Mr. Peter Spellerberg serves on the

Executive Subcommittee of ASTM D04,

and chairs Subcommittee D04.95,

Quality Control, Inspection, and Testing

Agencies; Mr. Robert Lutz chairs ASTM

Subcommittee D04.46, Durability and

Distillation Tests (asphalt); and Mr. David

Savage chairs ASTM Subcommittee

D04.30, Methods of Sampling.

ASTM Committee D18

Soil and Rock

Mr. Ronald Holsinger, Building Materials

Division, serves on the Executive Subcommittee of ASTM Committee D18

Soil and Rock, and is secretary to Subcommittee D 18.05 Strength and Compressibility of Soils and Subcommittee

D 18.03 Texture, Plasticity and Density

Characteristics of Soils.
Standards activities

ASTM E5 Committee

on Fire Standards

Mr. James R. Lawson, Fire Research

Division, is a voting member of the

ASTM E5 Committee on Fire Standards

and the NFPA Fire Test Technical

Committee. These committees develop

fire standards for building construction,

transportation and furnishings. These

fire standards are used by the building

codes and other regulating authorities

throughout North America. In addition

Mr. Lawson is a voting member (Mr.

Robert Vettori alternate) of the ASTM

F23 Committee on Protective Clothing,

NFPA Committee for the Standard on

Protective Ensemble for Structural Fire

Fighting and the NFPA Committee on

Special Operations Pro-tective Clothing

and Equipment. These technical committees develop standards for protective

clothing and equipment used by the fire

service in North Amenca. Fire standards

and protective clothing and equipment

standards are under constant development and revision as new knowledge

and technology becomes available.

ASTM CI 6 Committee

on Thermal Insulation

Mr. Robert R. Zarr, Building Environment

Division, is the task group chair of a new standard activity covering the

development of database formats for

thermal transmission data obtained by

ASTM C16 Standard Test Methods. Mr.

Zarr has also prepared a precision and

bias guideline for CI 6. The precision

and bias checklist was approved by the

membership in 2000 and is now

required for submission of all C 1

standards. Mr. Zarr also chairs CI

task groups on the design and operation of guarded hotplate apparatus.

ASTM Standing Committee

on Publications

Dr. Mary McKnight, Building Materials

Division, was appointed to the ASTM

Standing Committee on Publications for

a three-year term. The Committee advises the Society's Board of Directors on

the formulation of publications policy

and administers the Society's publications program, except for the Annual

Book of ASTM Standards.

ASTM Subcommittee E06.23 Lead

Hazards Associated with Buildings

Dr. Mary McKnight chairs ASTM

Subcommittee E06.23, Lead Hazards

Associated with Buildings. Under her

leadership, more than 25 standards for

use in abatement of hazards from leaded

paint in buildings have been established.

ASTM Subcommittee E06.66

Performance Standards for

Dwellings

Dr. Walter Rossiter, Building Materials

Division, is chairman, pro tern, of ASTM

Subcommittee E06.66 on Performance

Standards for Dwellings. He is also

chairman of the E06.66 Task Group on

Durability, which recently completed a

draft standard entitled. Guide for

Specifying and Evaluating Performance

of Single Family Attached and Detached

Dwellings Durability. The standard is

likely to be issued by ASTM in the

spring of 2001

Dr. Robert Chapman, Office of Applied

Economics, is writing the economics

attribute standard that ties together the

E06,66 family of standards that define

total building performance.

ASTM Subcommittee E06.81

Building Economics

Dr. Harold E. Marshall, Office of Applied

Economics (OAE), has been the sole

chairman of ASTM's Building Economics

Subcommittee, E06.81, since its inception in 1979. He has played major

authorship, educational, and leadership

roles in writing and shepherding successfully 16 standards and two software

products through the ASTM standardization process. His recent efforts are

focused on a standard elemental building classification called UNIFORMAT II.

Based on two NIST reports co-authored

by Dr. Marshall, the ASTM standard

classification provides the building community a common elemental classification for the description, economic

analysis, and management of buildings

over their life cycle. UNIFORMAT II is

helping owners, project managers,

designers, builders, and facility managers construct and manage their buildings more cost effectively Other building
economics standards based on research

of Dr. Marshall and his OAE staff

include methods for measuring and evaluating life-cycle costs, net benefits or

savings, and adjusted internal rates of

return.

Dr. Robert Chapman, serves as secretary

to E06.81 and chairs the task group on

economic techniques. He was the lead

author on User's Guide to AHP/Expert

Choice for A5TM Building Evaluation, a

companion document to ASTM software that helps users evaluate construction alternatives where they seek to

maximize multiple objectives.

CCRL

(CEMENT AND CONCRETE

REFERENCE LABORATORY)

Established at NIST (then NBS) as the

Cement Reference Laboratory in 1929

in response to a request from Congress,

the ASTM-sponsored Cement and

Concrete Reference Laboratory (CCRL)

is a research associateship that provides

a highly-valued quality assurance mechanism for laboratories that use ASTM

cement and concrete standards. With

Mr. James Pielert of AASHTO as Manager

and Mr. Raymond Kolos of ASTM as

Assistant Manager, and a staff of 18

ASTM research associates, the CCRL

provides, upon request, as reimbursible

services, laboratory inspection and proficiency sample programs. In 2001, over 900 laboratories participated in the

CCRL programs. For cement and

concrete laboratories that wish to participate in the AASHTO Accreditation

Program (AAP), results of laboratory

inspections carried out by the CCRL are

the basis for accreditation. CCRL's quality assurance services are complemented

by standards-related research earned out

in collaboration with BFRL researchers.

CIB

(INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION)

CIB W14 Fire

Mr. Richard Bukowski, Fire Research

Division, has recently been appointed

chair of CIB Working Commission 14

on Fire. The oldest working commission

in existence, W14 has a long history of

making major contributions to the fire

science and engineering fields.

CIB TG37 Performance-Basecd

Buildings

Mr. Richard Bukowski, participates in

CIB TG37, a task group that is developing infrastructure and policy in support

of performance regulatory systems,

internationally TG37 is closely linked to

the Inter-jurisdictional Regulatory

Collaboration Committee (IRCC) that is made up of the chief building code official for each member country and who

share common experiences and problems in the operation of performance

regulatory systems.

lAI

(INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE

FOR INTEROPERABILITY)

NIST has joined the International

Alliance for Interoperability/North

America as a government member.

Dr. Kent Reed, Building Environment

Division, represents NIST in the lAI/NA, is

a member of the lAI Technical Advisory

Group that functions at the international level, and participates in technical

projects in the Building Services Domain.

The lAI is a global standards-setting

organization dedicated to promoting

effective means of exchanging information among all software platforms and

applications serving the Architecture,

Engineering, Construction, and Facility

Management (AEC-i-FM) community

ICC

(INTERNATIONAL CODE COUNCIL)

ICC Performance Committee

Mr. Richard Bukowski completed a

three-year assignment to the ICC

Performance Building Code and ICC

Performance Fire Code drafting committees. These two committees eventually

merged and produced the ICC Perfor- mance Code for Buildings and Facilities,

the first combined U.S. building and fire

code and the first U.S. performancebased code. This document has entered

into the ICC code development process

where it is open to code change

proposals prior to formal adoption.
Standards activities

Mr. Bukowski has been named to the

ICC Performance Code development

committee, which is responsible for

accepting or rejecting these proposed

changes.

ISO

(INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION

FOR STANDARDIZATION)

ISO TAGS

Mr. Richard Bukowski was appointed

U.S. representative to ISO TAGS by

ANSI which provides the U.S. Secretariat. TAGS is a technical advisory group to

the Technical Management Board (TMB)

of the International Organization for

Standardization (ISO) which develops

ISO standards. A current activity is the

development of an ISO policy on performance standards.

ISO TC 59 Building Construction

Dr. Geoffrey Frohnsdorff chairs Subcommittee 14, Design Life, of ISO Technical

Committee 59, Building Construction.

The subcommittee is preparing a standard, ISO 156S6, Buildings and Constructed Assets: Service Life Planning,

which will have at least seven parts. Part 1,

General Principles, and Part 2, Service

Life Pre-diction Procedures, have already

been published and Part 3, Performance

Audits and Reviews, should be completed

in 2001.

ISO TC 86 Refrigeration

and Air-Conditioning

ISO's Technical Committee 86 Refrigeration

and Air-Conditioning is composed of

eight subcommittees that address topics

such as terms and definitions, safety,

and testing and rating methods for

refrigeration and space-conditioning

equipment. Mr. Brian Dougherty participates as a member of the U.S. Technical

Advisory Group (TAG) for ISO TC S6.

The TAG monitors and formulates the

U.S. position on all TC SB-sponsored

standards activities. BFRL is also represented on ISO Working Groups 1 and 5

within Subcommittee 6, Factory-Made

Air-Conditioning and Heat Pump Units. WG1 is working to revise two testing

and rating standards that apply to unitary air-conditioners and heat pumps.

WG5 is developing a testing and rating

standard for multi-split air conditioners

and heat pumps.

ISO TC92 Fire Safety

The Fire Research Division has several

participants in TC92. Dr. Richard Gann

chairs SC3 Fire Threat to People and the

Environment, and participates in the

Technical Program Management Group.

Dr Walter Jones participates in SC4 Fire

Safety Engineering.

ISO TCI 84 Industrial Automation

Systems and Integration

Mr. Mark Palmer, Building Environment

Division, participates in Subcommittee 4

Independent Data, of ISO TCI 84

Industry Automation Systems and

Integration, and leads the development

of ISO 10303 Application Protocols for

the Process Plant Industries, as well as

the development of the Test Case

Guidelines for SC4 standards. In collaboration with the industrial consortium

PlantSTEP, NIST developed and demonstrated the first ISO 10303 application

protocol (AP227) for exchanging

CAD/CAE information for process plants.

In collaboration with PlantSTEP, engineering, construction and shipbuilding

companies and the U.S. Naval Sea

Systems Command, Mr. Palmer is developing extensions to AP227 to support

HVAC design and installation, piping

fabrication and inspection, and cable- way design and installation.

ISO TC 205 WG 3

Building Control System Design

Mr. Steven Bushby, is convener of ISO

TC 205 WG 3 Building Control System

Design. The Working group is developing a multi-part international standard

that addresses several issues related to

building control systems including control system functionality, communication

protocols, system specifications and
project management. ANSI/ASHRAE

Standard 135-1995 was adopted as the

committee draft (CD) for the communication protocol portion of this standard.

NES

(NATIONAL EVALUATION SERVICE)

Building Innovation Center

of the NES

Dr. Walter Rossiter drafted a protocol

for evaluating the durability of innovative building materials and components

for the Building Innovation Center of

the National Evaluation Service, which

serves two of the U.S. model code

organizations.

NFPA

(NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION

ASSOCIATION)

NFPA Standards Council

Mr. Richard Bukowski, was appointed to

the NFPA Standards Council by the

NFPA Board of Directors in January

2000. The Standards Council is the

body that administers the NFPA Codes

and Standards system including making

all committee appointments, initiating

and terminating standards projects and

issuing all documents. This is an especially important time for the Standards

Council in administering the development of the NFPA Building Code and

related Codes through strategic partnerships. Appointments to the thirteen- member Council run for two, three-year

terms.

NFPA Alternative Approaches to

Life Safety Connmittee

Mr. David Stroup, Fire Research Division,

chairs NFPA 101 A Committee on

Alternative Approaches to Life Safety.

The Alternative Approaches to Life

Safety standard provides methodologies

for measuring equivalency to the prescriptive requirements of NFPA 101, Life

Safety Code. The document includes

several Fire Safety Evaluation Systems

(FSES) developed at NIST for various

building occupancy types. As chair of

the committee responsible for this fire

safety standard, Mr. Stroup presented

the committee's report for adoption at

the NFPA Fall Meeting held in Orlando, FL

on November 15, 2000. At this meeting,

the NFPA membership approved the latest revision of the standard and, more

significantly, accepted the first software

package, useful for evaluating equivalency, for inclusion in the standard. The

software, which was developed by

Hughes Associates through a contract

with BFRL, implements an enhanced Fire

Safety Evaluation System for business

type occupancies.

NFPA Toxicity Advisory Committee

Dr. Richard Gann, chairs the NFPA

Toxicity Advisory Committee. This committee brings special expertise on combustion toxicity to advise any other

NFPA technical committee on toxicity

issues that might be part of any proposal under consideration.

NFPA Automatic Sprinkler

Committees

Mr. Daniel Madrzykowski, Fire Research

Division, is chair of the Technical

Committee on Residential Sprinkler

Systems. This committee is responsible

for developing the standard on the

design and installation of sprinklers in

one-and two-family dwellings, and in

residential occupancies up to 4 stones in

height. In addition, Mr. Madrzykowski

serves on the Technical Correlating

Committee on Automatic Sprinklers,

leading the New Technology Task Group

and is the NIST alternate on the NFPA

Technical Committee on Sprinkler

System Discharge. Mr Madrzykowski

revised the residential sprinkler section

in the NFPA Automatic Sprinkler

Systems Handbook, 8th ed.
Standards activities

NFPA 921 Guide for Fire and

Explosion Investigations

Mr. Anthony Putorti Jr., Fire Research

Division, is a member of the NFPA 921

Committee, Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations. This committee provides guidance to investigation professionals based on scientifically defensible

materials and referenced technical data.

NIST utilizes Its research expertise to

provide the latest technical and scientific

research information to the committee.

At the current time, NIST is studying the

formation of fire burn patterns, which is

one of the tools used by investigators to

determine the origins and causes of

fires and explosions. The burn pattern

research is supported by the National

Institute of Justice via the NIST Office of

Law Enforcement Standards and the

United States Fire Administration.

NFPA Halon

Alternatives Committee

Dr. William Grosshandler, Fire Research

Division, IS a member of the NFPA 2001

committee developing standards for

replacements for halon extinguishing

agents. This activity is coordinated with

the BFRL research on halon replacements.

NFPA Life Safety Code

for Detention and

Correctional Facilities

Researchers in the Office of Applied

Economics have developed new software to help prison facility managers

and fire safety engineers minimize the

cost of complying with the NFPA

Life Safety Code for Detention and

Correctional Facilities. The project was

funded by the National Institute of

Justice through the NIST Office of Law

Enforcement Standards. Called ALARM

2.0 (Alternative Life-Safety Analysis for

Retrofit Cost Minimization), the software quickly finds the least-cost compliance plan by using construction cost

estimating algorithms and a linear programming optimization model. The user

first provides minimal information about

the facility and then enters data about

the initial (or current) safety levels for

13 fire safety parameters. The user also

enters data on the dimensions and

quantities of the building features that

must be modified to improve safety.

The cost estimating algorithms quickly

estimate the construction costs of every

possible safety improvement (which can

be overridden by the user). The software then automatically finds the leastcost compliance plan for the facility

ALARM includes a User Manual, an

extensive help system and tutorial, a

sample project file, and a detailed printed report describing the least-cost

construction plan to achieve compliance

with the Life Safety Code. ALARM 2.0 is

being distributed by the NFPA and the

American Correctional Association.

NFPA National Fire Alarm Code

Technical Correlating Committee

Mr. Richard Bukowski serves on the

TCC for the National Fire Alarm Code.

Like other TCC's this committee addresses technical consistency and correlation among the technical committees

responsible for specific parts of the Code.

NFPA and ASTM Rail

Transportation Committees

Mr. Richard Peacock, Fire Research

Division, represents NIST and DOT on

the NFPA 130 committee and the ASTM

E5.17 committee developing standards

for fire safety in passenger rail vehicles.

These activities are tied directly to the

DOT funded work to develop advanced

fire hazard analysis methods to be used

in federal regulation.

NFPA Safety to Life

Correlating Committee

Mr. Richard Bukowski is a member of

the Technical Correlating Committee

(TCC) for the Safety to Life Project. The

TCC provides oversight to the technical

committees developing requirements for

individual topics and assures that the

requirements are consistent and correlated throughout the document.

46
NFPA Urban/Wildland

Interface Committee

Mr. Daniel Madrzykowski is a member

of the NFPA Technical Committees on

Forest and Rural Fire Protection and

has contributed to the standards and

guides on Application of Class A foam

in Structural Fire Fighting and FireFighting Chemicals for Class A Fuels.

Mr. Madrzykowski also serves as NIST's

principal member on the Water Mist

Fire Protection Systems Technical

Committee.

PIEBASE

PIEBASE is an international umbrella

organization for process and construction industry consortia active in the

development of ISO STEP (Standard for

The Exchange of Product model data)

application protocols and other international standards for exchanging and

sharing industrial data. Mr. Mark Palmer,

Building Environment Division, participates in the PIEBASE Working Group.

PIEBASE coordinates the standards

development programs of the participating consortia and provides a forum

for international collaboration on developing and using in-formation technology

standards for the benefit of the global

process industries.

RILEM

(INTERNATIONAL UNION OF RESEARCH

AND TESTING LABORATORIES FOR

MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES)

RILEM Coordinating Committee

Mr. Dale Bentz, was appointed to the

Coordinating Committee of RILEM for a

three-year term. RILEM is a pre-standards

organization that produces technical

documents that frequently become the

basis for national or international standards. The Coordinating Committee has

oversight of the technical quality and

progress of the work in all RILEM technical committees.

RILEM Technical Committee HTC

Mechanical Concrete Properties at High Temperatures: Modeling and

Applications

Dr. Long Phan is a Senior Member of

the newly-formed RILEM Technical

Committee HTC, Mechanical Concrete

Properties at High Temperatures:

Modeling and Applications. TC HTC is

the successor to the former committee

RILEM 129-MHTTest Methods for

Mechanical Properties of Concrete at

High Temperatures.

SFPE

(SOCIETY FOR FIRE PROTECTION

ENGINEERING)

SFPE Task Group on

Fire Model Evaluation

Mr Daniel Madrzykowski is the Chairman

of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers'

Task Group on Fire Model Evaluation.

This group develops evaluation reports

that provide information on the technical features, theoretical basis, assumptions, limitations and sensitivities of

selected computer models. The principle means of evaluation is comparing model

predictions to full-scale expenmental

data. The group recently completed the

evaluation of one of the most heavily

used models in the fire protection industry, DETACT-QS and the group is currently working on the evaluation of

another fire model developed at NIST,

ASET-B. Mr. Madrzyskowi also serves as

a member of SFPE's Technical Steering

Committee and their Publications

Committee.
International activities

Argentina Canada Denmark

At the invitation

of the Federation

of Societies for ^^^^^^^^^^^

Technology

(FSCT), Dr. Jonathan Martin gave a

4-hour short course on service life prediction methodologies in Buenos Aires,

Argentina, in July, 2001 . The purpose was to increase collaboration between

the FSCT and South American countries.

Mr. Kenneth

Snyder spent the summer

on a sabbatical

of 2001

at 1^1

Laval University in Quebec City, Canada.

While there, he collaborated with Dr.

Jacques Marchand of Laval on the theory

of transport of water and aqueous solutions in concrete, and on the development of a molecular dynamics approach

to modeling the reactions of cements

with water.

Dr. Tinh Nguyen serves on the Steering Committee for the 9th International

Conference on the Durability of Building

Materials and Components to be held

in Brisbane, Australia, in March, 2002.

NIST and the National Research Council

of Canada initiated this series of conferences in 1978, and both continue to be

represented on the Steering Committee.

In each of the summers of 1999

and 2000, Mr.

Dale Bentz spent

three months on

sabbatical as the Knud Hojgaard Visiting

Professor at the Danish Technical

University While at DTU, he lectured on

the computational material science of

cement and concrete and carried out

research on the transport of water in

cement-based matehals. He also spent a week at the European Synchrotron

Radiation Facility (ESRF) using the highintensity x-ray beam line in carrying out

high-resolution x-ray tomographic studies of early-age microstructural changes

taking place during the hardening of a cement paste
Japan

The United

States-Japan

Cooperative

Program in

Natural Resources

(UJNR) was founded in 1964 in response

to the need for improved engineering

and scientific practices through exchange

of technical data, information, and research personnel between the United

States and Japan. The UJNR Panel on Wind and Seismic Effects was established

in 1969. The U.S. -side Panel is chaired

by Dr. S. Shyam Sunder. Mr. Stephen A.

Cauffman serves as the SecretaryGeneral for the U.S.-side Panel.

The UJNR Panel on Wind and Seismic

Effects focuses on the effects of natural

events such as earthqual<es, high winds,

tsunami and storm surge on buildings

and other structures, and on the devel- opment of technologies to mitigate

these effects. The Joint Panel meets

annually, alternating between the U.S.

and Japan. Meetings consist of technical

sessions and site visits to research laboratories and civil works projects. Task

Committees are chartered by the Joint

Panel to address particular research topics of mutual interest to the U.S. and

Japan and facilitate information

exchange through focused workshops,

joint research projects and exchange of

researchers.

The UJNR Panel on Wind and Seismic

Effects developed a strategic plan following its May 2000 meeting in the

U.S. and adopted the strategic plan at

its May 2001 meeting in Japan. The

purpose of the plan is to streamline the

operation of the Panel, ensure that Task

Committees are active and have strong

bilateral leadership, encourage broader

participation by the private sector and

academia, and to position the Panel for

future growth. Four Task Committees,

operating under the new structure,

were chartered at the May 2001 meeting. Additional Task Committees may be

chartered by the Joint Panel to address

topics where there is strong bilateral

interest and leadership.

Vietnam

Walter ^^Hj^^^H

was a ^^^^V^^^^H

member the j^^^^^^^^^^l

U.S. team partici- ^^^^^^^^

pating in the Workshop on Standards

in Trade; Building and Construction,

that was held in Vietnam in July 2000.

The Workshop was co-sponsored by

NIST and the Vietnamese Directorate for

Standards and Quality and was held to

inform representatives of the Association

of Southeast Asian Nations of the important role that codes and standards play

in building construction. Dr. Rossiter was

a key speaker providing an overview of

the U.S. building regulatory system and

describing the interface between the

U.S. building design and regulatory

communities.

Six guest researchers who joined the Inorganic Building Materials Group in 2001 are, from left to right,

Dr. Kenneth Chong, a program manager from the U.S. National Science Foundation, Mr. Frank Chaventre, a researcher from CSTB, France, Mr. Erik Neilsen, a doctoral student from the Technical University of Denmark,

Ms. Xiuping Feng, a researcher from Northwestern University, Ms. Aicha Ghezal, a graduate student from the

University of Sherbrooke, Canada, and Mr. Bryan Keen, a technician from the Building Research Association

of New Zealand.
Staff HIGHLIGHTS

One ofBFRL's great strengths is

the excellence ofits staff. Their

competence and contributions

are consistently recognized by

peers in professional societies.

Examples ofrecent staffawards,

other recognitions and key

appointments are listed below.

Gold Medal

The Gold Medal Award is the

highest honor award conferred

upon an employee by the Department

of Commerce. It is bestowed for "distinguished performance characterized by

extraordinary notable, or prestigious

contributions that impact the mission

of the Department of Commerce and/or

one operating unit and which reflect

favorably on the Department. " Awards

are given in the following categories:

leadership, personal and professional

excellence, scientific/engineering

achievement, employee development,

customer service, administrative/technical

support, and public service or heroism.

Dr. Takashi Kashiwagi, Fire Research

Division, received the Department's

Gold Medal for leading the transformation of materials flammability from a

field dominated by prediction uncertainties so large that they were of little

value to manufacturers and regulators,

to a field based upon scientific understanding and sound engineering. New

flame retardant principles and models

that he has advanced are the tools to

assure the U.S. plastics industry that

modifications to their products will manifest the intended fire performance without significant reductions in their physical properties, resulting in new and

improved products for domestic and

international markets.

Silver Medal

The Silver Medal is the second

highest honor awarded by the

Department for "exceptional performance characterized by noteworthy or

superlative contributions that have a

direct and lasting impact".

Ms. Geraldine Cheok, Dr. H.S. Lew and Dr. William Stone, all of

the Structures Division, received the

Department's Silver Medal for 13 years

of research that led to the development

and acceptance of an innovative precast

concrete beam-to-column connection

that can be used for high-rise construction in high-risk earthquake regions. It is

more cost-effective than conventional

steel or cast-in-place connections. The

connection was used to construct a

39-story precast concrete building in

San Francisco, the tallest concrete frame

building ever built in a high-risk seismic

zone. Other construction projects are

underway that use the concept and it is

being adopted in codes and standards.

Dr. Kevin McGrattan and Dr. Glenn

Forney, both of the Fire Research

Division, received the Department's

Silver Medal for development of the

Fire Dynamic Simulator and Smokeview.

These computer programs were released

to the public 18 months ago and are

revolutionizing fire modeling. Practicing

engineers and code officials can now

perform computational fluid dynamics

calculations and visualize fire effects

with high spatial and temporal resolution using common personal computers.

The programs have been used in projects to successfully get draft curtain

requirements removed from sprinkled

warehouse facilities and to demonstrate

reasons for fire fighter deaths in the

reconstruction of fires. This latter project

has major implications for the future

training of firefighters.
Bronze Medal

The Bronze Medal Award is the

highest honorary recognition

available for Institute presentation. The

award, approved by the Director, recognizes work that has resulted in more

effective and efficient management systems as well as the demonstration of

unusual initiative or creative ability in

the development and improvement of

methods and procedures. It also is given

for significant contributions affecting

major programs, scientific accomplishment within the Institute, and superior

performance of assigned tasks for at

least five consecutive years.

Dr. Mark A. Ehlen, Office of Applied

Economics was recognized for outstanding technical work in producing

BridgeLCC—a unique, user-friendly soft- ware product that helps designers, owners, and materials suppliers estimate lifecycle costs of bridges made from both

new-technology and conventional materials. Signi-ficant contributions are the

development of a life-cycle costing

framework for selecting economically

efficient building materials, a bridge elemental classification adopted by ASTM

as a standard, and a tool based on the

BFRL concrete service life prediction

model that estimates the service lives of

bridge components made of concrete.

BridgeLCC is cutting-edge, interdisciplinary software for selecting cost-effective, new technology materials.

Dr. Jiann C. Yang, Fire Research

Division, was recognized for advancing

fire suppression measurement science

by developing the Dispersed Liquid

Agent Fire Suppression Screen apparatus. For the first time, new chemicals,

that have other positive attributes, but

that are in a liquid phase, can now be

evaluated side-by-side with halon 1301

and other gaseous materials in a system

that requires only a few grams of material. The new apparatus provides assurance that the suppression effectiveness

ranking is a scientifically sound predictor

of the relative effectiveness of the new

material in full-scale.

Mr. Daniel Madrzykowski, Fire

Research Division, received the Bronze

Medal for his tireless efforts and exceptional leadership in collecting, analyzing

and using data from structure fires to

educate professionals as well as the

general public on building fires, fire hazards, and the NIST Fire Program. Over a

period of 5 years, he worked closely

with local fire departments, the U.S. Fire

Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol,

Tobacco, and Firearms, the International

Association of Arson Investigators, and

the National Institutes of Occupational

Safety and Health to conduct fire experiments on a wide variety of structures

from single houses to multi-story apartment buildings. He created a database

of structural fire scenarios that goes

beyond anything possible using the NIST

fire facilities. In addition, he provided numerous interviews to radio, television

and other news media to educate the

public about these large-scale fire experiments.

Dr. John Gross, Structures Division,

received the Bronze Medal for the

development of a science-based design

guide for seismic retrofit of welded

moment frame buildings. The 1994

Northridge earthquake caused a significant number of unexpected failures in

beam-to-column connections in welded

steel buildings. He developed a national

plan for addressing the technical issues

posed by the failures, determined and

documented the specific causes of the

failures, and then determined the three

most promising connection modification

concepts to eliminate the inherent vulnerability of hundreds of thousands of

similar connections in buildings located

in seismically active regions throughout

the world. The concepts were experimentally validated in full-scale tests at

three leading universities and then

incorporated into a new Design Guide

published by the American Institute of

Steel Construction.
Staff HIGHLIGHTS

Equal Employment

Opportunity/Diversity

Award

The Equal Employment

Opportunity/Diversity Award recognizes significant EEO/diversity contributions that have been performed in

an outstanding manner by an Institute

employee. The award was initiated in

1977.

Mr. Nelson P. Bryner and Dr. Kathryn M. Butler, both of the Fire

Research Division, are recognized for

their joint voluntary effort, initiative, and

perseverance toward the active

advancement of diversity at NISI As

chairs of the first-ever diversity

committee at NIST, the BFRL Diversity

Committee, they built and led a team

that made significant accomplishments

in improving communication, developing careers, fostering recruitment of an

excellent and diverse staff, improving retention of existing staff and community

outreach. Moreover, their flagship BFRL

committee served as a model in the

subsequent formation of diversity committees throughout NIST. Butler and

Bryner's profound dedication to the

advancement of diversity at NIST led to

the initiation of a wide array of ongoing

activities that will continue yielding positive results for many years to come.

Commerce Engineer

of the Year Award

Dr. John Gross, Structures Division,

has been named by the National Society

of Professional Engineers as the

" Engineer of the Year" for the U.S.

Department of Commerce, National

Institute of Standards and Technology.

In addition, he has been named among

the 33 agency winners to be in the

"Top Ten" for Federal Engineer of the

Year. Dr. Gross was cited for his work in

seismic rehabilitation of welded steel

frame buildings.

BFRL Communication

Award (2000)

Dr. Mark A. Ehlen, Office of

Applied Economics, received BFRL's

1999 Communication Award for his BhdgeLCC 1 .0 software, users guide,

and web site. The user-friendly software

helps bridge designers, owners, and

matehals suppliers estimate the lifecycle costs of new-technology matehals

such as FRP composites, high-performance concrete, and high-performance

steel. BridgeLCC provides cutting-edge

measurement technology that advances

the life-cycle quality and economy of

bndges and other constructed facilities.

The Windows-based program is available in the form of a CD and users

manual and in downloadable form

from the BndgeLCC web site

(http://www. bfrl. nist. gov/bridgelcc)

Over 450 BridgeLCC CDs and user manuals have been distributed to state

departments of transportation , private

engineering firms, materials suppliers,

and trade associations. Universities,

building research institutes, and materials organizations in 7 countries have

requested the software.

BFRL Communication

Award (2001)

Mr. William D. Walton, Dr. Glenn

Forney, Mr. Daniel Madrzykowski

and Mr. Robert Vettori, all of the

Fire Research Division, received the

2000 BFRL Communication Award for

the compact disk presentation (NISTIR

6510) of their simulation/re-creation of

the May 30, 1999, Cherry Road fire in

which two fire fighters were killed. The

compact disk (CD) is simple to use and

the re-creation using BFRL's Fire Dynamic

Simulator (FDS) computer model presents all pertinent time lines, floor plans,

material properties, and a thorough discussion of the insights gained. Understanding of what happened and how

the fatalities occurred is aided by model

animations portraying the courses of

variations in temperature, gas concentrations, and gas velocity gradients calculated to have occurred during the critical time. While this fire scene is not the

first to have been simulated by computer models, it is the first that presents

the physics and chemistry of fire phe- nomena at a level that fire fighters can

readily understand. The use of the FDS
to simulate and re-create the fire scenario and the packaging of the results

on a CD has "radically advanced the

state-of-the-art in fire scene/arson investigation, significantly impacted the

investigating committee's inquiry, and

significantly advanced the understanding of a fire scenario that involved the

death of two fire fighters."

BFRL Communicator

Award (2000)

Dr. Jonathan Martin, Building

Materials Division, received the BFRL

Communicator Award in recognition of

the success of his sustained campaign

extending over 20 years to introduce

reliability concepts and life cycle testing

to the coatings community, and the

building materials community as a

whole. In addition to communicating his

ideas in print and in public forums. Dr.

Martin has communicated successfully

with senior scientists in several of the

world's largest coatings companies. He

has taught them how development and

implementation of his ideas on service

life prediction would enable them to

reduce the time taken to bring new

products to market.

BFRL Communicator

Award (2001)

Dr. John Gross received the 2000

BFRL Communicator Award for addressing a critical public safety issue by communicating the results of his research on

the seismic performance of welded steel

buildings and influencing the American

Institute for Steel Construction and the

Federal Emergency Management

Administration to publish design guides.

The number of failures of beam-to-col- umn connections in steel frames of

buildings that occurred as a result of the

1994 Northridge earthquake near Los

Angeles raised a critical public safety

issue. Following the earthquake, at the

request of leaders from the steel producing and fabricating industries, Dr

Gross helped organize and conduct a

workshop to develop a national plan to

address the technical issues posed by

the failures. Then, working in conjunction with the Structural Engineers

Association of California (SEAOC), the

Applied Technology Council (ATC), the

California Universities for Research in

Earthquake Engineering (CUREe) and

the American Institute for Steel

Construction (AISC), Dr. Gross initiated

a multi-year program of coordinated

research on seismic rehabilitation.

ACi Structural

Research Award

Dr. William Stone, Structures

Division, was selected by the American

Concrete Institute to receive the ACI

Structural Research Award for his coauthored paper on an experimental

research on cumulative seismic damage

in concrete columns. The experimental

study was carried out in the Structures

Division jointly with Drs. Ashraf El-Bahy,

Sashi Kunnath, and Andrew Taylor Their

study for the first time, showed that

fatigue-based damage models offer a

reliable means of determining seismic

structural performance of bridge

columns. In selecting their paper as the

Most Meritorious Paper in 2000, the

selection committee recognized that the

results of their study would have significant impact on the seismic safety of

highway bridges. In 1997 Dr Stone

jointly with Ms. Geraldine Cheok

received the same award for their study

on seismic performance of hybrid

moment-resisting precast beam-column

connections.

ACi international

Conference Award

Dr. H. S. Lew, Structures Division,

received the ACI International

Conference Award for his sustained

contributions to the repair and rehabilitation of concrete structures. The award

is given triennially for individuals who

made significant contributions in the

area of concrete design and technology.

ACI Distinguished

Chapter Member Award

Mr. James Pielert, Construction

Materials Reference Laboratories, was

the recipient of the Distinguished

Chapter Member Award for the Year 2000 from the National Capital Chapter
Staff HIGHLIGHTS

of the ACL The award honors eminent

Chapter members who have made

exceptional contributions to the objectives of the Chapter and AC!. Mr. Pielert

is a Fellow of the ACI and a former

President of the National Capital

Chapter.

ASCE Raymond C. Reese

Research Prize

Dr. John Gross was selected by

ASCE's Structural Engineering Institute

as the recipient of the 2001 Raymond

C. Reese Research Prize. This award is

for his paper "Cyclic Testing of Steel Moment Connections Rehabilitated with

RBS or Welded Haunch" published in

the Journal of Structural Engineering in

January 2000 and jointly authored with

Professor Chia-Ming Uang and Mr. Kent

Yu at the University of California at San

Diego. The Raymond C. Reese prize is

awarded to the author or authors of

paper published by the society duhng

the past year that describes a notable

achievement in research structural engineering and which indicates how it can

be used. Dr. Gross' paper describes the

NIST-led worl< on retrofit of welded steel moment frame structures following the

1994 Northridge Earthquake. Dr. Gross

joins a distinguished group of colleagues -

including a several members of the

National Academy of Engineehng - who

have received this award since its inception in 1970.

ASTM John C. Weaver

Excellence In Leadership

Award

Dr. Mary McKnight, Building

Materials Division, received the 2001

John C. Weaver Excellence in Leadership

Award from ASTM Committee D01 on

Paint and Related Coatings, Materials,

and Applications. The award recognized

her many important contributions to the

Paint Committee through leadership of

subcommittees and her service on the

Executive Subcommittee as committee

secretary and, later, as committee chair.

ASTM Walter C. Voss Award

Dr. Walter Rossiter, Building

Materials Division, received the 2001

Walter C. Voss Award from ASTM for

notable contributions to "l<nowledge in

the field of building technology, with

emphasis upon materials." Dr Rossiter's

contributions have been particularly

important in the areas of roofing matehals and abatement of hazards from

leaded paint.

NFPRF Harry C. Bigglestone

Award for Excellence in

Communications

Mr. J. Randall (Randy) Lawson,

Fire Research Division, and Dr. William

(Ruddy) E. Mell, University of Utah,

have been announced as the winners of

the 2001 Harry C. Bigglestone Award

for Excellence in Communications for

their publication of the pioneering work

on developing an accurate and flexible

model of heat transfer through protective clothing for fire fighters. The study was funded jointly by NIST and United

States Fire Administration. The award

winning paper, A Heat Transfer Model

for Fire Fighter's Protective Clothing,

appeared in Fire Technology, Vol. 36,

No. 1, 2000. The Bigglestone Award,

sponsored by the National Fire

Protection Research Foundation (NFPRF),

Quincy MA, is presented to the authors

of the best paper submitted to Fire

Technology during the previous year.

Notable Commerce

Employee

Dr. Gregory Linteris, Fire Research

Division, received recognition as a

Notable Commerce Employee, one of

only six NIST Scientists, and twelve

Commerce employees overall, to be so

recognized by the Secretary of

Commerce. Dr. Linteris earned this

honor by serving as a payload specialist

astronaut on STS-83 and STS-94. He was chosen by NASA because of a

unique combination of talents that he

brought to the mission that had been

honed during his tenure as a NIST

researcher. His first flight, in April 1997, was cut short because of a fuel cell

problem. He was back in space three

months later as NASA re-flew the mission
as STS-94, a feat representing the

fastest turn-around of an orbiter and

payload in shuttle history, and the first

time an entire crew had flown together

again in space. The success of the portion of the scientific study for which Dr.

Linteris was responsible has been

acknowledged through letters of support and conversations with leaders in

the field of combustion science.

SFPE President's Award

Dr. David D. Evans, Fire Research

Division, received the John J. Ahem

President's Award in May of 2000 for

strategic leadership of the Society of

Fire Protection Engineers and the profession through his service as President

of SFPE. The John J. Ahern President's Award of the SFPE honors individuals whose conspicuous contributions

deserve very special recognition by the

Society and its leadership.

Sigma Xi Young

Scientist Award

Dr. Kevin iVIcGrattan, Fire Research

Division, was awarded the 2000-2001

NIST Chapter of Sigma Xi Young

Scientist Award for Excellence in

Scientific Researct). The award recognizes Kevin's outstanding research in

the development and extension of computer models to predict fire dynamics.

Malting a iVIeasurable

Difference at NIST Award

Mr. Darren L. Lowe, BFRL

Headquarters, provided crucial help to

the NIST Small Business Innovative

Research (SBIR) Program to develop a

unique information system that met

SBIR's special needs when no appropriate commercial products could be

found. SBIR managers contacted Mr

Lowe after learning he had developed a

special question and answer capability

for a BFRL database that might meet

SBIR's needs. He immediately jumped

into the task and developed the needed

question and answer capability for SBIR

in time for the FY2001 solicitation. Mr. Lowe did all this without he or his management worrying about time commitment, transfer of funds, or complaints

about limited resources. He listened to

the needs of the customer and provided

outstanding technical support. Mr.

Lowe's work benefits not just NIST but

the many outside customers of the SBIR

program.

Making a Measurable

Difference Award

IVIs. Marine Giraud, a student from

the University of Lyon, who spent two

years as a Guest Researcher in the

Building Materials Division, received the

Making a Measurable Difference Award

for her initiative in establishing NIST's

Guest Researcher Association (the GRA).

In collaboration with other guest

researchers, Marine took the lead in setting up the GRA and its very informative

web site, to help provide new guest

researchers, and others, with a support

network and a source of advice on

important practical matters, such as how to find affordable housing and

where to buy a car. In forming the

Association, Marine established a mechanism for helping guest researchers settle into their new environment, thereby

making NIST a more welcoming place at

which to work.

Honorary Membership of

ASTM Committee C09

Dr. Nicholas J. Carino, Structures

Division, was awarded Honorary

Membership in ASTM Committee C09

on Concrete and Concrete Aggregates

at the June 2000 committee week

meeting in Orlando. Dr Carino was recognized for outstanding service to the

committee and for devotion to its objectives. He has held a variety of leadership

positions on C09 including serving on the

Executive Subcommittee, membership

secretary, chair of the Subcommittees

on Setting Time and Accelerated

Strength Testing. He currently serves as

chair of the Subcommittee on

Nondestructive and In-Place Testing and

the Task Group on Testing High Strength

Concrete. He was the lead author on two new ASTM standards that evolved
Staff HIGHLIGHTS

from NIST research. One of these is ASTM C 1074 Practice for Estimating

Concrete Strength by the Maturity

IVlethod, and the other is ASTIVl C 1383

Test Method for Meas-uring P-Wave

Speed and the Thicl<ness of Concrete

Plates Using the Impact-Echo Method. In

addition, he provided leadership in

major revisions

to several other standards under the

Committee's jurisdiction. He also was

the author of Chapter 1 5 on " Prediction

of Potential Concrete Strength at Later

Ages" in ASTM STP 169 C Significance

of Tests and Properties of Concrete and

Concrete-Making Materials. In June 2001,

he was elected to chair Committee C09.

Dr. Mary McKnight, Building

Materials Division, was elected to the

Board of Governors of the Intersociety

Color Council (ISCC) for a three-year

term. The ISCC coordinates activities

and stimulates progress in member

bodies concerned with color.

Dr. Ed Garboczi, Building Materials

Division was elected a Fellow of the

American Ceramic Society in recognition

of his pioneering contributions to the

computational materials science of

cement and concrete.

Dr. A. Hunter Fanney, Mr. Brian P. Dougherty and Mr. Mark Davis, all members of the Building Environment

Division, received one of the four ASME

Best Paper awards at the Forum 2001,

Solar Energy: The Power to Choose, for

the paper entitled "Measured Performance

of Building Integrated Photovoltaics"

Dr. Howard Baum, Fire Research

Division, was elected a Fellow and

Chartered Physicist of the U.K. Insitute

of Physics in October 1999, "In recognition of your status in the physics community and your contribution to the

Institute as a member of the Editorial

Board of a journal".

Mr. Robert Zarr, Building Environment Division was elected Fellow of

the International Thermal Conductivity

Conference in recognition of his

contributions to the field of thermal

Ms. Mona Baghai Anaraki, a student co-op working

in the polymer laboratory in the Building Materials

Division.

conductivity and, in particular, for his work on the development of thermal

conductivity standards.

Drs. Chris White and Chiara

Ferraris, Building Materials Division,

took the initiative to make arrangements

with NSF for the establishment in BFRL

of a Student Undergraduate Research

Fellowship (SURF) program. In 2001, 11

undergraduates participated in the pro- gram and spent the summer gaining

research experience in BFRL.

Dr. Nicholas Carino, Structures

Division, was recognized for "sustained

and original contributions in advancing

the art and science of concrete worldwide" at the Fifth CANMET/ACI

International Conference on Recent

Advances in Concrete Technology held

in Singapore in 2001. In his invited

paper, Dr. Carino reviewed the NIST

research that was instrumental in the

development of two ASTM standards:

one on the maturity method and the

other on the impact-echo method.

Dr. Dat Duthinh, Structures Division,

has accepted an appointment as an

Associate Editor of the Journal of

Structural Engineering of the American

Society of Civil Engineers.
Finances and DRGANizATiaN

BFRL Resources 1997-2001 ($ millions)

STRS

O/A

Other

Grants

STRS - In-house

research, NIST

congressionally

appropriated funds O/A - In-house

research, other agency funds

Other - Other

funds including

private sector

Grants - Grants

to other organizations including

acadennia

35

30

25

20

15 -

10

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

O/A

$8.3M

Other

$1.9M

STRS

$16.9M

Organizations Funding

BFRL's Research

Federal agencies and industry groups,

which currently support about one-third

of BFRL's overall research, are recognized

below:

FEDERAL AGENCIES

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Department of Agriculture

Department of Defense Agencies

Department of Energy

Department of Health and Human

Services Department of Housing and Urban

Development

Department of Interior Department of Justice Department of Labor

Department of State Department of Transportation

Department of Treasury

Environmental Protection Agency

Federal Emergency Management Agency

General Services Administration

National Aeronautics and Space

Administration

National Science Foundation

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

PRIVATE SECTOR

Advanced Fire Alarm System Consortium

Air-conditioning and Refrigerating

Technology Institute American Association of State Highway

& Transportation Officials ASTM

California Energy Commission (CEC)

Dow Chemical Company

Dow Corning Corporation

Interphase/lnterface Consortium

Northwestern University

NYACOL Nano Technologies

Building Joint Sealants Consortium

Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing

Laboratory Consortium

Sleep Product Safety Council Trane Company

Grants

$1.3M FY 2001
Finances and nRGANizATiDN

BFRL Organization

STRUCTURES DIVISION

The Structures Division provides leadership for BFRL's Advanced Construction

Technology Goal by enabling technology-based innovation to modernize construction. Its programs take an integrated view of process and product innovation. The Division provides sciencebased performance measurement tools

for early industry integration and

automation of the construction process

to achieve cycle time and life-cycle cost

reductions in the delivery of construction projects. It also provides similar

tools for early industry adoption of

innovative constructed systems with

assured safety and performance to

achieve life-cycle cost reductions and

enhanced public safety for both new

and existing construction. The Division's

programs emphasize innovative structural materials, components, connections,

and systems; modeling and simulation

of system performance under extreme

wind, fire, earthquake, and blast loads;

advanced sensing, imaging, control, and

automation technologies; and information representation and exchange protocols to assure interoperability of software and hardware systems.

CONTACT: DR. S. SHYAM SUNDER

CHIEF, STRUCTURES DIVISION

(301) 975-6713 sunder@nist.gov

BUILDING MATERIALS DIVISION

The Building Materials Division performs research to advance construction

matehals science and technology and

disseminates improved techniques and

data to make possible more informed

decisions about the performance of

construction materials. The Division

develops technical bases for criteria and

standards used to evaluate, select,

maintain and improve construction

materials including inorganic materials

such as cement and concrete, and polymeric materials such as coatings and

fiber-reinforced composites. Research is

designed to develop fundamental

understanding of the relationships

among chemistry, microstructure, performance and service life of conventional and high performance concrete, and

polymeric materials. The results of this

research, often carried out in collaboration with industry via consortia, are

helping to revolutionize the technologies.

CONTACT: DR. GEOFFREY FROHNSDORFF

CHIEF, BUILDING MATERIALS DIVISION

(301) 975-6706 geoffrey.frohnsdorf@nist.gov

BUILDING ENVIRONMENT DIVISION

The Building Environment Division

provides modeling, measurement and

test results needed to use advanced

computation and automation effectively

in construction, to improve the quality

of the indoor environment, and to

improve the performance of building

equipment and systems. The Division

conducts laboratory, field and analytical

research on building mechanical and

control systems. It develops data, measurement methods and modeling techniques for the performance of the building envelope, its insulation systems.

Research includes building air leakage,

and release, movement and absorption

of indoor air pollutants. The Division

develops standard communication protocols for building management systems

and performance criteria, interface standards and test methods for the nation's

building industry to make effective use

of modern computer-aided design hardware, software and data base management systems.

CONTACT: DR. GEORGE KELLY

CHIEF, BUILDING ENVIRONMENT DIVISION

(301) 975-5851 george.keliy@nist.gov

58

J
FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

The Fire Research Division develops,

verifies, and utilizes measurements and

predictive methods to quantify the

behavior of fire and the means to

reduce the impact of fire on people,

property, and the environment. This

work involves integration of laboratory

measurements, verified methods of prediction, and large-scale fire experiments

to demonstrate the use and value of the

research products. Focused research

activities develop scientific and engineering understanding of fire phenomena and metrology; identify principles

and produce metrology, data, and predictive methods for the formation/evolution of smoke components in flames

and for the burning of polymeric materials; and develop predictive methods to

enable high-performance fire detection

and suppression systems. Through the

Division's programs in measurement,

prediction, systems integration, and the

dynamics of fire and its interactions

with the built and natural environment,

the division provides leadership for

advancing the theory and practice of

fire safety engineering, fire fighting, fire

investigation, fire testing, fire data management, and intentional burning.

Extensive publication and technology

transfer efforts facilitate the use of fire

research results in practice in the fire

communities in the United States.

Participation in the codes and standards

processes helps to reduce barriers to

trade and global markets for U.S. goods

and services.

CONTACT: DR. WILLIAM GROSSHANDLER

CHIEF, FIRE RESEARCH DIVISION

(301 ) 975-23 1 0 William, grosshandler@nist.gov

OFFICE OF APPLIED ECONOMICS

The Office of Applied Economics provides economic products and services

through research and consulting to

industry and government agencies in

support of productivity enhancement,

economic growth, and international

competitiveness with a focus on improving the life-cycle quality and economy

of constructed facilities. An area of specialty is working in interdisciplinary

teams with engineers and scientists

from BFRL and NIST to measure the economic impact of new technologies. The

focus of the Office's research and technical assistance is microeconomic analysis. The Office provides information to

decision makers in the public and private sectors who are faced with choices

among new technologies and policies

relating to manufacturing, industrial

processes, the environment, energy conservation, construction, facility maintenance, law enforcement and safety. It

also develops and conducts prototype

training programs in applied economics

for scientists and engineers.

CONTACT: DR HAROLD MARSHALL

CHIEF, OFFICE OF APPLIED ECONOMICS

(301) 975-6131 harold.marshall@nist.gov
More information about bfrl

Publications

PUBLICATIONS 2000

A listing of BFRL's publications with

indexes for abstracts, authors, and keywords IS available as hard copy and on

two CD-ROMs. Also, full texts of publications from 1994 to the present are

available from BFRL Publications On-line

at h ttp://fire.nist. gov/bfrlpubs/.

ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS

To order copies of these free publications or to discuss BFRL's research

reports, contact Mr. Paul Reneke, BFRL.

Information Service, 301-975-6696.

paul.reneke@nist.gov

Web Site

Additional information on each of the

BFRL Goals, staff and organization,

highlights, news, software, conferences

and workshops, standards activities,

opportunities for research collaborations,

and much more is available on our web

site: http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/. For questions or comments relating to the web

site, email: bfrlwebmaster@nist.gov.

Visit the Laboratory

Potential collaborators are encouraged

to visit BFRL when in the Washington

area. To schedule a visit, contact:

Dr Jack E. Snell, BFRL Director,

jacl<. snell@nist.gov, or

Dr. James Hill, BFRL Deputy Director,

james.liill@nist.gov.

BFRL Inquiries

Questions about specific programs

should be directed to BFRL's Management listed in the Chapter, BFRL

Finances & Organization. If you have

general questions about BFRL programs

or are interested in working with BFRL,

contact:

Dr. Jack E. Snell, BFRL Director,

jacl<. snell@nist.gov, or

Dr James Hill, BFRL Deputy Director,

james. hill@nist.gov.

The mailing address for all BFRL

personnel is:

Building and Fire Research Laboratory,

National Institute of Standards

and Technology

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8600

National Institute

of Standards and

Technology

The National Institute of Standards and

Technology was established by Congress

in 1901 "to assist industry in the devel- opment of technology... needed to

improve product quality to modernize

manufactunng processes, to ensure

product reliability... and to facilitate

rapid commercialization... of products

based on new scientific discoveries." An agency of the U.S. Department of

Commerce's Technology Administration,

NIST's primary mission is to develop and

promote measurement, standards and

technology to enhance productivity,

facilitate trade and improve quality of

life. It carries out this mission through a

portfolio of four major programs:

Measurement and Standards

Laboratories that provide technical

leadership for vital components of

the nation's technology infrastructure

needed by U.S. industry to continually

improve its products and services;

a rigorously competitive Advanced

Technology Program providing costshared awards to industry for development of high-risk, enabling technologies

with broad economic potential;

a grassroots Manufacturing

Extension Partnership with a network

of local centers offering technical and

business assistance to smaller manufacturers; and

a highly visible quality outreach

program associated with the Malcolm

Baldrige National Quality Award that

recognizes business performance excellence and quality achievement by U.S.

manufacturers, service companies, educational organizations, and health care

providers.
il

EDITOR: Andrew J. Fowell

Associate Director for Construction and

Building

Building and Fire Research Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

U.S. Department of Commerce

Donald L Evans, Secretary

Technology Administration

Phillip J. Bond, Under Secretary for Technology

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Arden L. Bement, Jr., Director

NISTSP 838-17 January 2002

Disclaimer: any mention of commercial products is for information only; it does not imply

NIST recommendation or endorsement, nor does it imply that the products mentioned are

necessarily the best available for the purpose. .