The CENTER for

BUILDING TECHNOLOGY

Institute for Applied Technology

National Bureau of Standards

Department of Commerce

a perspective

.U57

NO. 439

1976

C.2

National Bureau of Standards

AUG 3 0 1976

What

the Center?

IS

What is the Center for Building Technology? Simply stated, the answer is people, working in a comprehensive building

research laboratory. Approximately 250 staff members bring their individual talents and professional disciplines together for three reasons: (1) to advance building technology by providing technical and scientific bases for criteria and standards that improve the

usefulness, safety, and economy of buildings; (2) to foster the use

of improved technology in all sectors of the building community;

and (3) to improve energy conservation in buildings, communities, and industry.

These are complex building objectives. To deal with them, the Center operates in an interdisciplinary fashion. Researchers from

over 30 disciplines — from mechanical and civil engineers to chemists, architects, economists, and psychologists — work to- gether in developing a measurement base for performance criteria and for applying new building technologies, techniques, and

materials.

To visualize this interdisciplinary concept, consider the single

topic of windows. The Center has studied them from many viewpoints: How do they affect the design of a building? How do they

affect light? How do they affect people? How do they transmit

heat? How secure are they from burglars? How are they related to our sense of privacy? In this project, as in the Center's other projects, guidelines and criteria are developed to improve building

practices.

The Center for Building Technology, part of the NBS

campus at Gaithersburg, Maryland. Its 6,500 m ^ {69,500 ft^ ) includes office space, as well as the Center's unique and specialized laboratories.
The Center's work contributes to upgrading building codes,

specifications, standards, test methods, guidelines, and design

criteria to better meet the needs of occupants. What it strives for are performance criteria — which are much more relevant to the user than prescriptive criteria. Performance criteria focus on user requirements and the attributes necessary to satisfy them: they

concentrate on the effects of a building technique or material. On

the other hand, prescriptive criteria stipulate a particular way to reach that effect. Thus, performance criteria encourage creativity

and economy in design and construction.

To reach its objectives, the Center has specialized laboratories

and test facilities for structures, materials, and building service

systems, and huge environmental chambers for evaluating the

thermal performance of entire houses. The Center uses the latest in research techniques: thermography, acoustic emission, auto- mated measurement of decay rates of tracer gases, computercontrolled data acquisition systems, and electron microscopy.

The Center's business is to advance building technology — in one

organization where all phases of buildings are looked at. It constantly responds with improved ways of observing, recording,

analyzing, and developing improved building performance —

especially important now, when demands for buildings are severe. The Center is a unit of the Institute for Applied Technology,

and the largest Center within the Bureau. It regularly draws on

the experience, skills, and special laboratories of other Bureau

groups.
Modular homes are investigated for their reaction to simulated natural (wind and snow) loads in one of the

structural laboratories. The home is connected

to an electro-hydraulic materials testing system and

data acquisition system [200 channel capacity; 225,000

N {50,000 lb) maximum load].

Another aspect of the Center's impact on the building community is visible from a brief look at the construction industry

and the forces that work upon it. The building industry is one of

the largest in the United States — over 4 million workers. In 1974, new construction totaled more than $100 billion, of which $40

billion was spent on building materials. Maintenance and improvements to existing buildings added to the $100 billion. During the past four years, spiraling construction costs increased the price of

the typical new one-family home 50 percent, exceeding substantially the overall inflation rate. The industry supplies a market that is sensitive to a host of

factors. Building codes groups across the country, building standards. Federal specifications and regulations, economic and social changes, individual and family preferences, and long-standing

traditions within the industry itself, all affect the building marketplace. Added to these forces are domestic and foreign building

innovations and research findings. The Center considers needs

and effects of each of these sources and provides responsive tech- nology.

The areas of the Center's research are many. For example,

they range from energy studies to economics, behavioral studies, structural research, and disaster mitigation. The Center also is very much concerned with lead paint poisoning, mobile homes,

and safety standards for construction. Each of these areas, and

many others, are discussed in this report.

The Center's identity most clearly is seen in its accomplishments and ongoing projects, whose sponsors consider its research

a necessary and practical investment. After all, it is one thing to say what the Center is; it is quite another to let the work speak

for itself — as it does on the following pages.

It should be kept in mind that the studies and sponsors des- cribed here represent only a fraction of Center research. Additional information is found in companion documents: the Project

Summaries, and the list of CBT Publications. The Center invites

direct inquiries on completed, ongoing, and proposed new re- search projects.

Disciplines

Architect

Architectural Engineer

Behavioral Psychologist

Bioacoustician

Ceramic Engineer

Chemical Engineer

Chemist

Civil Engineer

Code Analyst

Communications Specialist

Cost Engineer

Economist

Electronics Engineer

Environmental Engineer

General Engineer

Geologist

Housing Technologist

Hydraulics Engineer

Industrial Engineer

Materials Engineer

Materials Scientist Mathematician

Mechanical Engineer

Metallurgist

Operations Research Analyst

Physical Scientist Physicist

Psychologist

Public Administrator

Quality Control Specialist

Safety Engineer

Sanitary Engineer

Sociologist

Standards Engineer

Structural Engineer

Urban Planner
Energy

Conservation

i

I

If there is one topic that crosses all organizational lines at the Center, it is Energy Conservation — a national problem that the Center has been concerned with for some time. Research is being

performed under the sponsorship of the Federal Energy Administration, the Energy Research & Development Administration, the Department of Housing & Urban Development, Department of Defense, General Services Administration, Department of Commerce, and the National Science Foundation.

One-third of all energy consumption in the United States takes

place within commercial and residential buildings. About 40% of

this energy could be saved. To help solve this problem, the Center

studies the thermal performance of the building enclosure and its heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems. The Center measures total demands for energy in buildings. It evaluates the

effects of temperature, humidity, and odors on human health,

productivity, and comfort. This knowledge guides regulatory

authorities in protecting the health of the public and in effectively

allocating energy resources. Research guides designers in providing useful yet significantly more energy efficient buildings. Examination of energy use assists owners and occupants of existing

buildings to better select cost-effective, energy conserving improvements in buildings, equipment, and operating practices.

The Center is studying new strategies for waste heat management in industry, involving case studies, equipment options, and

financial and taxation analyses. The Center's manual of energy

conservation techniques for industry has been widely used and

has been the basis of a number of university courses in engineering for energy savings. The Center's next step is to turn to combustion technology for improved use of process fuel in factories. This work is expected to involve infrared thermography and laser scanners, as well as criteria for furnace designs to permit combustion of shredded wastes.

In 1973, the Center was asked by the National Conference of

States on Building Codes and Standards to develop design and

evaluation criteria for energy conservation in new buildings. The

criteria were used by the American Society for Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers, as the basis for a national

voluntary standard on energy conservation in new buildings. This

standard — covering the energy performance of the design, the envelope, the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system,

the water and service network, the lighting and electrical distribu- tion system — may be adopted in State and local building codes

and in standards for Federal buildings.
Communities are the third thrust of energy conservation work.

For the Modular Integrated Utilities System (MIUS), a Department

of Housing and Urban Development project, the Center is evaluating the patterns of energy and water use and waste disposal in the

total energy demonstration project at Jersey City, New Jersey. By

instrumentating and evaluating the performance of that project, a

basis is gained for performance standards for future MIUS systems.

In cooperation with Princeton University and sponsored by

the National Science Foundation, energy use is being studied in a modern community of 1000 townhouses and 150 single-family

houses. Surveys, thermographs, and tracer-gas decay rates are being used for an accurate portrait of energy use. The Center will be involved in further studies of district heating techniques, having

already well established the knowledge of through-the-ground

heat loss in underground piping. These techniques will help improve our national energy stance — especially when you consider

that 20 percent of our present energy is used for space heating in buildings and homes.

The Center has developed a sophisticated computer program

for energy use analyses called the NBSLD (Load Determination)

Program. It treats some 300 variables in three categories: the weather, the building, and the way the building is operated. The

computer output is presented in the form of a profile of heating

and cooling loads on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. The NBSLD program has been vital to the design of buildings that use solar energy. The program has been used, for ex- ample, to evaluate proposed school designs for the New York

City Board of Education and has been made available to more

than 110 other users, including the General Services Administration for the design of a new Federal office building in New Hampshire. Similarly, the Center has assisted in the energy analyses of NBS buildings at Gaithersburg. These have contributed to reduced

demands for light and chilled air and to installation of more ef- ficient ventilation.
I

I

j Solar collector panels are being installed on the roof 1 of a commercially available, factory-built townhouse

j erected on the NBS campus. This system, using the

j sun's energy for space heating and cooling and warm- i ing water, will aid in development of test methods

and standards for solar energy products.

The Center is developing performance criteria and interim

standards for solar heating and cooling systems and is directly

involved in the evaluation of critical components and systems.

The criteria and standards will be used by the Department of

Housing and Urban Development in a residential demonstration

program as well as in their loan insurance programs. In work for

the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Center

has developed test methods for solar collectors and thermal stor- age devices. These test methods are being developed into national

standards through the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers.

A townhouse on the NBS grounds at Gaithersburg is equipped

with a solar heating, cooling, and hot water system for the study

of test and evaluation methods. Beginning in the summer of 1976,

the Center will be assisting the General Services Administration

in the evaluation of a solar heated and cooled Federal office building located in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Solar Energy
Economics Building Economics receives special attention at the Center.

Is there, for example, a rational way of deciding whether to abandon or to rehabilitate a building? There are many factors that

affect this decision, one that is vital to landlords, tenants, and

municipalities, as well as to the Department of Housing and Urban

Development. Major community investments are made in water

treatment plants. Under current Federal cost-sharing rules, cities may opt for water treatment facilities that are low-cost to them,

but that are very costly when looked at from society's viewpoint.

These cost-sharing regulations have been studied for the Environmental Protection Agency to help it prepare new regulations for more efficient programs for cleaner water. The Center also has

looked into the costs of natural disasters, such as floods, hurri- canes, and tornadoes. The economics of protection against progressive collapse in new buildings has been studied to determine

the benefits and costs resulting from the investments of builders

and owners in safety. Designers have been provided guidelines on how to evaluate building life-cycle costs for more efficient future

investments in planning, designing, constructing, and using buildings.

Economists and operations researchers also have applied microeconomic and mathematical tools with thermal engineering principles in a number of evaluations of alternative energy conservation techniques. The Center developed a methodology for deter- mining the economically optimal investment level in energy conservation for existing houses, as well as the best allocation of this ivinvestment among the, m^riy enet^ co^ techniques

•'a^^ilable, .^^W^^^ investment in energy con-

^^t^bh^^^ljiivar'r^t^^^ thought to be ecoThis 25-year-old house, built when energy was cheap,

has been retrofitted with energy saving devices and

heat-retaining techniques in order to measure their effectiveness.
Sensory

Environment

At what point do environmental noise or lighting

problems begin to interfere with normal everyday

functioning?

What levels of light do people need for performing various

tasks? How much noise can you tolerate before it disrupts your

concentration? What size, shape, shading, and glass tint are preferable for window design? What kinds of colors should be used

for emergency warnings? The answers to these all impinge on

building design. In fact, the answers on light levels and windows

have a major effect on energy conservation. In response, the Center has developed a cathode-ray tube system to measure effects of illumination levels on human performance of tasks approximating those in normal life. In another study, it addressed

the psychological reaction to environments with and without

windows and the impact in designing energy-efficient buildings.

Similarly, the Center is investigating how humans behave

during fires. It found, for example, that our behavior is quite

rational. As a result, fire emergency actions can be made more

effective, by being made more specific: people safely above or below the fire in tall buildings should perhaps be asked to stay

where they are to avoid jamming escape routes.

Effective building research is people oriented. It studies indivi- dual needs for light in determining appropriate illumination levels; deals with people's response to noises to form a rational basis for acoustical criteria for buildings. This relating of human behavior

to physical conditions is typical of research at the Center. After

all, most buildings are intended to support human activity, not

just as monuments.
Architectural

Research

How do people use stairways? This question is significant: Stairs are involved in more accidents in this country than any

other product (except automobiles and bicycles). For the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Center has studied stair- ways in schools, homes for the aged, and airports to uncover the causes of accidents. Among other matters, it wants to know why

people cross over from handrail to handrail on wide stairs. It also wants to know how lighting affects our depth perception, especially in halls and stairs. The Center also is surveying user satis- faction with new housing, in a project sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Ultimately, this re- search will result in improved design criteria for safer, more ac- comodating buildings.

Visual sep^arjation and acoustical isolation are other areas of research. Es^s;i\tialiyihey seek to uncover how building

and room^es^n'-^ afweU'as partition placement within a room —

affect o mtfUDof^hiS environment and can lead to more effi- sace.

Here, a researcher videotapes the way typical

users negotiate an architecturally pleasing, but possibly hazardous, stairway. Other research dealing

with stairs focusses on lighting levels, tread type,

railings, and the stair design itself {ratio of step run

to rise). Similar research in numerous locations across

the country is expected to lead to new stair design cri- teria.
I

Mobile Homes Millions of Americans live in mobile homes. But are they a good investment? Are they safe? How do they compare with conventional houses? The Center is developing criteria to improve

the safety and usefulness of mobile homes. In research sponsored

by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Energy Administration, the Center has tested the thermal

characteristics of such housing in its environmental chambers. It analyzed their heating systems and also studied the performance

of 3,000 emergency housing units set up by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1972 for the Hurricane Agnes

victims. Recommendations were developed for preparing mobile

homes for long term storage until needed in the event of a future

disaster. The Center took part in the revision of the American

National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard for mobile homes,

covering subjects of fire protection, durability, and electrical and

plumbing performance. This standard was used as the basis for the National Standard on mobile homes promulgated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Housing

and Community Development Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-383). The

Center, sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is also looking at mobile homes' resistance to wind

forces and the extent to which the national standards for mobile

home construction (the ANSI standard) have been used — or deviated from — by state regulatory agencies.

An aerial view of mobile homes. Are they safe? The

Center's investigations — like the evaluation of these homes in Pennsylvania, erected by HUD after Hurri- cane Agnes — are finding out.

Security

For the Justice Department's Law Enforcement Standards

Laboratory, the Center has studied the resistance of locks, doors,

and windows to burglars. Human subjects were used to deter- mine the amounts and types of pressures they apply; and standardized tests were based on the forces induced in security devices.

The tests, in turn, can be used to compare classes of doors and

locks. The research covered sliding-glass doors, wooden and steel frames, and locks — including those liable to forced entry by

celluloid and other thin strips. The outcome of these studies was

the development of performance criteria for security systems as an aid both to consumers and law enforcement officers.

How secure is your door? The Center is attempting

to determine criteria for doors and locks.
This study of a pressing national health and housing problem

illustrates how the scientific resources in other NBS units support

work at the Center. The Center, sponsored by the Department of Housing and

Urban Development, is working with the building materials in- dustry to identify and develop new techniques for eliminating

lead paint hazards in housing. In joint efforts with the Applied

Mathematics Division, estimates of the magnitude of the lead

poisoning problem were made and statistical surveys of housing

and children were designed and implemented. The Analytical

Chemistry Division has assisted the Center by evaluating lead

paint detection devices and providing standards of lead in blood

for determining the proficiency of chemical laboratories that make

those measurements.

The Center is establishing a lead poisoning information clear- inghouse which will make research results and other important

findings available to health, housing, and code enforcement offi- cials as well as government agencies and the general public.

Lead Paint Studies

Peel, but don't eat! The Center is the focus of this important research within NBS.
Thermal Studies

This inflatable structure was found to have delamination problems at high temperatures. Here, it is tested in one of the Environmental Chambers.

The chamber was kept at 38°C {100°F), while the surface of the structure was maintained at 93°C

{200° F) to simulate natural exposure for the test. This research was a key to defining durability re- quirements.

Substantial relief from the energy crisis can be achieved by

using energy more efficiently in existing buildings. The Center has

retro-fitted a 25-year-old house — built when energy was plentiful and cheap — with a series of energy-conservation techniques:

caulking, various insulations, storm windows , and a heat pump.

It has studied the efficiency of those improvements, and also the entrapment of moisture in the newly insulated walls and ceilings.

This research, sponsored by the Federal Energy Administration

and NBS, provides a firm basis for the recommendations in the consumer guide "Making the Most of Your Energy Dollars

in Home and Heating and Cooling."
Similarly, the Center has studied, for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the heat gain and heat loss of a masonry house and a wood-frame townhouse in its environmental chamber to test, improve, and verify techniques for predicting thermal performance.

The Center developed an improved reference standard apparatus for thermal conductivity measurements for building insulation. New instruments are being developed to measure the physical

parameters affecting thermal comfort in buildings.

With the General Services Administration and the Energy

Research and Development Administration, the Center is en- gaged in the field studies on the energy conservation performance

of a 7-story office building in Manchester, New Hampshire. Its computer program for thermal performance, called NBSLD, was

used to assess energy use in alternative designs. The building,

which will have a 437 m^ (4,700 ft^ ) solar collector, will be

studied closely for the effects of its thermal performance on the people who work there. It is expected that this activity will provide improved guidelines for designing future office buildings.

In patterns like these, infrared thermography indicates the areas of high heat loss from a typical dwelling, constructed for test purposes on the NBS grounds.
Materials Materials research at the Center is iriterdisciplinary, employing the talents of researchers in the fields of materials science,

chemistry, physics, and metallurgy. Together, the materials team

has developed new ways of solving problems of materials per- formance and durability.

The $3 billion each year that the country spends on built-up

roofing offers a significant area for savings if roof life can be pro- longed and failures can be avoided. Among other capabilities, the Center developed a hail gun to simulate the effects of hail- stones on roofing. The Center has also developed test methods

for the flow properties of roofing asphalt. The performance of energy conserving roofing systems and non-destructive testing of moisture within roofs, are other important areas the Center is investigating.

Each year graffiti removal costs taxpayers millions of dollars — $2 million in New York City alone last year. With sponsorship

of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Center has responded to this need by developing performance speci- fications for two types of materials: those to remove the contri- butions of these artists of the streets; and those to prevent various

types of graffiti from adhering in the first place.

What are the mechanical properties of paints? How can we

predict when they will tend to crack and chip? Paints containing

non-mercurial fungicide have been tested to assess their performance, and test methods have been developed to evaluate the ef- fects of various quantities of chromium (a health hazard in paints).

And what do we know about building joint sealants? Their integrity plays an important role in energy conservation, maintenance

costs, and weather damage. The Center is studying ways of comparing and specifying the characteristics of such sealants. The Center also is playing a role in the use of recycled materials in building construction. Waste glass, blast furnace slag, fly

ash, and mining wastes all might have a place in today's materials — but they must be evaluated and standards must be set before

they can be used with confidence by designers and engineers.

Building panel adhesives, improved connectors for wires, the formance of aluminum wiring, and the effectiveness of tech- preserve historic buildings are other studies underway.

Materials research at the Center is aimed at making

buildings and other structures easier to clean up — or by reducing the adhesion of graffiti in the first place.
Durability

How often do buildings — or their components — need re- placing? Is it possible to predict the useful life of a building? What

about the useful life of an element of a building, such as its plumbing system? The Center seeks to make such predictions possible,

to help the nation make the best use of its building resources. Standards and uniform measurement techniques are required to evaluate everything that goes into a building — from the coatings

that protect it, to its internal service and structural systems.

Among the Center's facilities are its accelerated weathering

devices. These measure the rates of decay under many combinations of degenerative conditions — ultraviolet radiation, moisture, ozone, sulphur dioxide, salt spray, and heat, to name but a

few. To complement the accelerated weathering equipment, the Center also operates natural weathering facilities at eight outside

sites, from Puerto Rico to Alaska.

Here, various samples of material — roofing, paints,

sealants, sidings — undergo long term weathering

tests.
Among the Center's special test facilities is the 5-story plumbing research test tower. This tower is used to study the performance of plumbing systems and components and is equipped with an automated hydraulic load controller and action display sys- tem. The equipment permits preprogramming of test loads and

its display board can be wired directly to the plumbing components under test. It displays failure points and other operational

characteristics within the system. Researchers can then adjust

experiments to determine the parameters for optimal performance of the system . Test data are fed into a small computer compatible with the NBS central computer.

Research is continuing on reduced-size vents. Although these smaller vents have obvious economizing value (they use less material), most plumbing codes do not authorize their use. A

field study in new home construction is underway for the Department of Defense, and further research for the Veterans Administration considers the use of smaller vents in tall buildings.

These data will be used by the consensus standards groups to develop improved standards for incorporation in plumbing codes.

The Center developed hydraulic performance criteria and submitted recommendations to the American National Standards

Institute committee and other standards groups for a performance-based standard under development for the National Plumbing Code. In addition, a 5-story single-stack drain-waste-vent system was studied in use to obtain performance data. The Center has made performance tests and developed per- formance criteria for plastic pipes and their connections, and vacuum drainage systems. Recently it sponsored a Roundtable with American Home Magazine on, "What Consumers Should Know About Water Conservation and Costs." Plumbing & Drainage

The plumbing test tower can be adjusted to test plumbing systems and components up to seven stories. Its recirculating water supply provides pressures up to 550 k Pa {80 psi). Its output is as high as 3800 liters {1000 gallons) per minute. Constant predetermined

pressures can be controlled to within 7 k Pa

(I psi). The tower is equipped with a data acquisition system with a capacity of 256 channels.
Mechanical Systems

This heat pump is undergoing tests to measure its energy efficiency.

Effective equipment selection and energy conservation deci- sions require knowledge of the seasonal performance of equipment as actually used in service — to relate that use to costs, energy consumption, and efficiency. The Center is developing

dynamic test procedures to define this performance for heat

pumps, heating and cooling systems, and other equipment. The

Center also is studying the effect of partial loads on boiler effici- ency and has made laboratory tests of modular gas-fired boilers. Information was developed on the increased seasonal efficiency

from use of modular gas-fired boiler systems in the heating of

buildings. This is intended to be used in the development of new

consensus standards for testing and rating equipment at partload operation. Similar studies in both the field and laboratory

are underway for heat pumps and oil furnaces.

The Center developed measures of household refrigerator and

freezer performance to encourage consumers to purchase more

energy conserving appliances — and manufacturers to make more

efficient appliances — through the NBS energy labeling program.

This program is being carried out at several field sites and a lab- oratory simulation system is under development.

The comparative energy efficiency and environmental control provided by the commonly used types of central heating and

air conditioning systems are being evaluated for large buildings.

Is the day approaching when products as large as whole buildings will be labeled for energy efficiency? These test methods are

prerequisite.
Safety

What is a slippery floor? The Center is engaged in measuring

sUpperiness and has designed and constructed a portable slip tester — to be used on floors, stairs, bathtubs, and swimming

pools. This device is under consideration by the American Society for Testing Materials for use in a standard for measuring the

slip-resistance of bathtub surfaces. How strong should shoring members be during construction?

What should the design criteria be for guard rails and workerresistant systems around the roofs and floors of multi-story buildings and other work sites? For the Occupational Safety and Health

Administration, the Center is studying these factors. It has completed research on non-destructive tests to determine concrete strength during construction to allow safe removal of formwork. The answers are important to the State's codes and standards officials, to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and to the construction industry as a whole.

Architectural glass is involved in some half-million injuries

each year. The Center, in support of the Consumer Product

Safety Commission, is evaluating test methods and criteria used

in standards for such glass products, to thus create a safer en- vironment.

Architectural glass is evaluated for strength and

shatter characteristics in the laboratory.
Disaster Mitigation

Early in 1971, California's San Fernando Valley was hit by a

costly — both in lives and property damage — earthquake. Engineers from the Center were among the first on the scene. Often,

a Center team is requested to assess building damages and the re- maining threat after a disaster and to study what are real tests of

real buildings. Two Center engineers were on the first structural research team to reach Managua, Nicaragua, after its 1972 earth- quake. The Center has been asked to give similar technical assist- ance after other disasters: the Alaska flood. Hurricane Camille,

the Lubbock Tornado, Hurricane Agnes, the St. Louis Federal

Records Center fire, and the Fairfax, Virginia highrise building

collapse. Based on these field experiences and laboratory research

under sponsorship of the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency, the Center developed a methodology for surveying and evaluating

existing buildings for their resistance to natural hazards.

But what of buildings now underway or soon to be construct- ed? For example, the largest earthquakes in U.S. history struck near New Madrid, Missouri, in 1811-1812. If they were to recur today, property damage losses could well total over $50 billion,

with massive human suffering and many lives lost. Against this

post-disaster surveys, is aimed at minimizing such

property losses, human suffering, and expenditure

for disaster relief in future quakes.
threat, the Center, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, is developing improved seismic design provisions. Among

basic factors covered are:

• Architectural, structural, mechanical, and electrical features of construction related to minimizing seismic damages.

• Seismic, geological, and soil-site effects on design loads.

• Soil-structure interaction.

• Analysis and standardization of structural loading and

resistance criteria. The work of this project is being carried out by approximately

100 professionals from across the U.S.: architects, engineers, geologists, university researchers and representatives from the regulatory system. The Center is working with the Applied Technology

Council, a non-profit organization established by the Structural

Engineers Association of California, which represents 2,000 members and is serving as a liaison with associations in many states, including Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Hawaii, and Illi- nois. Other important inputs to this study are from state and

municipal building officials, representatives from the Federal

government, and university researchers. This program on building practices for disaster mitigation

provides the technical base for improved criteria and standards

leading to better performance of buildings subjected to natural

hazards. The Center participates with other Federal agencies and

with other groups of the building community to promote compatibility and to reduce duplication in Federal disaster mitigation programs.

Here, the connection between two prestressed concrete columns is being loaded in a 2, 700,000 N {600,000

lb) compression test machine.

Structural test facilities include five other

specialized testing machines for measuring the characteristics and performance of building components and

materials.

The laboratory is constructed with a heavily reinforced

tie-down floor, permitting mounting of complete structural members. Hydraulic actuators provide test loads

in static tests while closed-loop electro-hydraulic ac- tuators provide test loads in dynamic tests. Automatic

recording of up to 200 channels of sensor data is ac- complished by a minicomputer-controlled data acquisition system.
The phenomenon known as progressive collapse (extensive

damage resulting from a localized initial failure) has received substantial attention. For the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Center has studied many modes of building col- lapse, and the probabilities of their causes, such as gas explosions

or the removal of structural support by, say, a runaway truck. The results of this research will identify those building types more

susceptible to progressive collapse — as well as strategies for avoiding it. A ¥4 -scale model of a parking garage (post-tensioned un- bonded flat-plate construction) has been loaded to failure to veri- fy modeling techniques for predicting the susceptibility, of structural systems to progressive collapse.

The properties of unreinforced masonry walls have been

studied to better define their resistance — for example, to in- crease safety in earthquakes.

The Center has measured the forces and effects of wind on

buildings at sites around the world. The findings are used to veri- fy analytical techniques and wind-tunnel modeling for improved

design criteria. The Center recently was asked by the Australian

government to review plans for rebuilding Darwin after its Christ- mas Eve hurricane of 1974. It also is calculating the speeds that various pieces of debris are likely to attain during

tornadoes. The object of this research, for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is to develop improved design criteria for nuclear power plants.
International

Programs

The Center's work also is useful in other countries. It shares

abroad the latest in our building technology, and brings the best of foreign research to our shores. To these ends, the Center has

established ties with the following building research groups:

Building and Road Research Institute, Ghana

Building Research Association, New Zealand

Building Research Establishment, United Kingdom

Building Research Institute, Japan

Central Building Research Institute, India

Danish Building Research Institute Division of Building Research, Australia

Division of Building Research, Canada

Institute for Research Technology, Brazil National Building Research Institute, South Africa

National Swedish Institute for Building Research

Norwegian Building Research Institute

Scientific and Technical Building Center, France The affiliations with these groups take many forms. They

range from joint-cooperative programs and information exchange

to the sponsorship of various forums for the presentation of building research. To name but a few projects: optical deflection in- struments used in the Post Office tower in London; studies of vacuum drainage technology with the Israeli government — a

nation where water is at a premium; with Russia, as a result of a U.S. and USSR agreement, a number of exchanges — recently a seminar on seismic considerations in housing design, which was

held at the site of the 1966 Tashkent earthquake. The Center provides advice to developing countries as well. A center team has

been studying the building industry of Egypt, with special emphasis on equipment, materials — how to build concrete plants, for example — and construction methods. With the State of Sao

Paulo, Brazil, through their Institute of Research Technology, the

Center is training one of their staff toward improving the Insti- tute's building research capability.

The Center also has undertaken a worldwide study to develop

improved design criteria for the wind resistance of low-rise buildings in developing countries. The work is centered in Jamaica,

Bangladesh, and the Philippines. A number of Philippine buildings have been instrumented with pressure-transducers on the roof and walls; data are collected on magnetic tape. The results will include a significant improvement in our knowledge of ex- treme wind loads on low-rise buildings, an improvement in building design criteria to better resist those winds, improved windrisk maps, better use of timber and masonry fasteners, and a socio-economic analysis of the local building needs.
The Center's studies of wind effects on structures are worldwide. Here, London's GPO tower, which dominates that city's skyUne and which is being studied with

Center equipment, is overlaid with the Center's Philippine and USA based work, which investigates the ef- fects of extreme winds on low-rise structures.
Codes

&

Standards

With the exception of Federally owned buildings, the responsibility for building regulations is reserved to the States. The States have largely delegated their authority to the local governments.

At present there are over 12,000 code administering jurisdictions

in the United States. The practices of these jurisdictions often have

evolved from local experiences. As a result, regulations and pro- cedures across the United States vary widely in the way in which

the health and safety of building occupants are protected. These

variations increase the costs of designing and constructing buildings, and of manufacturing building products. This forces occu- pants to pay more for buildings.

No matter how pathbreaking the Center's research, if that knowledge is not imparted to the nation's system of building

codes and standards, the work is not complete. After all, the Center has no regulatory powers. Instead, it provides technical

advice to the Federal agencies, states, and local governments,

and to voluntary standards groups. It also has membership in over 200 technical committees of nationally recognized standards organizations, and participates in numerous Federal agency

building groups. This assistance has been expressed or implied in all the

work discussed so far. For example, it supports the American National Standards Institute in studies of loads on structures — both in predicting everyday loads and in developing ultimate

load factors to assure low risks of collapse.

New building designs and products are constantly appearing

in the market. But they cannot be used until they are accepted by

local code authorities. For plastic pipe, to cite but one instance, the Center has developed performance criteria to contribute to- ward revision of the national plumbing standards.

The Center also serves as Secretariat to the National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards. The Conference

is a forum for State and local governments, industry, and other

interested parties to discuss issues bearing on building regulations — interstate reciprocity on new-product approvals, for instance —

and for encouraging research on unanswered technical regulatory

questions.

The Center also is working on metrication and dimensional

coordination in the building industry. It works with the American

National Metric Council, Conference of American Building Officials, the National Conference of States on Building Codes and

Standards, the Association of Major City Building Officials, the American Institute of Architects, the National Research Council

of Canada, American National Standards Institute, and the American Society for Testing and Materials.
This gun is used to simulate the effect of hail. It fires ice spheres at roofing and siding materials for testing.
Sponsors

The work of the Center is an integral part of the programs of the

Institute for Applied Technology. A number of the activities cited are conducted in and with the support of other Institute units:

• Electronic Technology Division

• Center for Consumer Product Technology

• Standards Application and Analysis Division

• Center for Fire Research

• Office of Energy-Related Inventions

The Center's programs are funded by direct Congressional appropriations through the Department of Commerce and the National

Bureau of Standards, and by other Federal agencies who use the Bureau's unique laboratory resources in support of their building

programs.

Agency for International Development

Air Force Civil Engineering Center

Air Force Systems Command

American Hot Dipped Galvanizers Association

American Society for Testing and Materials

Army Natick Development Center

Brick Institute of America

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Defense Civil Preparedness Agency

Defense Nuclear Agency

Department of Commerce,

National Bureau of Standards

Department of Health, Education and Welfare

Department of Housing & Urban Development

Department of State Department of Transportation

Dow Chemical Company

Energy Research & Development Administration

Federal Energy Administration

General Services Administration

Law Enforcement Assistance Administration

Maritime Administration

Masonry Institute of America

National Concrete and Masonry Association

National Park Service

National Science Foundation

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Occupational Safety & Health Administration

Tri-Services Committee, Department of Defense

United States Postal Service Veterans Administration
Organization

At the Center, research is carried out in three laboratorybased divisions:

• Structures, Materials, & Safety

• Building Environment

• Technical Evaluation & Application

In addition, three offices manage interdisciplinary teams tackling complex problems, provide technical inputs to the States and

local government, and provide client liaison: • Building Codes & Standards

• Housing & Building Technology

• Energy Conservation

As part of NBS, the Center shares the Bureau's modem laboratory complex in Gaithersburg, Maryland, a short distance from

the nation's capital.
The Center has seven environmental chambers, the

largest of which is 9 x 12 x 18 m {30 x 40 x 60 ft), in which whole buildings have at times been tested for

their thermal characteristics. Here, a modular house

is readied for a test in a chamber that can control

temperatures from -45 to 65° C (-50 to 150° F) with

controlled humidity. Other than houses, the chambers

have been used to evaluate refrigerator trailers, concrete block structures, a Coast Guard inflatable raft {whose CO2 charge was found to lose pressure at very

low temperatures), and a fleet of postal service trucks,

which were tested for their pollution emissions for

different speeds and fuel types.

Artwork: Susan Dzamba

Concept &Text: Michael Olmert

January 1976

Center for Building Technology

Institute for Applied Technology

U.S. Department of Commerce

Rogers C.B. Morton, Secretary

James A. Baker, III, Under Secretary

Betsy Ancker-Johnson, Ph.D., Assistant

Secretary for Science and Technology

National Bureau of Standards

Ernest Ambler, Acting Director

Nat. Bur. Stand. (U.S.), Spec. Publ. 439, 30 pages

(January, 1976)

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U S, Government Printing

Office, Wastiington, D,C. 20402 (Order by SD Catalog No, CI 3,1 0:439)

Price $0.00