Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 207 / Wednesday, October 25, 2000 / Notices 63843

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and

Technology

Announcement of Meeting and

Opportunity To Join the Virtual Cement

and Concrete Testing Laboratory

Consortium

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards

and Technology, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of public meeting.

SUMMARY: The National Institute of

Standards and Technology (NIST)

invites interested parties to attend the

kick-off meeting of the Virtual Cement

and Concrete Testing Laboratory

consortium on November 30 and

December 1, 2000 to be held at the

offices of W.R. Grace & Co. in

Cambridge, MA. Meetings will be held

Thursday afternoon and Friday

morning. The goals of this consortium

are to develop an enhanced version of

a Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing

Laboratory and to further the state-ofthe-art in the materials science of

cement-based materials. The consortium

will be supervised and administered by

NIST. Consortium research and

development will be conducted by NIST

staff members along with at least one

technical representative from each

participating member company.

Membership fees for participation in the

consortium are Forty Thousand

($40,000) per year. The initial term of

the consortium is intended to be three

years. NIST has made available further

information on the consortium,

including the presentations made at the

initial June 14–15 consortium planning

meeting, at http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/

862/vcctl

DATES: The meeting will take place on

November 30, 2000 from 1 PM to 5 PM

and on December 1, 2000 from 8 AM to

1 PM in Cambridge, MA.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at

the offices of W.R. Grace & Co.-Conn.,

62 Whittemore Avenue, Cambridge, MA

02140.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dale

P. Bentz, Chair, Virtual Cement and

Concrete Testing Laboratory

Consortium, National Institute of

Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau

Drive, Stop 8621, Gaithersburg MD,

20899, USA; Telephone (301) 975—

5865; Fax (301) 990–6891; E-mail:

dale.bentz@nist.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Consortium Goals

The goals of this consortium are to

develop an enhanced version of the

Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing

Laboratory and to further the state-ofthe-art in the computational materials

science of cement-based materials.

These goals will be pursued using a

combined experimental/computer

modeling approach with strong

technical supervision and support being

provided by the consortium members

and the consortium oversight board (one

membership per participating

company). The developed Virtual

Laboratory should result in a substantial

reduction in the extensive resources

currently employed for the physical

testing of cement-based materials and

should also expedite the research and

development process significantly.

More details on the planned activities

are provided in the Virtual Cement and

Concrete Testing Laboratory Consortium

membership agreement. A preliminary

list of topics that will be addressed by

the consortium include: (1) Cement

hydration and the influence of alkalis,

slag, and limestone additions; (2)

measurement and modeling of

rheological properties including the

influence of entrapped and entrained air

voids; and (3) prediction of the elastic/

visco-elastic properties of cement-based

materials.

Background

Over the past twelve years,

researchers in the Building Materials

Division of NIST have made tremendous

strides in the modeling of

microstructure and the computation of

performance properties of cement-based

materials. Currently, NIST is recognized

as the undisputed world leader in the

‘‘Computational Materials Science of

Concrete.’’ Recently, much of this NIST

research has been integrated into a

prototype Virtual Cement and Concrete

Testing Laboratory (VCCTL), which will

be made available over the Internet in

November or December of 2000. The

purpose of the VCCTL is to reduce the

necessary number of physical tests and

expedite the R&D process.

The center of the prototype VCCTL is

the NIST 3–D cement hydration and

microstructure development model

(CEMHYD3D). Using the web-based

interface, a user may create an initial

microstructure containing cement,

gypsum, mineral admixtures, and inert

fillers following a specific particle size

distribution, hydrate the microstructure

under a variety of curing (temperature

and saturation) conditions, and evaluate

the properties of the simulated

microstructures for direct comparison to

experiment. Furthermore, hydrated

microstructures may be degraded using

an NIST-developed leaching algorithm,

and diffusion coefficients for chloride

ions in concrete predicted based on

concrete mixture proportions. As the

consortium proceeds, the prediction of

rheological properties (viscosity and

yield stress) of the fresh materials and

elastic properties (elastic modulus,

creep, and relaxation) of the hardened

materials will be incorporated into the

VCCTL.

The Virtual Cement and Concrete

Testing Laboratory Consortium is to be

chaired by Dale P. Bentz of NIST.

Dated: October 18, 2000.

Raymond G. Kammer,

Director.

[FR Doc. 00–27433 Filed 10–24–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–13–M

COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING

COMMISSION

Sunshine Act Meeting

AGENCY HOLDING THE MEETING:

Commodity Futures Trading

Commission.

TIME AND DATE: 1:00 p.m., Monday,

October 30, 2000.

PLACE: 1155 21st St., NW., Washington,

DC, Lobby Level Hearing Room.

STATUS: Open.

MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED:

• Final rules for a regulatory framework

for Multilateral Transaction Execution

Facilities, Intermediaries and Clearing

Organizations.

• Final rules relating to Intermediaries

of Commodity Interest Transactions.

• Final rules for a New Regulatory

Framework for Clearing

Organizations.

• Final rules on the Exemption for

Bilateral Transactions.

CONTACT PERSON FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Jean A. Webb, 202–418–5100.

Jean A. Webb,

Secretary of the Commission.

[FR Doc. 00–27501 Filed 10–20–00; 5:06 pm]

BILLING CODE 6351–01–M

COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING

COMMISSION

Sunshine Act Meeting

TIME AND DATE: 11 a.m., Friday,

November 3, 2000.

PLACE: 1155 21st St., NW., Washington,

DC, 9th Floor Conference Room.

STATUS: Closed.

MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED: Surveillance

Matters.