Its goal is to develop high-performance construction materials that contribute to improving America s competitiveness in the next century. Collaborating with BMD are other BFRL divisions, other NIST labs such as the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory, and the NSF s Center for Science and Technology of Advanced Cement-Based Materials. Researchers lack hard data on how these environmental conditions affect long-term performance of materials. To address these issues, BMD researchers develop accelerated durability tests and mathematical models that predict the performance of materials. The guide shows that performance forecasts are based on how materials and exposure conditions are characterized, which degradation factors are targeted, and how accelerated tests simulate field conditions.
Evidence suggests one hurdle to prediction is proper characterization of actual exposure conditions.
As for concrete which ranks second only to water as the world s most heavily consumed substance its durability depends on the rate that aggressive liquids, gases, and salts penetrate it. So BMD is developing simulation models to predict the transport rates of concrete from its microstructure features. Although most of its work is performed in large fire research laboratories, FSED researchers often perform measurements in the field. Frequently, these measurements support activities of local fire departments while collecting data that will help FSED improve engineering predictions for fires. Troubled by a rapid rise in fatalities in city homes, SAFD wanted to conduct controlled burns in several abandoned houses to simulate crowded conditions they had observed around the city.