An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories Fiscal Year 2000 (2000) / Chapter Skim
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Building and Fire Research Laboratory
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
Pages 183-218
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7 Building and Fire Research Laboratory 183
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Ryntz, and its Vice Chair, Janet S Baum, this assessment of the fiscal year 2000 activities of the Building and Fire Research Laboratory is based on site visits by individual panel members, a formal meeting of the panel on March 9-10, 2000, in Gaithersburg, Md., and the annual report of the laboratory.
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The BFRL contains five divisions: Structures, Building Materials, Building Environment, Fire Safety Engineering, and Fire Science. Research also occurs in the Office of Applied Economics and the Standards and Codes Services Unit of the laboratory office.
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The FDS will certainly be effectively employed by researchers and engineers from industry to further the community's understanding of fire dynamics and to apply this understanding to solving fire problems in building design. The Partnership for High-Performance Concrete Technologies (PHPCT)
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objective utilizes BFRL expertise in thermal machinery, heat transfer, and indoor air quality to develop measurement methods, tests, data, and simulations to support sustainability in the design, construction, operation, and demolition of buildings and their systems. This work is appropriately focused on a long-term concern of the United States and other countries.
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Techniques to determine the energy efficiency of heating and cooling systems using alternative refrigerants will provide data needed by regulators trying to make good decisions on issues related to global warming. Fire simulation tools could improve building design and firefighter training.
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Laboratory Resources Funding sources for the Building and Fire Research Laboratory are shown in Table 7.1. As of January 2000, staffing for the Building and Fire Research Laboratory included 157 full-time permanent positions, of which 129 were for technical professionals.
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The panel strongly endorses this approach, as well as a similar approach already in progress with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) , in which external funding is provided for an array of BFRL projects in support of HUD's Partnership for Advancing Technologies in Housing (PATH)
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DIVISIONAL REVIEWS Structures Division Division Mission According to division documentation, the mission of the Structures Division is to promote construction productivity and structural safety by providing measurements and standards for key technologies supporting the design, construction, and serviceability of constructed facilities, including infrastructure lifeline systems. The current array of projects in the Structures Division aligns well with this mission and supports the laboratory's major objectives.
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However, the work on FRPs could benefit from more sharply focused objectives and better alignment with the major objectives of BFRL. Structures Division staff should be encouraged to reach out to Building Materials Division staff to strengthen the collaborative work on the durability of FRP composites.
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A person with this expertise could serve as a catalyst for the deployment of the next-ceneration standards for wind on loads, contribute to a better integration of the experimental and analytical efforts of the Structural Systems and Design Group into PSSH, and provide expertise for the numerical validation of structural control and passive dissipation concepts in connection with the performance-based evaluation of existing structures and the design of new structures. One of the major commitments of the Structures Division is participation in and leadership of a variety of technical working groups and standards committees.
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If this group finds a valid and necessary role for this large NIST testing machine, the division should proceed expeditiously on estimating the cost for the renovation and upgrade. Building Materials Division Division Mission According to division documentation, the mission of the Building Materials Division is to perform research to advance construction materials science and technology by conducting analytical, laboratory, and field research, including the development of methods to measure and predict service life of construction materials, and by developing technical bases for improving criteria and standards used to evaluate, select, use, and maintain construction materials and for improving tools to make decisions in selecting construction materials, including high-performance concrete and steels.
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L~te-cycle costing Is part of the analysts. In the Organic Building Materials Group, projects within the SLPM objective are somewhat less focused on a single output but are well organized around a common theme: providing the knowledge to develop methods for predicting the life-cycle performance of construction materials, including coatings and FRP composites.
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The Building Materials Division proposes to modify AFM tips using self-assembled monolayers, which will enable scientists to take specific chemical entities directly to the surface to be studied. By controlling relative humidity using a novel environmental sample chamber, NIST staff will be able to use AFM to probe some of the very important interactions governing the durability of polymeric materials.
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As of January 2000, staffing for the Building Materials Division included 20 full-time permanent positions, of which 17 were 4D.R Bauer, and J.W. Martin, eds., Service Life Prediction of Organic Coatings: a Systems Approach, ACS Symposium Series 722, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., 1999.
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There were also two nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and part-time workers. A significant portion of the Building Materials Division's budget, approximately 45 percent, is derived from external sources.
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Technical Merit and Appropriateness of Work The Building Environment Division is comprised of five groups: Thermal Machinery, Heat Transfer, Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation, Mechanical Systems and Controls, and Computer-Integrated Construction. The first three groups focus on projects that support the MSB objective; the Mechanical Systems and Controls Group works on CBS; and the Computer-Integrated Construction Group contributes to both CBS and CONSiAT.
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The amount and type of lubricant circulating through heat exchangers can impact heat transfer and, ultimately, the energy efficiency of the system. The Thermal Machinery Group is utilizing a fluorescence spectroscopy measurement technique to determine the concentration of lubricant at the internal-tube boiling surface.
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In its second area of concentration, the Heat Transfer Group has a well-deserved international reputation for its work on thermal conductivity measurements. NIST has developed thermal property measurement tools, procedures, and standards for building materials, industrial applications, and innovative insulation systems.
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The group also plans to integrate the FDD testbed into the Virtual Cybernetic Building Testbed to enable online testing of FDD methods. The panel believes this set of activities and goals is well directed at assisting building operators and maintenance personnel in using FDD methods to improve the performance of their buildings.
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The project on developing advanced graphical user interfaces for construction project delivery systems is also using the NIST construction work as a testbed. The Computer Integrated Construction Group would like to support the move from paper-based information exchange to the use of Web-based three-dimensional graphical user interfaces that allow project managers to access project information when and where they need it.
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NIST's contributions include research that produces the knowledge necessary to increase the energy efficiency of building systems; development of simulation tools to facilitate efficient and accurate design of indoor air quality systems, natural ventilation systems, and stairwell pressurization systems; work on the expansion, certification, and demonstration of BACnet, which allows building control systems to communicate with each other; and development, refinement, assessment, and demonstration of information exchange standards for architecture-engineering-construction (AEC) data.
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Throughout the Building Environment Division, the panel heard concerns from some staff that upper management was placing too much emphasis on short-term results and that this restricted focus was deterring programs requiring longer-term research to reach fruition. The panel notes that in some but not all instances, this tension could be alleviated by releasing interim short-term results from the longer-range programs.
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Division Resources Funding sources for the Building Environment Division are shown in Table 7.4. As of January 2000, staffing for the Building Environment Division included 35 full-time permanent positions, of which 31 were for technical professionals.
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The Fire Safety Engineering Division has primary responsibility for one BFRL major objective, the Industrial Fire Simulation System (IFS) , and shares responsibility for another, Advanced Fire Measurements and Fire Fighting Technologies (AFM/FFT)
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This group also manages the NIST Large Fire Research Facility (Building 205~; this facility was closed down for many years but is finally undergoing necessary repairs and should reopen soon. The Large Fire Research Group has helped to solve a wide range of fire problems for many government agencies, including the FEMA's U.S.
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While NIST's work in this area is valuable, the efforts of this group do not seem to have been well integrated with related work going on in the Fire Dynamics and Materials Fire Research Groups. Several of the projects in the Fire Safety Systems Group contribute to the fire safety aspects of the BFRL's major objective on Cybernetic Building Systems (CBS)
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In addition to its work on the BFRL major objectives, the Fire Safety Engineering Division has also made a measurable and positive contribution through work done in support of other government agencies. For the MMS and the USCG, it developed methods, equipment, and analysis tools to allow in situ burning of oil spills in a manner that limits the environmental damage from them while preventing the smoke from affecting the health and safety of people in nearby coastal regions.
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Historically, the level of external funding in the area of fire safety engineering has always been high. However, declining internal resources allocated to the Fire Safety Engineering Division and the increased difficulty in finding projects from other agencies have resulted in a mismatch between division staffing levels and the amount of financial support available.
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The mission of the Fire Science Division is pursued through integrated programs in support of the BFRL objectives in order to meet science and engineering needs related to fire safety. The diversity of the laboratory's major products and the variety of skills needed to tackle the technical questions in building and fire research necessitate interdivisional collaboration.
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As of January 2000, staffing for the Fire Science Division included 28 full-time permanent positions, of which 25 were for technical professionals. There were also seven nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and part-time workers.
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The net result is a portfolio of research and standards development projects that are individually focused on specific technical and marketplace issues. For example, in the Building Materials Division, research on rapid weathering techniques will lead to a better understanding of how to predict the service life performance of materials such as coatings, roofing, and sealants.
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In the Building Environment Division, products that enhance indoor air quality in enclosed and conditioned spaces are being tested in conjunction with the Carrier Corporation and ASHRAE. Both projects should be of interest to practicing members in all sectors of the building industry.
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· The increasing pressure on BFRL staff to secure external funding is hurting morale in the laboratory and has the potential to adversely affect the quality and appropriateness of the work done at NIST. The panel believes that the percentage of the BFRL budget that comes from outside sources
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These activities raise BFRL's profile in the building and fire industrial communities and bring in additional, stable, long-term external funding for laboratory programs supportive of BFRL's mission. · The major objectives of the laboratory are appropriate and could have a significant impact on industry.
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