An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories Fiscal Year 2002 (2002) / Chapter Skim
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7 Building and Fire Research Laboratory
7 Building and Fire Research Laboratory
Pages 215-260
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7 Building and Fire Research Laboratory 215
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Altenkirch, this assessment of the fiscal year 2002 activities of the Building and Fire Research Laboratory is based on site visits by individual panel members, a formal meeting of the panel on February 28-March 1, 2002, in Gaithersburg, Md., and materials provided by the laboratory.
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Finally, BFRL should tap the expertise of its junior and senior technical staff; they are familiar with cutting-edge technologies and are attuned to the activities of the external communities and the reactions of these communities to NIST efforts. As of February 2002, the NIST-level strategic plan is scheduled to be completed in June 2002; the panel notes that BFRL's plan to coordinate the NIST-level vision and goals with the laboratory-level plan is appropriate.
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The first is the national building and fire safety investigation of the events at the World Trade Center. The second category encompasses three programs: structural fire protection; human behavior, emergency response, and mobility; and building vulnerability reduction.
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Therefore, the laboratory needs to develop a workforce management plan outlining all of the people and skills that will be needed, indicating how NIST will access those people and skills, and identifying how the people and the projects will be managed. Technical Highlights The Building and Fire Research Laboratory is organized in four divisions: Structures, Building Materials, Building Environment, and Fire Research (see Figure 7.1~.
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This sample allows researchers to determine flame spread continuously as a function of composition and flux level. In the Building Materials Division, the staff's world-class expertise in the computational materials science of concrete has resulted in the development of the Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory (VCCTL)
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In the Fire Research Division, the work on residential smoke alarms not only has provided key data and test methods to the manufacturers of the alarms, but the press release and media coverage of the work have also allowed the laboratory to reach ultimate users of the alarms: the public. In the Building Materials Division, the first year of the VCCTL Consortium went particularly well; several of the world's largest cement and admixture manufacturers, a number of major trade organizations, and the International Center for Aggregate Research are involved.
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terrorist attacks, the lessons learned about structures under stress can be applied to make all buildings safer. - , ~ Laboratory Resources Funding sources for the Building and Fire Research Laboratory are shown in Table 7.1.
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This is one element of the broader question of how BFRL will determine and maintain a balance between new homeland security work and existing projects. Another question about how this perhaps temporary, specifically targeted funding will affect BFRL relates to the laboratory' s attitude toward and treatment of external funding sources (i.e., contracts with other government agencies)
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The laboratory's plans for homeland security activities do include work on the fire testing of structures under load, but the panel believes that the plan for this activity can be significantly expanded. Owing to the laboratory's strong expertise in both structural and fire research and to its existing Large Fire Research Facility, BFRL is in a unique position to build a robust, long-term program in this area and to utilize this kind of facility effectively.
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In other, larger-scale programs, formal coordination at the laboratory level may be necessary. Work on information technology systems is occurring throughout the laboratory the Structures Division has projects on construction automation, the Building Environment Division has projects on the integration and management of building systems, and the Fire Research Division has models, simulations, and detector projects and coordination of these activities could help ensure that appropriate collaborations continue to occur and that full advantage is taken of the opportunities to leverage complementary skills.
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· Structural fire testing is both an important element of homeland security work and an appropriate long-term programmatic growth area for BFRL and its customers. The laboratory should be prepared to propose construction of a state-of-the-art facility for fire testing of structures under load as part of the homeland security effort and to make a commitment to sustaining a structural fire research program over the long term.
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The Structures Division supports the BFRL goal of Advanced Construction Technology, with work occurring in two areas: Construction Integration and Automation Technology (CONSIAT) and Construction Systems and Safety (CONSAFE)
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In addition to the activities described above, the CONSAFE Program also includes the division's ongoing activities and expertise in performance-based fire engineering for steel structures, fire performance of high-strength concrete, and mitigation of progressive collapse in buildings. These are all critical areas for BFRL's planned homeland security work, and the Structures Division has a unique opportunity to take a leadership role among federal agencies in addressing these issues post-September 11.
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In all of these areas, it should be clear that NIST's main mission is to define metrics and to provide guidance for relevant codes and standards; the primary mission is not performing basic research. A significant factor in determining the future direction of Structures Division programs will be the proposed merger of the Structures and the Building Materials Divisions.
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Workshops and conferences are an important element of productive interactions with external communities, but other outreach activities will be needed to really connect with industry. Structures Division staff will also need to be able to describe the NIST programs to industry in such a way that the value and relevance of the work are clear.
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is significant. The funds would be distributed throughout NIST and would also support contracts with external institutions, but the expanded homeland security work certainly will be expected to have a noticeable impact on the Structures Division's resources.
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The goal for any upgrade of this facility should be for NIST to have the leading structural fire test research laboratory in the world. A vision for this facility what it should look like, what the real test objectives are, and what the development and implementation strategies are will be needed in order to determine the cost of developing the facility and to argue convincingly for its funding.5 This effort will require close cooperation between the Structures and the Fire Research Divisions and the laboratory office.
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, which is the responsibility of the division's Inorganic Materials Group, and service life prediction of high-performance polymeric construction materials, which is led by the division's Organic Materials Group. Also located within the Building Materials Division is the Construction Materials Reference Laboratory (CMRL)
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In a field where much empirical work has been and is still being done, BFRL' s service life prediction projects take a scientific approach to understanding durability by seeking to identify the real metrics of performance degradation and its fundamental causes and effects. The Organic Materials Group currently is conducting a number of interconnected projects that capitalize on the group's core competencies.
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Other important environmental exposure parameters include moisture, temperature, and load. While this project will use many of the same methods developed in the work on service life prediction for coatings, it will also look at how UV exposure under mechanical load accelerates aging.
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It is perhaps telling that there are no longer any structural composites projects of great significance anywhere within NIST; however, many of the materials studied in the Building Materials Division actually are composites in the generic sense of the term. Proposed Building Materials and Structures Division Merger.
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The Building Materials Division has a comparatively young staff and takes a science-based approach in its work, about 40 percent of which is funded by outside sources. The Structures Division, on the other hand, has a more mature staff, which is engineering-oriented in its work, and is largely internally funded.
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Several states in the eastern United States already are citing the ASTM standards for remediation of lead-based paint, and over the past year HUD has begun to cite the ASTM standards in its regulations. The effectiveness and impact of the Building Materials Division programs are a product of the excellence of the division staff and are reflected in the recognition that staff members receive from external communities.
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Division Resources Funding sources for the Building Materials Division are shown in Table 7.3. As of January 2002, staffing for the division included 21 full-time permanent positions, of which 18 were for technical professionals.
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Students play some part in Building Materials Division projects, and kudos are due to two staff members who worked with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship program; as a result of these efforts, 11 undergraduate students spent the summer of 2001 in BFRL, where they gained valuable laboratory research experience.
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The Building Environment Division is responsible for work toward the BFRL goal of Enhanced Building Performance. In support of this goal, research, development, and demonstration work is carried out in the two program areas: cybernetic building systems, which involves two of the division's five groups (Mechanical Systems and Controls, and Computer Integrated Construction)
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The final area of activity for the Mechanical Systems and Controls Group is work on the VCBT, a multigroup (with the Computer Integrated Construction Group) and multidivision (with the Fire Research Division)
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These projects build on previous work done in the group. In the past, the panel has expressed concern about coordination between the Computer Integrated Construction Group and the Construction Metrology and Automation Group of the Structures Division.
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This program is a good example of how state-of-the-art basic research can produce practical tools useful to industry. It is also a good example of intralaboratory collaboration, as researchers from the Computer Integrated Construction Group and the Fire Research Division have made important contributions to the project.
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The Heat Transfer and Alternative Energy Systems Group focuses on the sort of metrology programs that are at the heart of BFRL's mission. For example, the goal of the group's thermal conductivity work is to develop the measurement tools, procedures, standards, and databases to assist the building industry and related industries in determining the thermal properties of building materials, industrial insulations, and innovative insulation systems.
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One is a mobile photovoltaic tracking test facility, and the other is a testbed of building integrated photovoltaic panels on the south side of NIST Building 226. Many solar industry companies and academic and governmental laboratories are interested in the data that will be produced and in the results of NIST's use of the data for model validation.
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is a highly relevant objective that the panel believes should be pursued not only in the Computer Integrated Construction Group and Building Environment Division but at the laboratory and institutional levels as well. While visionaries within the buildings industry have been promoting life-cycle information management for several years, the industry as a whole was not embracing the idea, as noted in last year's assessment.
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. · ~ International ~nterlanoratory comparison ot thermal conductivity data with Canada, trance, Japan, and 1OThe NIST Heat Transmission Properties of Insulating and Building Materials database is available online at |
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The activities in the five groups of the Building Environment Division do a good job of supporting NIST's customers and fulfilling the BFRL mission. The panel notes that a program on standards related to sustainable buildings would also be consistent with the division's and laboratory's missions and would take advantage of the skills that exist in the division.
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In the past year, the most significant development affecting the resource situation throughout BFRL was the World Trade Center attacks and the anthrax mailings and the resulting new laboratory focus on homeland security. In the Building Environment Division, some resources have been reprogrammed to support new or expanded activities related to homeland security, such as the work on contaminant transport patterns in buildings.
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The work in the Fire Research Division is mainly in support of the Building and Fire Research Laboratory's goal of fire loss reduction. This BFRL goal is focused on four key objectives: reducing residential fire deaths, injuries, and property losses; reducing firefighter line-of-service deaths and burn injuries; enabling engineered fire safety for people, products, facilities, and first responders; and reducing firefighter and occupant vulnerability in extreme fire events that threaten homeland security.
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The FDS is an excellent scientific and engineering tool, and the panel believes that the division and laboratory should consider building a major programmatic thrust around the FDS. Work would focus on Large Fire Research Facility experiments aligned with FDS's predictive capabilities and on continuing to improve the components of the model.
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This is one example of an area in which close collaboration between the Fire Research and Structures Divisions would be necessary. Contacting groups at other institutions, particularly the Department of Defense, may also be a way to access models that division staff can combine and adapt to build this capability.
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The panel applauds the recent smoke alarm demonstration staged for the media in the Large Fire Research Facility as a step in the right direction. The organization of additional workshops with representatives from industry, government, and academia, firefighters, and other relevant groups would also help publicize the benefits produced by the work of the Fire Research Division.
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While BFRL staff began to apply their expertise immediately where they could, such as in modeling of the fires in the World Trade Center, the lack of clarity within the federal government about what NIST would do and about whether funds would be provided for their efforts has been unsettling for all BFRL staff. The Large Fire Research Facility will be a key component of the homeland security effort.
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The division should focus on determining what improvements are required to make this a world-class facility and on facilitating its use in support of NIST's homeland security work. As of January 2002, staffing for the Fire Research Division included 52 full-time permanent positions, of which 46 were for technical professionals.
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While laboratory management has agreed that half of the time of a senior researcher in the Fire Research Division may be allocated to work in this area, the panel believes that this is insufficient. In addition to this person, who brings appropriate technical capabilities and experience with national and international codes and on standards committees, people are also needed who are familiar with the workings of the codes and standards agencies and who can monitor regulatory processes in a number of fields to ensure that BFRL is up to date on relevant deadlines and opportunities.
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The panel's judgment that OAK's work is of high technical merit reflects the personnel's credentials and the quality of their published reports, and it also hinges on their communications skills, primarily their ability to design effective, interactive, user-friendly computer tools. OAK is not focused on theoretical economics or operations research.
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Program Relevance and Effectiveness Since an appreciable part of OAK's work is customer assessment for other NIST activities, office personnel are certainly well aware of who their own customers are. OAK monitors the hits on its Web site and found that for the 8-month period between March and the end of October 2001, there were 182,496 visits to the OAK directory and another 8,366 to the information on life-cycle-costs for bridges (developed in conjunction with the Building Materials Division)
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OAK is very successful at attracting external funding. While this outside support provides verification that the products of the office are of value to its customers, it also seems to indicate to laboratory management that internal funds for this office are not necessary.
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