The mission of the Engineering Laboratory (EL) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness through measurement science and standards for technology-intensive manufacturing, construction, and cyberphysical systems in ways that enhance economic prosperity and improve the quality of life. To support this mission, the EL has developed thrusts in smart manufacturing, construction, and cyberphysical systems; in sustainable and energy-efficient manufacturing materials and infrastructure; and in disaster-resilient buildings, infrastructure, and communities. The technical work of the EL is performed in five divisions: Intelligent Systems; Materials and Structural Systems; Energy and Environment; Systems Integration; and Fire Research; and two offices: Applied Economics Office and Smart Grid Program Office.
At the request of the Director of NIST, the National Research Council (NRC) formed the Panel on Review of the Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and established the following statement of task for the panel:
The Panel on Review of the Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology will assess the scientific and technical work performed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Engineering Laboratory. The panel will attend an orientation session at the NIST facility, will review technical reports and technical program descriptions prepared by NIST staff, and will visit the facilities of the NIST laboratory. Visits will include technical presentations by NIST staff, demonstrations of NIST projects, tours of NIST facilities, and discussions with NIST staff. The panel will deliberate findings in a closed session panel meeting and will prepare a report summarizing its assessment findings.
The Director of NIST requested that the panel focus its assessment on the following factors:
1. Assess the organization’s technical programs.
- How does the quality of the research compare to similar world class research in the technical program areas?
- Is the quality of the technical programs adequate for the organization to reach its stated technical objectives? How could it be improved?
2. Assess the portfolio of scientific expertise within the organization.
- Does the organization have world class scientific expertise in the areas of the organization’s mission and program objectives? If not, what areas should be improved?
- How well does the organization’s scientific expertise support the organization’s technical programs and the organization’s ability to achieve its stated objectives?
3. Assess the adequacy of the organization’s facilities, equipment, and human resources.
- How well do the facilities, equipment, and human resources support the organization’s technical programs and its ability to achieve its stated objectives? How could they be improved?
4. Assess the effectiveness by which the organization disseminates its program outputs.
- How well are the organization’s research programs driven by stakeholder needs?
- How effective are the technology transfer mechanisms used by the organization? Are these mechanisms sufficiently comprehensive?
- How well is the organization monitoring stakeholder use and impact of program outputs? How could this be improved?
TECHNICAL MERIT
Overall, the technical programs of the EL and their supporting projects are well formulated to achieve their goals, addressing the appropriate aspects of their fields and advancing them at a reasonable rate. Measurement science remains one cornerstone of the research program, advancing at a high technical level the conviction that processes can be controlled to the degree they are measured. Computer simulation, effectively integrated with unique testing and physical measurements, is becoming a second cornerstone of the program, making possible the generalization of experimental results and facilitating the dissemination of technology to the user community. A third cornerstone is information gathering by EL managers to identify and prioritize the detailed physical experiments, simulations, measurements, and equipment needed to perform high-level research. These are the bases for the excellence of the EL research program and its relevance to national priorities.
Execution of the technical programs is generally excellent, owing to the first-rate facilities and staff. Research and development conducted at the EL are important for national prosperity and safety. For example, integration of advances in material science with advanced manufacturing or with efficient building systems that resist extreme winds is essential to realize the value of research investments. It is important that the EL continue its search and support for such integration throughout the laboratory.
The impact of some technical programs is highly significant. Vivid examples include the Fire Research Division’s (FRD’s) contributions to science, codes, standards, assessment tools, equipment, and firefighter tactics, which are highly influential. The pace of research will increase as experimental results from the National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL) come online. Another example is the Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility (NZERTF), which, while simulating the ordinary life of a family of four over the past year, has recently demonstrated a small net energy surplus at the end of the 1-year test period. The NZERTF is already a technical success and is expected to have great impact on the architecture and engineering of single-family dwellings. The impacts of other technical activities in progress are also highly promising. Among these are the material and structural systems activities to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete and to improve the sustainability of polymeric materials. The updating of wind speed maps and collection of data on tornado-induced damage will advance structural safety. The Intelligent Systems Division (ISD) industrial robot program has contributed to development of unified international standards for safe modes of human-robot collaboration. The Systems Integration Division (SID) had a significant impact on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Standard for the Exchange of Product (STEP) model data that establishes protocol and standards for interoperability testing of manufacturing processes such as model-based engineering. A tangible accomplishment of the program is the NIST STEP file analyzer, which detects errors in manufacturing data exchange files.
SCIENTIFIC EXPERTISE
There are highly capable, motivated, and enthusiastic staff in all EL divisions. Overall, the personnel demonstrate their ability to apply technical knowledge and to remain connected to the broader research and standards community. Generally, EL staff efficiently provide a bridge between the scientific and user communities. As an example, the FRD collects information on the needs of the fire-fighting community and has developed in response scientifically based content within its programs and clear
interpretations for training firefighters and improving specifications for their equipment. EL staff in all divisions have advanced their expertise in computer simulation and modeling, which now play a major role in creating or underpinning new and significant capabilities. This evolution requires parallel expertise in evaluating uncertainties associated with numerical methods and data sets. Support from the statistics engineering division within the NIST Information Technology Laboratory is essential.
Relationships with outside researchers have many benefits, including cost-effective access to outside large-scale testing facilities. These valuable relationships often arise from the continuing education of EL staff members. As is customary, EL personnel are active in codes and standards committees. However, travel restrictions may hamper the ability of EL personnel to make or extend useful contacts with other government laboratories and private sector stakeholders.
In some instances first-rate research expertise resides in a small number of personnel or, in a few cases, in only one person. Some disciplines with fewer than one junior and two senior experts appear to be at risk of losing competency. Formal mapping of competencies can be extended to staff participation in key scientific and engineering communities.
The ISD is able to hire permanent staff, but there are external and internal challenges to doing so. There are limited numbers of U.S. citizens graduating with advanced degrees in engineering disciplines, and there is a competitive hiring environment for qualified candidates in high-priority manufacturing areas such as robotics, industrial control system (ICS) security, and additive manufacturing. Internal challenges are imposed by such factors as the speed of the hiring process, travel restrictions for bringing in new hires, difficulties in arranging moving expenses, and pay considerations. Sources of permanent hires include the pool of guest researchers and the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), Pathways, and NRC postdoctoral fellows programs.
Overreliance on guest researchers jeopardizes investments in research with long-term payoffs. The creation of exciting new programs such as the NRFL, the NZERTF, and the Sustainability Initiative bring with them the need for new expertise. It is important to support these programs with permanent staff.
FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT
Major new facilities reflect judgment that the national interest lies in advancing such technologies as net-zero energy residences, fire hazard mitigation at full building scale, resistance of buildings to disproportionate collapse due to terrorist action, and robotic response to disaster investigation.
The NZERTF is a unique testbed that applies simulation, measurement science, and energy efficiency technologies aimed at developing and deploying advances in measurement science to move the nation toward cost-effective net-zero energy buildings while maintaining a healthy indoor environment. This program and its showcase facility are supported by a complex of computer simulation and physical testbeds that ensure the efficiency and scientific integrity of the program. To realize the full potential of the NZERTF, it will be necessary to develop a metric system for evaluating indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and a comprehensive framework for computer simulation of whole building performance. It is important that the project team consider these concepts when articulating the goals of the project. It will also be necessary to develop a system of databases to manage efficiently the large amount of data to be collected from the various advanced system testbeds.
The NRFL is a physical fire test facility that overcomes previous limitations on the size of fires and building elements that could be tested under working loads.1 Testing of large-scale fires is important because the properties of fire and its impact do not scale linearly with fire size. The new NFRL provides a unique opportunity to study larger fires (up to 20 MW continuously and 30-40 MW peak) and their impact on large structures and surfaces under working load conditions. The combination of the new
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1 A description of the National Fire Research Laboratory is available at http://www.nist.gov/el/fire_research/nfrl/, accessed November 20, 2014.
facility, which accommodates two-story structures with multiple rooms and their furnishings, and legacy facilities represents a new, versatile capability that exists nowhere else.
The manufacturing robotics testbed and the intelligent sensing and perception testbed are laboratory spaces containing physical robotic systems supported by measurement science for robotic perception and safety of human-robot systems. Applications addressed through joint research with other federal agencies, such as robotic assistance in emergency response, are in progress, demonstrating the versatility of the facility. Long-standing programs in machine tool performance and machining metrology are supported by excellent facilities that, although aging, are well maintained and suited to their purpose. In additive manufacturing, the EL machine for powder bed fusion is old and may not match the capabilities of modern equipment to detect and measure defects in additive manufactured parts.
Facilities in the Materials and Structural Systems Division (MSSD) for characterization of polymers are among the best in the world. The division’s work on polymer sustainability has focused on photo-degradation using the unique 2-meter integrating sphere to accelerate ultraviolet (UV) effects on polymers. Facilities for examining sustainable substitutes, fly ash and limestone, and for studying the rheology of cement pastes are adequate for their purpose. Facilities for small-scale testing of structural elements are adequate. Because gravity loading is an essential factor in investigating disproportional collapse, it is important that full-scale testing be performed. Rather than incur the expense of building its own facility for infrequent tests, EL staff have been creative in using outside testing facilities for full-size frames and even complete buildings.
It is important that the SID develop an interoperability testbed to demonstrate integration of life cycle engineering, information modeling and testing, systems engineering, and process engineering for specific manufacturing processes. The testbed might be virtual, entirely based on computational modeling, or it might be a hybrid of physical and virtual modeling. Such an activity would offer crosscutting possibilities with programs in the ISD and the Energy and Environment Division (EED). It is also important that the SID consider developing equipment energy measurement protocols—for example, under conditions of different production volumes and parameter settings, leading to a testbed for sustainable manufacturing. This activity, too, offers cross-cutting possibilities with the EED.
DISSEMINATION
The dissemination practices of the EL divisions share a common traditional approach with a strong focus on publishing and conference attendance and the development and publication of standards. Research work is published in good journals and conference proceedings, and some work has achieved a good citation record. Examples of NIST accomplishments include:
- The NIST Guide to Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security has been downloaded from its Internet site more than 2.5 million times since its initial draft release in 2006.
- An article in the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International Standardization News2 highlighted how EL’s work led to the success of a response robot used at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
- EL staff have participated in more than 200 technical and standards committees of the ASTM; the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE); the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA); the American National Standards Institute (ANSI); ISO; the American Concrete Institute (ACI); the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); and other organizations. By their personal participation, NIST staff exert influence directly on the formulation and expression of industry standards.
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2 K. Nelson and C. Enright, “Robots to the Rescue,” Standardization News, May/June 2013.
- The EL published Technical Investigation of the May 22, 2011, Tornado in Joplin, Missouri.3
- EL staff supported development of ASHRAE standards for residential air-tightness and ventilation.
- The EL has disseminated through its Internet site widely used software for sustainable building materials (24,000 users from 80 countries have accessed the software at the rate of 5,000 hits/month); for contaminant transport in buildings (there have been 4,000 downloads of this software); and for natural ventilation design (there have been 1,400 downloads of this software).
- EL staff have supported the development of the ISO 10303 STEP model data.
There are opportunities for wider use of social media to publicize the EL’s work, including focused dissemination to target audiences. Targets include industry leaders in heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC&R); the architectural and design community; home energy raters; and energy auditors.
EL divisions sponsor workshops to bring together stakeholders from private and government sectors and academia. While the workshop approach is useful, workshops occasionally overlook sister government laboratories and occasionally do not optimally engage private sector participants.
The divisions of the EL support a variety of stakeholders, whose inputs are solicited when developing research programs. Stakeholders are identified by several means: leadership in professional organizations, participation in other national laboratories’ planning, participation in standards development activities, participation in professional and technical meetings, initiating and/or participating in roadmapping exercises, sponsorship of workshops, and direct interactions with national laboratories, universities, and industry.
KEY FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Key findings and recommendations are provided here by reference to divisions within the EL. Chapters 2 through 6 contain these and additional findings and recommendations.
Materials and Structural Systems Division
Research performed in the Inorganic Materials Group of the MSSD supports life prolongation and rehabilitation of concrete materials and improves sustainability by decreasing cement content. It has applications in the hydrocarbon exploration industry, which uses concrete to encase well bores. Proper formulation of concretes that can properly set up and seal the well bore is essential for both increased production and decreased leakage.
It is important that the group establish better linkages between chemical and physical degradation and the mechanical properties of construction materials and that it consider developing a method for noninvasive in situ testing of the strength of fresh concrete. There is a need for the division to conduct further research into bio-based materials and fiber-reinforced structural systems, as well as into ubiquitous existing materials (steel, masonry, and wood) for new construction and in situ rehabilitation, for durability, functional performance, and resilience.
Recommendation 1. The Inorganic Materials Group should leverage work for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on alkali-silica reaction to connect the nanoscale investigations of concrete deterioration to structural performance.
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3 E.D. Kuligowski, F.T. Lombardo, L.T. Phan, M.L. Levitan, and D.P. Jorgensen, Final Report, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Technical Investigation of the May 22, 2011, Tornado in Joplin, Missouri, March 26, 2014, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.NCSTAR.3.
Recommendation 2. The Inorganic Materials Group should engage the oil and gas industry to develop safe encasement of well bores.
The work by the Polymeric Materials Group on the photophysics of polymeric degradation is mature. The group needs to engage the solar panel industry where polymeric materials are used to encapsulate thin films between panes of glass. Standard materials used by the industry are ethyl vinyl alcohol and polybutadiene, which are problematic and require guidance for formulating sealants and adhesives. It would be beneficial if the polymer and concrete teams were to increase their collaboration—for example, polymer fibers to strengthen concrete and resist cracking and polymer additives to enhance the flow properties of concrete.
Recommendation 3. The Polymeric Materials Group should expand research, including molecular modeling, on polymeric degradation to non-ultraviolet degradation effects and should include the data in models for predicting service life.
Recommendation 4. The Polymeric Materials Group should engage the solar panel industry where polymeric materials are used to encapsulate thin films between panes of glass.
Work of the Structures Group could be improved by collaborating with the research and practitioner community to identify and evaluate alternative approaches for quantitative metrics to describe phenomena such as disproportionate collapse. A metric for robustness would be useful. Additional collaboration with the FRD on the durability and performance of materials and structures under fire conditions would also be beneficial. Fully integrating the group’s capabilities in analysis, computational modeling, and physical testing would help to obtain the maximal amount of information from the work in disproportionate collapse.
Much of the work of the Structures Group is disseminated through the code development process. However, significant results, such as those on plasticity found through the work on disproportionate collapse, could be disseminated more broadly through technical and academic journals.
The concept of a virtual wind tunnel based on historic data, new wind speed maps, and computational modeling would be valuable for the group studying wind research. It would also be beneficial to consider in future work the potential of microbursts to cause structural damage.
Recommendation 5. The group studying wind research should develop the concept of a virtual wind tunnel, based on observations and computational modeling.
The group studying community disaster resilience needs to monitor its staffing requirements to assure that human resources are adequate and in the appropriate disciplines for the magnitude and scope of the tasks assigned. The group also needs to develop and publicize an explicit roadmap to define where and how the work of the group will mesh with existing and future codes and standards and identify who will benefit from these efforts. A useful roadmap would also make clear the overarching governmental interest in the program’s contributions to improving economic impacts and enhancing life safety during and following extreme events.
The group’s efforts in disaster resilience could beneficially include partnerships across NIST and externally (e.g., those involved with research in the wildlife-urban interface, earthquakes, and post-flood indoor air quality) for science-based resilience performance and standards. The group could leverage existing U.S. and international research, methodologies, and tools to accelerate advancements in theory and practice, including standards and measurements. Operations and maintenance considerations are good candidates for incorporation into the high-level objectives for the Community Disaster Resilience Program.
The excellent capabilities in the group and the findings of the National Construction Safety Team’s field-based failure studies can be integrated to inform the research program and identify critical research topics. Incorporating into the resilience program factors relating to the environment and natural systems may require new partnerships—with, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Infrastructure Collaborative.
Intelligent Systems Division
The ISD measurement science research programs aim to advance the versatility of intelligent automation technologies for smart manufacturing and cyberphysical systems applications; enable performance optimization of smart manufacturing systems; and enable rapid, cost-effective production of products through advanced manufacturing processes and equipment.
The division’s work on wireless factory networks addresses an important need, as does the project on cybersecurity of industrial control systems. The objective of the Smart Manufacturing Construction Systems (SMCS) program is to develop and deploy advances in measurement science for sensing, modeling, and optimizing manufacturing activities in a smart factory. In its factory cybersecurity project, the division has demonstrated leadership in addressing cybersecurity in smart factory systems and other industrial cyberphysical systems. Indicative of this leadership is the recent publication of a new draft of NIST SP 800-82, Guide to Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security.4 The ISD technical staff also led the development of IEEE Standard 1588, “Precision Clock Synchronization Protocol for Networked Measurement and Control Systems.” Current industrial robots cannot operate safely with humans, and so they need to be isolated. This limits their applicability and increases the costs of automation. The Next-Generation Robotics and Automation (NGRA) program is beginning to develop performance evaluation methods and standards for safe robot-human interactions. The division has started the standardization effort on the safety of automated guided vehicles (AGVs). The laboratory is extending safety evaluation to other systems, attempting to cover various aspects of evaluating robotic hand capabilities, such as position, torque, grasp types, graspable object size and ranges, touch location, force, and pressure via tactile sensing.
The decision in fiscal year 2014 to terminate the smart machining activities and focus on measurement science for additive manufacturing may risk the loss of critical capability and recognized expertise in smart machining. Advanced manufacturing needs both additive and subtractive processes. Subtractive manufacturing processes typically refer to conventional manufacturing processes by which material is removed—for example, from a billet, to make a part and achieve final desired geometries and tolerances. Additive manufacturing processes refer to a suite of methods to add material, typically in powder or wire form, to make a part, add features to a part, or to repair a part. A hybrid approach consisting of both additive manufacturing and smart machining is needed to support the development of measurement science for additive manufacturing processes.
New additive manufacturing machines with enhanced features and capabilities are introduced to the market each year. There are several laser powder bed fusion of metal machines, many with higher performance lasers and optics, controlled environmental chambers, automated powder delivery, in-process monitoring, powder compaction, and other features and tools to further advance measurement science knowledge. These new machines are being purchased by industry, academia, research institutions, and government entities globally. It may be difficult for industry and academia to see the ISD at the forefront of measurement science when its equipment is not adequate to the task. The current machines at the ISD are adequate for the initial work and developing expertise. Ownership of and/or access to machines with capabilities and equipment that can detect and measure defects of additive manufactured
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4 NIST, Guide to Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security, SP 800-82, Revision 2 Initial Public Draft, Gaithersburg, Md., May 2014.
parts in situ or postprocess would support the ISD’s goal of enabling widespread adoption by the U.S. manufacturing industry of additive manufacturing processes for metal.
The ISD is appropriately planning and executing programs in new technology areas such as SMCS, additive manufacturing, industrial robotics, and cyberphysical systems. In addition, the division has seen an explosion of government and global industry interest in its work on ICS cybersecurity, with more than 2.5 million downloads from the NIST Internet site of this year’s revision of the Guide to Industrial Control System (ICS) Security (NIST SP 800-82). The division currently has one staff member who is widely recognized for deep expertise in this area and who is spread very thin in responding to current program demands. The division is trying to hire at a time when ICS cybersecurity experts can demand high salaries and other benefits from industry. Because the need to staff ongoing and new programs is urgent, the division cannot wait and hope for qualified, affordable candidates to become available. A strategy is needed to hire now, where possible (by emphasizing factors beyond salary alone that make NIST employment attractive), to invest in developing the needed multidisciplinary skills in current staff and entry-level hires, and to provide interim support through contracts and cooperative research arrangements with universities and others.
The ISD would benefit from an extensive data set supporting its additive manufacturing efforts. The pilot round-robin tests that the division and its partners have been engaged in address build-to-build variation and machine-to-machine variation of the same machine model. Building on the pilot round-robin testing with equipment manufacturers, manufacturing companies, academia, and government institutions that are working with different laser powder bed fusion machines or materials would help generate a larger data set and address machine-model-to-machine-model variation. The ISD’s approach can be standardized and disseminated widely.
Recommendation 6. The Intelligent Systems Division should build on the pilot round-robin testing with certified sources to generate a large data set for their additive manufacturing efforts.
Energy and Environment Division
The EED has been focusing on the measurement of energy performance and indoor air/environment quality. The EED has two major programs that support its goal of sustainable and energy-efficient manufacturing, materials, and infrastructure. The Net-Zero Energy, High-Performance Buildings Program focuses on energy-efficient building systems and advancing the measurement science for their characterization and performance assessment; the Embedded Intelligence in Buildings Program focuses on the development and application of intelligent information and control technologies to improve building operation.
Metrics are essential for evaluating IEQ and energy performance, and sustainability of buildings remains a major challenge for the field. A single index does not exist for quantifying IEQ. Many factors need to be considered, including thermal environment, pollution and noise levels, lighting quality, and occupant satisfaction. It is important to develop an accepted means of quantifying IEQ benefit that can be integrated with the more readily measured energy benefit. Such integration includes developing a comprehensive framework for modeling and simulating whole building performance, based on the fundamental understanding of the combined heat, air, moisture, and pollutant transport processes in building systems. The transport processes are affected by material characteristics, properties of pollutant species, and environmental conditions. With its capabilities in laboratory measurements and modeling, the EED is in position to lead a national effort in such a development. Overall, the EED exhibits excellent capabilities in the areas of current demands such as energy management and metrics, but the scope of its expertise may need to be expanded to include critical IEQ areas such as management of and metrics for moisture/mold and nanoparticles.
Improvements in methods and procedures are needed to obtain reliable field-scale data for validating the models and measurement methods developed from laboratory studies. Many existing field studies do not have enough rigor to generate reliable data. A standard, scientifically based test protocol for field use is needed to catch up with EED laboratory research to capitalize fully on the laboratory program.
Recommendation 7. The Energy and Environment Division should continue to develop metrics for evaluating indoor air quality and energy performance concurrently.
Recommendation 8. The Energy and Environment Division should perform field investigations to collect reliable data for validating the models and measurement methods developed from the laboratory studies.
Systems Integration Division
The SID contributes to measurement science and standards needed to integrate engineering information systems used in manufacturing, construction, and cyberphysical systems. Areas of work include manufacturing enterprise integration; green manufacturing and construction; engineering and manufacturing products, processes, equipment, technical data, and standards; collaborative manufacturing research under pilot grants; research performed through manufacturing fellowships; systems integration and engineering; life-cycle assessment; cyberphysical systems; productivity measurement; sustainability; and energy efficiency.5
SID staff have developed strong expertise in several key areas, including standards development for systems engineering, model-based engineering, development and support of a STEP standards (ISO 10303-242 [STEP AP242]), composite manufacturing, additive manufacturing, and assisting vendors in implementation of the new functionality.
SID staff have developed process-level energy models for injection molding and welding. These models appear to be mechanism-based rather than equipment component-based models. However, such models contain numerous adjustable parameters, such as mechanism efficiencies, that practitioners need to measure. Rather than trying to simulate all manufacturing processes (an enormous task), the SID team could consider developing equipment energy measurement protocols. Such an activity could serve as a testbed for the division. A standard scheme for equipment measurement might be a very useful contribution to sustainable manufacturing.
Recommendation 9. The Systems Integration Division should establish a testbed to support development, validation, demonstration, and technology transfer.
Fire Research Division
The FRD has made progress toward improving the safety and effectiveness of firefighters through measurement science to advance suppression tactics, examining nontraditional means of fire suppression, and transferring the results to the fire service. Field-scale burn tests have been accomplished through outside funding opportunities, collaboration, and partnerships.
The efforts to communicate research findings on fire dynamics have generated much interest and discussion within the professional fire service community. Presentations, articles in fire service print and
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5 NIST, ‘The Engineering Laboratory—Summaries of Our Activities, Accomplishments and Recognitions,” Gaithersburg, Md., July 2014.
online media providing opportunities for fire service organizational involvement, and, most recently, the use of social media have all contributed to this success.
The wildland-urban interface (WUI) problem is growing very fast, and its growth may accelerate due to climate change and diminishing safety margins between wildland and the built environment. Because the WUI problem is relatively recent, there is little information about WUI fire characteristics and how to reduce its consequences. Therefore, it is of high priority to collect data from WUI fires to underpin standards and codes for fire-hardening structures located in WUI-prone areas. Field studies, some of which have been conducted by the NIST National Construction Safety Team, provide essential data on WUI fires, including the finding that ignition of structures by embers accounts for up to 50 percent of the structure fires in a WUI.
The Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) modeling team has developed new goals for the future. One of these is the coupling of three types of complex codes (gas-phase fluid dynamics and reaction, thermal transport to and through solid structures, and failure of solid structures under load and thermal stress). This is a significant effort in computation, validation, and interpretation of results.
The NFRL is an exciting new facility for the FRD and the EL. It will provide a unique capability to consider the fire heating of structures under structural load and will enable the FRD team to break new ground. The ability to test structures exposed to fires while they are under realistic gravity loads is an exciting new capability. The community expects that findings from these tests will form the basis for new building requirements. The FRD conducted a planning workshop to establish long-term priorities for testing so that when commissioning is complete testing can begin promptly.
Recommendation 10. The Fire Research Division should complete the extremely important new National Fire Research Laboratory and prioritize the test series for the first 2 years following the laboratory’s commissioning.
Recommendation 11. The Fire Research Division should strengthen its research on wildland-urban interface fires, including data collection from real events and new modeling approaches.
