Buildings & Construction

NIST develops safety standards for construction. We also study ways to better protect buildings from dangers like earthquakes and windstorms.

Key Accomplishments: 

• Innovations in Construction: From 3-D printed concrete to insulation that melts, NIST measures and tests new technologies, helping bring these new ideas into the public.
• Building Collapse Prevention: NIST research contributed to a new building standard designed to prevent buildings from collapsing when they experience a rare danger, such as a gas explosion or uncontrolled fire. The new standard provides guidance to prevent isolated failures bringing down all or most of a building—known as disproportionate collapse.
• Building Safety: NIST’s National Construction Safety Team investigates building collapses and other construction-related disasters. Investigations of Hurricane Maria and Champlain Towers South incidents are ongoing. In addition to investigating building failures, we also have the authority to follow through on recommendations resulting from investigations. This helps to improve codes and practices, preventing similar failures in the future.
• Tornado Safety: Over 1,200 tornadoes touch down in the U.S. every year — causing dozens of deaths. Until recently, a common perception among structural engineers was that tornadoes were too intense to design buildings to withstand them. But our recent research helped create the first international building code on tornado resiliency. The reference document is widely used to create local building code laws and could save lives.
• Asbestos Detection: NIST researchers verified the accuracy of a less expensive, easier-to-use testing technique to detect asbestos. This approach uses a scanning electron microscope instead of a more expensive approach that must be done in a lab and could speed up and reduce the cost of asbestos remediation in the U.S., which costs an estimated $3 billion per year.