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Gaithersburg

Researchers burn a shed to measure the fire exposure to a nearby residential façade to determine safe separation distance and test WUI fire building code requirements.

Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Data Collection on Parcel Vulnerabilities

Gaining a deeper understanding of Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) fire dynamics and the mechanisms of structure ignition is crucial for enhancing the resilience

Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Building and Fire Codes and Standards

Although over 46 million residential structures in the United States are in areas of risk of wildfires, building and fire codes and standards do not provide the

High temperatures and heat flows in NIST fire research melted a hole in a SCBA mask. A pressure sensor (brass fitting that was mounted on the face of the headform) is visible through the hole in the lens.

High Temperature Performance of Fire Fighter Equipment

Reliable performance of fire fighter equipment and gear is critical for the safety and effectiveness of fire fighters. Current equipment standards and test

111102_Single_Photons_Waveguide_Srinivasan

CNST Researchers Efficiently Extract Photons from Single Semiconductor Quantum Dots Directly into an Optical Fiber

November 2, 2011

Researchers from the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology have led the development of a new technique for efficiently out-coupling photons from...

Steve VanRoekel at Cloud Computing Forum

NIST Releases Draft Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap for Comments

November 1, 2011

The U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released for public comment a draft "roadmap" that is designed to...

NEHRP Extramural Research

Research performed by the EL Earthquake Engineering Group (2EG) consists of a combination of in-house and extramural research. Policy related work is awarded to

Validation of ASCE 41 Procedures in PBSE

Structural engineers are increasingly using Performance-Based Seismic Engineering (PBSE), instead of building code-based prescriptive procedures, in the design

Seismic Response of Reinforced Concrete Walls

This project includes two critical problem-focused tasks in Performance Based Seismic Engineering (PBSE): (1) the evaluation of reinforced concrete wall models

Strategy Integration: the Nerd (Scientist), the Car Guy (Design Engineer), and the Bean Counter (Accountant)

September 2011 Hopefully, the title of this column has caught your attention. I was going to call our first player just "the scientist," but...

Worker looks over the disaster site at New York City's World Trade Center

Structural Performance for Multi-hazards Program

This program addresses the gap between basic research and building codes, standards, and practice through measurement science research to: (1) predict

Risk Reduction and Recovery Program

NIST’s Risk Reduction and Recovery Program fulfills objectives in the Engineering Laboratory’s Disaster-Resilient Buildings, Infrastructure, and Communities

Fire Risk Reduction in Communities Program

The Fire Risk Reduction in Communities (FRRiC) program aims to reduce community fire risk by increasing the fire resilience of wildland-urban interface (WUI)

Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Transport

The capabilities of the NIST National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL) will be extended to provide a test bed for performance evaluation of instruments and test

NIST researcher setting up air cleaner experiments in large stainless steel environmental chamber

Indoor Contaminants

NIST is developing the measurement science required to support strategies that maintain or improve indoor air quality (IAQ) in buildings. Changes that are being

L researcher Steven Emmerich adjusts a multi-gas analyzer that will measure carbon monoxide, oxygen, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons concentrations produced by such a generator located, against safety advice, in a garage.

Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality in High-Performance Buildings

Current tools are not comprehensive when analyzing the energy use and indoor air quality (IAQ) of buildings, making it hard to analyze these factors together

Figure 1. NIST 500 mm diameter guarded-hot-plate apparatus: plate and edge guard (foreground), vacuum bell jar (background). The edge guards are partially separated revealing a white insulation specimen.

Assessment of High-Temperature and Innovative Insulation Thermal Performance

The use of thermal insulation in the building envelope is a primary approach for reducing heating and cooling loads in buildings, which account for

Energy Monitoring Systems promise to deliver real-time, detailed energy end-use information to building occupants.

Energy Measurements for Existing Residential Buildings Project

According to the most recent national census data, the median year in which owner-occupied homes were built in the U.S. is 1976 1. Furthermore, housing starts

Electrical Performance Measurements of Photovoltaics and Wide Band Gap Semiconductors for Power Electronics

A significant source of generated power for residential, commercial and small-system applications today are supplied by solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. PV

Fire Risk Reduction in Buildings Program

The Fire Risk Reduction in Buildings (FRRiB) program conducts research to address the two largest components of the U.S. structure fire burden: fire protection

Measuring the Performance of Net-Zero Energy Homes

A Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility (NZERTF) has been constructed and extensively instrumented. The facility incorporates a high-performance envelope, a

We Can't Wait: Obama Administration Announces Two Steps to Help Businesses Create Jobs, Strengthen Competitiveness

October 28, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Obama Administration announced it is taking two important steps to help U.S businesses create jobs and strengthen their...

Space-Conditioning Options for High-Performance Buildings and Resilient Electrical Grids

Space-conditioning equipment accounts for 32 % of electricity use in homes [1] and 17 % in commercial buildings [2], costing $49 Billion and $21 Billion [3] USD

Researchers use novel fluids with nanoparticles to improve the efficiency of chillers that cool large buildings.

Low-GWP Refrigerants for High-Efficiency HVAC&R Equipment

The refrigeration and air-conditioning industry is moving to limit or phase out several refrigerants currently used in commercial and residential cooling and

Sustainable Manufacturing Program

To support industry's drive to remain globally competitive and maximize innovation, this program will develop and deploy advances in measurement science to

Illustrated cutaway showing the inside of the Net Zero Energy House

Measurement Science for Building Systems Program

Buildings account for 37% of the United States’ energy use, which is more than the transportation or industrial sectors [1]. Over 80% of a building's life cycle

QIBA Volumetric CT Study 3A/QI-Bench Face-to-Face Meeting

Tue, Nov 15 2011

The purpose of this meeting is to gather stakeholders with an interest in the performance of CT volumetry for tumor

NIST Releases Update to Smart Grid Framework

October 26, 2011

An expanded list of standards, new cybersecurity guidance and product testing proposals are among the new elements in an updated roadmap for Smart Grid...

NIST Handbook 44 - 2012 Edition

October 26, 2012

Specifications, Tolerances, and Other Technical Requirements for Weighing and Measuring Devices as adopted by the 96th National Conference on Weights and...

CNST and University of Maryland Researchers Bridge Nanophotonics and Conventional Optics with Surface Plasmonic Lenses Fabricated on Optical Fibers

October 26, 2011

Researchers from the University of Maryland and the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology have experimentally demonstrated superfocusing of light...

Clusters of roughly 30-nanometer gold nanoparticles imaged by transmission electron microscopy.

Improved Characterization of Nanoparticle Clusters for EHS and Biosensors Research

October 25, 2011

The tendency of nanoparticles to clump together in solution—"agglomeration"—is of great interest because the size of the clusters plays an important role in the...

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