Engineering Laboratory

A box of cigarettes is labeled: Standard Cigarette for Ignition Resistance Testing.

NIST Releases a New Standard Cigarette for Testing the Flammability of Mattresses and Furniture

A view through a door window of N95 masks being decontaminated.

NIST Tool Could Help Hospitals Repurpose Rooms for Disinfecting N95 Masks

a latex gloved hand holds a syringe that has been loaded with medicine

Manufacturing Standards for Biopharmaceuticals: A Conversation with NIST’s Sheng Lin-Gibson and Vijay Srinivasan

News and Updates

New NIST Framework Strives for Cleaner, More Secure Power Grid

February 18, 2021

Whether it’s a new set of solar panels glistening on a neighbor’s roof or a freshly installed smart thermostat at home, burgeoning renewable and smart

The contrasting interiors of previous gels and the new seed gel show the different respective locations of their nanoparticles. Below we see representations of four different applications: filtration, smart windows, battery technology and tissue engineering.

Nanoparticle Gel Unites Oil and Water in Manufacturing-Friendly Approach

February 10, 2021

Oil and water may not mix, but adding the right nanoparticles to the recipe can convert these two immiscible fluids into an exotic gel with uses ranging from

New Timeline of Deadliest California Wildfire Could Guide Lifesaving Research and Action

February 8, 2021

On a brisk November morning in 2018, a fire sparked in a remote stretch of canyon in Butte County, California, a region nestled against the western slopes of

A view of rubble in the central business district of Christchurch, New Zealand, following a devastating earthquake.

New Report Charts Path Toward Superior Earthquake Recovery

January 27, 2021

For the last century, seismic building codes and practices have primarily focused on saving lives by reducing the likelihood of significant damage or structural

Industry Impacts

Photo of a burnt faceplate from a firefighter's gear

Firefighter Protective Equipment

Firefighters rely on self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBA) to protect them from dangerous heat and toxic smoke. NIST research helped to improve industry

Cityscape in the background. Solar panels in the foreground.

Framing the Future of the Electric Grid

The U.S. electrical distribution system is a patchwork of 100+ years of upgrades that create basic reliability issues and expose entire regions to unnecessary

Net-Zero Energy House

To decrease the $225 billion that U.S. consumers spend each year in household energy costs will require accurate, reliable information about how new

Structural Resilience of Infrastructure

The best way to prevent buildings, bridges and other structures from collapsing—whether because of natural forces, human error or malicious attacks—is to learn

Software

Tool for Evaluation of Vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide Disinfection of N95 Masks in Small Rooms

June 3, 2020

This spreadsheet tool estimates the vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) concentration in air of rooms used for VHP mask disinfection systems. The tool employs a

FDS and Smokeview

Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of fire-driven fluid flow. The software solves numerically a form of the Navier

BEES

February 5, 2018

The BEES (Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability) software brings to your fingertips a powerful technique for selecting cost-effective

CONTAM

CONTAM is a multizone indoor air quality and ventilation analysis computer program designed to help you determine: (a) airflows: infiltration, exfiltration, and

STEP File Analyzer and Viewer

February 19, 2021

The free STEP File Viewer supports parts and assemblies, dimensions and tolerances, sketch and supplemental geometry, and datum targets. The STEP File Analyzer

EVAP-COND, Version 4

May 1, 2016

EVAP-COND is a software package that contains NIST's simulation models for a finned-tube evaporator and condenser. The "tube-by-tube" modeling scheme allows for

CFAST

The Consolidated Model of Fire and Smoke Transport, CFAST, is a computer program that fire investigators, safety officials, engineers, architects and builders

VCCTL Software

(Return to Cement Hydration and Degradation Modeling Software) The Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory (VCCTL) software provides a virtual

View All Software

Tools and Instruments

Smart Manufacturing Systems (SMS) Test Bed

The Smart Manufacturing Systems (SMS) Test Bed is comprised of three major components: Computer-Aided Technologies (CAx) Lab Manufacturing Lab Data publication

Fire Calorimetry Database (FCD)

The National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL) operates calorimeters to measure the heat and combustion products for fires in the range of 50 kW to 20,000 kW

Integrating Sphere-based Weathering Device

In the artificial ultraviolet (UV) weathering of materials, a need exists for weathering devices that can uniformly illuminate test specimens with a high level

NIST Industrial Wireless Systems Testbed

The Industrial Wireless Systems (IWS) Testbed integrates existing and emerging wireless technologies with live physical systems found in factories of all types

Awards

2020 - Bronze Medal Award---Xiaohong Gu

For developing engineering methods and tools for lifetime prediction and failure analysis of photovoltaic materials.

2020 - Bronze Medal Award---William Bernstein, Shaw Feng, KC Morris, Paul Witherell

For outstanding contributions and leadership in standards for sustainable manufacturing that enable industry to improve manufacturing efficiency.

2020 - Gold Medal Award---Steven Emmerich, Andrew Persily, Brian Polidoro, Stephen Zimmerman, Daniel Greb

For exceptional scientific research to reduce the safety risks associated with carbon monoxide emissions from portable emergency generators.

2020 - Gold Medal Award---Keith Stouffer, Victoria Pillitteri, Suzanne Lightman

For development of internationally adopted cybersecurity guidelines and tools that protect critical infrastructure and critical industrial processes.