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

Major New Building Standard Can Map Out Tornado Threat for the First Time

June 21, 2021

Of the natural hazards in Mother Nature’s arsenal, tornadoes are some of the most vicious. But while other hazards are regularly considered in building designs

Firefighters spray water into a burning concrete building with a sign saying "NIST Fire Research."

How AI Could Alert Firefighters of Imminent Danger

June 1, 2021

Firefighting is a race against time. Exactly how much time? For firefighters, that part is often unclear. Building fires can turn from bad to deadly in an

New Research Could Help Manufacturers Avoid 3D-Printing Pitfall

May 19, 2021

A research team has found that a method commonly used to skirt one of metal 3D printing’s biggest problems may be far from a silver bullet. For manufacturers

Spotlight: Joannie Chin’s Early Milestone in Body Armor Standards

May 18, 2021

Joannie Chin, the acting director of NIST’s Engineering Laboratory, is still a polymer scientist at heart. Take a closer look at the lifesaving mark she made on

Events

2021 Disaster Resilience Symposium

Tue, Jul 20 2021, 11:00am - Wed, Jul 21 2021, 3:30pm EDT

The Engineering Laboratory at NIST, Gaithersburg, will be hosting its fourth annual symposium as a virtual only event on

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

January 8, 2021

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

June 10, 2021

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

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

Manufacturing Robotics Testbed

The NIST manufacturing robotics test bed consists of several labs located in three buildings on the main NIST campus. Combined, these serve as a resource for

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

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

Judith Mitrani-Reiser is appointed as Vice President of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute

Congratulations to Dr. Judy Mitrani-Reiser for her appointment as Vice President of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) for

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.