Engineering Laboratory

Equipment stands on tripods on a balcony with the beach and sea in the background.

Update on NIST’s Champlain Towers South Investigation

Animation shows particles as blue dots circulating through a living room via windows, fans and filters.

Streamlined NIST Tool Could Help Homeowners, Renters Reduce Airborne Exposure to COVID

A couch is in flames in a mocked-up room inside a large fire testing facility.

Saving Lives by Making Upholstered Furniture More Resistant to Fire

News and Updates

Large chunks of concrete bristling with rebar and colored flags sit in a warehouse.

June 15, 2022, Update on the NIST Champlain Towers South Investigation

June 15, 2022

The NIST team investigating the partial collapse of the condo building is preparing to begin invasive testing and preparation of physical evidence collected

Four 3D models of 3D printing designs. The top two are spherical, bottom two are different shapes.

Updated Standard Provides Fundamental 3D-Printing Design Guidance to Streamline Production

June 9, 2022

The standard identifies important features unique to 3D printing and outlines how they should be documented.

Study Links Urbanization to Poor Ecological Knowledge, Less Environmental Action

May 4, 2022

A new study by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and collaborators highlights a sharp contrast between urban and suburban

Building that has been destroyed by a tornado

NIST, NSF Award More Than $7.6 Million to Support Disaster Resilience Research

May 4, 2022

The agencies are funding 20 projects to be conducted across 24 institutions through the Disaster Resilience Research Grant (DRRG) program, which they manage

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 14, 2022

The free STEP File Viewer supports parts and assemblies, dimensions and tolerances, supplemental geometry, datum targets, and point clouds. The 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 testing

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

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

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

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

Awards

Adam Jacoff and David Schmitt Receive DOC FY 2021 Real Property Portfolio Award

For cleaning out and vacating NIST materials from the NIKE site so that the property could be sold and for developing the Program of

2021 - Bronze Medal Award---Sherwin McAdam, Hing Pan Wong, Tracy Retterer, Karla Sims, John Furgerson, Daniel Dender, William Clark, Jody Sandel, Hong Zhang, Yali Zhang

For developing and implementing an acquisition management tool providing transparency and visibility to customers, leadership, and acquisition professionals.

2021 - Bronze Medal Award---W. Stuart Dols, Brian Polidoro, Dustin Poppendieck, Steven Emmerich, Lisa Ng

For development, application and dissemination of the Fate and Transport of Indoor Microbiological Aerosols (FaTIMA) tool in response to COVID-19.

2021 - Bronze Medal Award---Rick Davis

For development of new Standard Reference Material cigarettes for regulatory compliance testing of the ignition propensity of residential furnishings.

Taking Measure Blog

Left: Machine that looks like an old fashioned typewriter in a box. Right: picture of Alan Turing along with a bio. Both are from a museum exhibit.

Alan Turing’s Everlasting Contributions to Computing, AI and Cryptography

June 23, 2022

Suppose someone asked you to devise the most powerful computer possible. Alan Turing, whose reputation as a central figure in computer science and artificial

Yellowish blades of kelp are growing under the surface of the water.

Improving Recycling, Tracking Mercury and Analyzing Kelp: A Sample of Eco-Friendly Research Featured on NIST Social Media