Building materials

News and Updates

Horizontal concrete slab is visible in a forest of scaffolding and equipment in a large indoor space.

Champlain Towers South Investigation Team Provides Update to Structural Engineers

April 11, 2025

This outreach will help ensure that the team’s findings and recommendations lead to improvements to codes, standards and practices that can prevent similar

NIST Report to Congress Provides Update on Champlain Towers South Investigation

February 5, 2025

The report notes that the team has completed all experimental work on the physical evidence from the building’s structural elements.

a machine 3d printing a single-family home built out of concrete

Spotlight: Shawn Platt and the Concrete Christmas Tree

December 23, 2024

Some people like plastic Christmas trees; others prefer real wood and needles. This year, NIST is printing a tree out of concrete. The tree is not only festive

Events

Additive Construction The Path to Standardization III

Additive Construction – The Path to Standardization Continues III

Mon, Aug 18 - Wed, Aug 20 2025

The event, Additive Construction – The Path to Standardization Continues, will bring together industry and academic

Projects and Programs

Assessing Pyrrhotite in Concrete

Ongoing

Objective Develop a standard test method and a set of calibration reference materials to quantify pyrrhotite in concrete; document pyrrhotite/aggregate/concrete reactions and rates so that the most deleterious reactions can be efficiently reduced or eliminated; and evaluate proposed mitigation

Assessment of High-Temperature and Innovative Insulation Thermal Performance

Ongoing

Objective To improve residential and industrial building energy efficiency by decreasing measurement uncertainties of the thermal resistance of insulating materials and develop measurement techniques for innovative insulation materials and systems using PCMs. Technical Idea One of the most cost

Functional Barriers for Low-Flammability Products

Ongoing

This project enables low-flammability products without flame retardants by providing methods to assess functional barriers, advancing their performance, and exploring their use in multi-layer products for critical applications.

Measurement Science for Service Life Prediction of Polymeric Components Used in Photovoltaic (PV) Systems

Ongoing

Objective To develop and implement measurement science for accurately testing, characterizing, predicting, and validating the lifetime of emerging polyolefin-based encapsulants, coextruded or coated backsheets, and other polymeric components utilized in photovoltaic systems. Technical Idea Driven by

Publications

Public Life Cycle Inventory Data Gap Analysis through Process Modeling

April 10, 2025

Author(s)

Gonzalo Rodriguez Garcia, Sindhuja Lakshmipuram Ranganath, Joshua Kneifel

State of the Art and Research Needs in Design for Tornadoes: Structural Engineering Institute Workshop Report

September 30, 2024

Author(s)

Donald Scott, Jennifer Goupil, Shane Crawford, Alex Griffin, Cherylyn Henry, Marc Levitan, Franklin Lombardo, John van de Lindt, Peter Vickery

The Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) has a long history of working with NIST and other federal partners to improve ASCE/SEI 7 Minimum Design Loads and

Effects of Weathering and Formulation on the Properties of Vinyl Siding

September 23, 2024

Author(s)

Ronald Lankone, Mauro Zammarano, Song Jhang, Ickchan Kim, David Goodwin, Gianluca Sarti, Stefano Gardi, Camillo Cardelli, Lipiin Sung

Vinyl siding has become a popular choice for residential exteriors across the United States. In its insulated form, this siding includes a shell, capstock, and

Workshop on Decarbonization: A Gap Analysis of LCA Standards for Industry

September 20, 2024

Author(s)

Noah Last, Joshua D. Kneifel, Amy Costello, Catherine Houska, Katherine Morris

ASTM International's committee on sustainability (E60), in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), hosted the virtual

Software

Prediction of a Chloride Ion Penetration Profile for a Concrete

January 13, 2017

Prediction is based on a one-dimensional finite difference solution of Fick's second law of diffusion, with a variable external chloride concentration and a two

MicroChar

April 1, 2015

(Return to Cement Hydration and Degradation Modeling Software) Accurate quantitative data on cement and clinker microstructure images can prove valuable for

Stokes Three-Dimensional Permeability Solver

(Return to Cement Hydration and Degradation Modeling Software) A set of C and Fortran computer programs have been developed for computing the permeability of

Estimation of Pore Solution Conductivity

(Return to Cement Hydration and Degradation Modeling Software) The purpose of this form is to provide an estimate of the electrical conductivity (S/m) of the