Engineering Laboratory

A man in a construction hat points to damage on a concrete column lying on the ground while another researcher looks on.

NIST Will Conduct Technical Investigation Into the Collapse of the Champlain Towers South Condominium

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

A steel column with a deep web on the left and a steel column with a shallow web on the right.

Proposed Updates to Steel Building Standard Could Enhance Earthquake Resilience

January 7, 2022

Since the mid-1990s, a type of steel column that commonly features slender cross-sectional elements has become more prevalent in buildings along the West Coast

NIST Names Joannie Chin as Director of Its Engineering Laboratory

December 20, 2021

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has selected Joannie Chin to lead its Engineering

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

November 24, 2021

COVID-19 is still circulating in the U.S. and may once again gain traction as families and friends gather indoors over the holidays. There are several measures

NIST researchers lead a hackathon addressing challenges in data analytics

November 16, 2021

In August, 38 students, researchers, and industry professionals came together to participate in the 2021 ASME-CIE Hackathon. The theme of this year’s hackathon

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

The STEP File Viewer supports parts and assemblies, dimensions and tolerances, sketch and 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

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

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

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

2021 - Bronze Medal Award---Robert Commarota, Cerasela Constantin, Sushama Singh , Simon Frechette , Eric Shirley, Andrea Medina-Smith, Elisabeth Mansfield, Douglas Montgomery, Peter Gehring, Fernando J. Cintron

For development of an IT system to modernize and simplify NIST's publication processes

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.