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Projects/Programs

Displaying 1 - 25 of 62

Air Distribution Impacts in Net-Zero Energy Homes

Ongoing
Objective To acquire high-quality data from well-controlled field configurations that inform residential building designers and equipment standards organizations about space conditioning and ventilation system performance characteristics, especially the air distribution system(s), when applied in

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

Building Integration with Smart Grid

Completed
Objective - To develop the measurement science for industry standards that will enable interconnection of home and building automation and control systems with a future "smart" utility grid, provide consumers with energy usage information, and support industry efforts to develop the needed standards

Building-Level Seismic Performance Assessment

Ongoing
Objective The objective of this project is to better understand the seismic performance of buildings designed in areas of medium-to-high seismicity and to identify and evaluate ways to enhance the seismic performance of buildings through advances in design approaches, including conventional and low

Coastal Inundation: Hazard Characterization and Structural Design

Ongoing
Objective - To develop next-generation methods and tools to better characterize coastal inundation hazards, associated loads, and response of structures, thus enabling performance-based standards for designing structures that resist coastal inundation. What is the new technical idea? Current design

Collapse Assessment of Buildings under Seismic Loading

Completed
Objective - To evaluate the collapse probabilities of a suite of steel buildings for a series of increasingly severe earthquake ground motions, and to compare these probabilities to the collapse objective presumed in ASCE/SEI 7. The probabilities of collapse will be determined using the methodology

Commissioning Building Systems for Improved Energy Performance

Ongoing
Objective - To improve the operating efficiency of building systems by providing the measurement science needed to develop improved building commissioning techniques that utilize embedded capabilities of building control systems, and accelerate the adoption of cost-effective commissioning as

Contaminant Control in High-Performance Buildings

Ongoing
Objective To better understand how strategies to achieve resilient buildings will impact chemical reactions, rates, and concentrations of high-priority indoor air contaminants. To develop test methods and building control strategies to reduce chemical levels in low-energy buildings, and to enable

Design Fires for Structures Project

Completed
By 2016, this project aims to develop (1) measurement science for characterizing and measuring repeatable structurally significant fires for large-scale experiments, and (2) a performance-based design framework linking fire intensity with expected structural performance objectives.

Design Methods for Resilient Community Systems

Completed
Objective - To advance design and assessment methods for buildings and infrastructure to improve their ability to support the social and economic functions they support and community resilience. What is the technical idea? Quantitative approaches to identify and evaluate the performance of the built

Design for Tornadoes

Ongoing
Objective To advance tornado hazard mitigation through improved characterization of tornadoes and their interaction with buildings and structures, providing the technical foundation for improvements to tornado load design guidelines, standards, codes, and code adoptions. This includes research and

Development of a First-Generation Community-Resilience Systems Model

Ongoing
Objective - By 2028, develop and test an efficient, interactive computer-based tool, Alternatives for Resilient Communities (ARC), to facilitate exploration of decision alternatives at the community scale for infrastructure systems (e.g., buildings, water, power, transportation) and their impacts on

Development and Implementation of the Community Resilience Planning Guides

Ongoing
Objective - By 2028, publish updated community resilience planning and decision-making guidance documents that are supported by multi-objective resilience planning & analysis tools, based on collaboration and engagement with end-user communities, professional organizations, and government agencies

Disaster and Failure Studies & Disaster Metrology Studies

Completed
Objective - To provide leadership, coordination, and management for (1) the conduct of disaster and failure studies, including the development and maintenance of an archival data repository, (2) promoting the implementation of recommendations from disaster and failure studies, (3) carrying out the

Earthquake Risk Reduction in Buildings and Infrastructure Program

Ongoing
Objective: The Program’s objective is to develop and advance knowledge which can improve codes, standards, and design guidelines for earthquake risk mitigation of buildings and infrastructure systems with the focus on recovery-based design. These efforts supplement NIST’s role as lead agency for the

Embedded Intelligence in Buildings Program

Ongoing
Objective: To develop and deploy advances in measurement science that will improve building operations to achieve lower operating costs, energy waste, occupant comfort/safety/security, and smart grid integration through the use of intelligent building systems. Technical idea The new idea is to

Energy Measurements for Existing Residential Buildings Project

Ongoing
Objective: To improve estimates of residential whole-building energy consumption by 2014 through characterization of uncertainties of tools used in providing energy feedback to building occupants and selecting retrofit options to improve the performance of existing buildings. What is the new

Fault Detection and Diagnostics for Air-Conditioners and Heat Pumps

Ongoing
Objective - Develop fault detection and diagnostic (FDD) methods and measurement tools to ensure air conditioners (ACs) and heat pumps (HPs) perform as designed throughout their lifetime and develop a testing and rating methodology to assess relative merits of different commercial FDD products. What