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Buildings & Construction

Structural engineering

Projects/Programs

Displaying 1 - 25 of 26

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

Charpy Machine Verification Program

Ongoing
Impact testing is required for many critical applications in the construction, machinery and equipment, defense, and energy markets. Charpy testing provides data needed to ensure the quality and reliability of structural steel products. Over 1,000 machines per year are evaluated for conformance with

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
NIST

Community Resilience Program

Ongoing
Objective - By 2028, deliver novel resilience planning and analysis methods and tools to support informed decision making by communities of all sizes. By 2028, implement multifaceted outreach, collaboration, and engagement to ensure the effective dissemination of community resilience guidance
Moore OK Hospital

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

Dynamic Plasticity: Non-Equilibrium Mechanics

Ongoing
The optimization of high-speed machining processes through powerful finite element modeling techniques is an important pathway to American manufacturing competitiveness in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. Quantitatively accurate simulations of machining rely on robust constitutive
USGS Map

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
Structural damage from extreme wind

Extreme Winds: Hazard Characterization and Structural Design Project

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

Functional Recovery of Buildings and Lifelines

Ongoing
Objective The Functional Recovery project is designed to improve the time for recovery of key social functions by strengthening the built environment to withstand earthquake impacts. Our efforts will advance measurement science for the assessment and design of buildings and lifelines, contribute in
Picture for Hardness and Coating Thickness Standardization and Measurements Project Including Equipment and Standards Organizations

Hardness Standardization and Measurements

Ongoing
DESCRIPTION Purpose: Provide measurement traceability for the Knoop, Rockwell, and Vickers hardness scales and for coating thickness measurements that are based on magnetic methods. Goals: Harmonization of hardness and coating thickness testing protocols, in pursuit of reduction of measurement
Hurricane Ian

Hurricane Ian Study

Ongoing
Objective Conduct a research study on Hurricane Ian’s 2022 landfall in Florida to: Improve (a) coastal flood hazard characterization, including quantification of overland velocity and waves, (b) quantification of storm surge loads on buildings due to hydrostatic pressure, wave forcing, surge
Testing a multi-specimen chain in fatigue in pressurized hydrogen

Materials Testing in Hydrogen Gas

Ongoing
Hydrogen is known to have a deleterious effect on steels and other metals, but steels are the most cost-effective and commonly used materials for pipelines and pressure vessels. We are collaborating with the code bodies (ASME B31.12 and ISO 11114-4), DOT, and DOE, to enable the implementation of

Measures of Building Resilience and Structural Robustness Project

Ongoing
Objective: By FY2014, develop the measurement science to assess the disaster resilience of buildings through the use of risk-based assessment and decision methods, and develop performance-based pre-standards for mitigation of disproportionate collapse of steel and reinforced concrete structures
A stainless steel micro tensile specimen in a silicon frame.

Microsystems for Harsh Environment Testing

Completed
Classically, measurement of the mechanical properties and reliability of bulk-scale materials is performed with macroscopic specimens and methods. Specimen preparation limitations, miniaturized load-frame tooling problems, and inadequate understanding of the roles of specimen size and constraint on

NEHRP Extramural Research

Completed
Objective - A task order to assist NIST and the NEHRP agencies in updating the NEHRP Strategic Plan will be awarded to a policy contractor. In addition, other planned FY 2020 extramural research will be assigned by task order to the new IDIQ contractor once that award is made. It is anticipated that

Performance Criteria Development

Ongoing
Objective To advance component-level seismic performance criteria in current design standards by conducting focused experimental tests and analytical studies. Technical Idea In the following, the technical idea for each of the RTs is presented separately: RT1: High-Strength Reinforcement in

Performance-Based Seismic Engineering (PBSE) for New Buildings Project

Ongoing
Objective: To develop a measurement science tool by FY 2016 that is capable of directly, accurately, and efficiently simulating the initiation and progression of structural collapse, and to develop a methodology for quantifying acceptance criteria limits found in the ASCE/SEI 41 Standard [1] through

Physical Infrastructure: Connections

Completed
The NIST Physical Infrastructure Program will provide the critical measurement science needed to assess the condition of aging physical infrastructure and guide cost-effective strategies for its maintenance, repair, and replacement. Infrastructure management challenges in the U.S. have received
Running crack in a buried pipeline.

Pipeline Safety

Ongoing
The U.S. operates more than 2.5M miles of natural gas, petroleum and hazardous liquid pipelines, crossing all 50 states and operated by more than 3,000 companies. Fluid hydrocarbon fossil fuels remain the world leading source of energy. The safest and most reliable means of transporting these fuels
Cyclone

Resilience Infrastructure and Future Hazard Impacts: Tropical Cyclones

Ongoing
Objective By 2028, develop a methodology for quantifying hurricane-induced hazards, including wind speed, storm surge, waves, and associated hydrodynamic effects, with consideration of the near- and long-term effects of natural hazard evolution. Technical Idea This project will investigate and
Connection among three tasks under the main research plan.

Risk Evaluation and Mitigation

Ongoing
Objective This project aims to improve techniques currently used for risk evaluation (including uncertainty quantification) and mitigation (including FRP retrofit) of structural systems and integrate them within the PBEE framework. The first phase of the project is focused on the development and

Seismic Response of Reinforced Concrete Walls

Ongoing
Objective: The project includes two critical tasks identified in Performance Based Seismic Engineering (PBSE): (1) use of simplified reinforced concrete wall models in high-fidelity nonlinear dynamic analysis that have no robust experimental data validation - to be solved by thorough experimental
Worker looks over the disaster site at New York City's World Trade Center

Structural Performance for Multi-hazards Program

Ongoing
Objective: To develop and deploy advances in measurement science to enhance the robustness of buildings and infrastructure to natural and manmade hazards. What is the technical idea? The fundamental new idea is that structural robustness can be significantly enhanced by developing reliable