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

Joannie Chin stands with arms crossed, wearing safety goggles, in front of scientific equipment.

Building in a Changing Climate: A Q&A With NIST’s Joannie Chin

News and Updates

Spotlight: Using Robots to Assess Photovoltaic Cells

October 4, 2023

How can we make photovoltaic cells (such as those used for solar panels) work more efficiently, even in diffuse or indirect light?

A slab of concrete with ragged edges sits on a warehouse floor as researchers use equipment to extract core samples.

NIST Provides Update on Investigation Into the Collapse of Champlain Towers South

September 7, 2023

Preliminary evaluations show additional deviations from design in pool deck construction, no underground voids.

Groups of people sit or lie in a parking lot surrounded by low buildings as fires burn in the forest beyond.

NIST Issues New Guidance for Emergency Response During Wildfires

August 23, 2023

Lessons learned from the 2018 Camp Fire in California include strategies for protecting lives when there is not enough time to safely evacuate all residents.

AI Can Accurately Predict Potentially Fatal Cardiac Events in Firefighters

July 11, 2023

Training a machine-learning model with real-life data from firefighters was key.

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 ( B uilding for E nvironmental and E conomic S ustainability) 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, assemblies, dimensions, tolerances, and more. The Analyzer generates a spreadsheet of all entity and attribute information

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

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Tools and Instruments

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Wildland-Urban Interface Fires

NIST with US Forest Service (USFS) have invested in the development of instrument packages and measurement science to enable the successful scientific use of

Robotics Test Facility

Located on the NIST Gaithersburg campus, the Robotics Test Facility – also known as Building 207 – is a laboratory for developing standard test methods of

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