April 2002

BFRL Monthly Highlights

April 2002

May 2002

June 2002

July 2002

August 2002

PAST Highlights

---

Development of Optical Fiber-Based Moisture Sensor for Building Studies

Unwanted moisture accounts for many problems in buildings, ranging from mold and mildew growth to structural rot and loss of thermal integrity. A promising technology to detect this problem is the use of sensors written onto optical fiber. These sensors are appealing because of their extremely small size, their immunity to electrical interference, and the durability of the fiber.

Under contract to BFRL, Luna Innovations has developed several hydrogel and polymer coatings that are applied to a grating on the fiber. The grating filters a specified wavelength of light from a broad spectrum traveling through the fiber, and that wavelength is dependent upon the refractive index of the coating surrounding the grating. The refractive index of the coating changes depending on the relative humidity of the surrounding air, so the wavelength that is filtered can be related to the relative humidity surrounding the sensors.

NIST recently tested these sensors and found that, with temperature compensation, the sensors can provide sufficient resolution to help assess moisture conditions. The sensors were also tested on the surfaces of various building materials and in a special rig to determine their potential for measuring surface relative humidity, a key parameter regulating the growth of mold and mildew on a surface. The sensors showed the ability to monitor the amount of moisture in building materials that had been conditioned to different moisture contents. Tests in the surface relative humidity chamber showed that the sensors have the ability to detect the humidity level at a surface that is at a different temperature than the surrounding air. The sensors’ low profile make them attractive to many applications where small size is required for relative humidity measurements.

CONTACT: 
William Healy, 301-975-4922
Building Environment Division

 

Independent Testing for Conformance to BACnet® Begins

For many years, the building industry struggled with the problem of integrating control devices made by different manufacturers in order to optimize operations, improve safety, and reduce maintenance costs. BFRL researchers worked with industry to develop a communication protocol standard for building automation and control systems known as BACnet® that was adopted in the mid-1990s.

A marketplace barrier to BACnet products has been the lack of an independent testing program to verify that products correctly implement the standard. Consequently, BFRL created a BACnet Interoperability Testing Consortium with 22 private sector companies. BFRL researchers and the consortium partners worked together to develop test procedures that are now incorporated in a draft American national standard. BFRL also developed software tools that can be used to implement the BACnet tests. The results of these efforts have now resulted in the creation of the BACnet Manufacturers Association (BMA), a private sector BACnet Testing Laboratory (BTL), and the completion of the first set of tests on commercial products.

The BMA will issue a BTL mark and publish a list of products that have passed the tests. The goal is for the BTL mark and listing program to play a role in the building automation and control industry much like the more well know Underwriters Laboratory mark and listing program for product safety.

CONTACT: 
Steven Bushby, 301-975-5873
Building Environment Division

 

BFRL’s Starnes Receives 2001 ACI-James Instruments Student Award

Monica Starnes of the Structures Division of BFRL is the recipient of the 2001 ACI-James Instruments Student Award for her paper “Quantitative Infrared Thermography for Quality Control of Concrete Structures Strengthened with FRP Composites.” The award recognizes outstanding student research on non-destructive testing of concrete. It is administered by the committee on non-destructive testing of concrete of the American Concrete Institute and is sponsored by James Instruments, Inc., a producer of non-destructive test equipment. Starnes is working on her doctorate from MIT and is doing her research at BFRL under the guidance of Nicholas Carino. The award will be presented at the spring ACI convention in Detroit, where she will give an oral presentation of her paper.

CONTACT: 
Nicholas Carino, 301-975-6063
Structures Division

 

BFRL’s Carino and Persily Receive ASTM’s 2002 Award of Merit

The American Standard for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Award of Merit is granted to individuals for distinguished service and outstanding participation in ASTM committee activities, is the highest award that ASTM grants to its members, and automatically makes the individual a fellow of the society.

Nicholas Carino, a group leader in the BFRL Structures Division, was selected as a recipient of the 2002 Award of Merit. Carino has been a member of Committee C-09 on Concrete and Concrete Aggregates since 1974. During his 28 years of service, he chaired three subcommittees, was a member of the executive subcommittee, and was membership secretary. In 2000, he was awarded honorary membership in C-09. He provided leadership in the development of two standards that were based largely on NIST research: the maturity method for estimating strength development of concrete during construction and the impact-echo method for nondestructive thickness measurement of concrete structures. In January 2002, he began a two-year term as chair of C-09. The award will be presented at the ASTM committee meeting in Salt Lake City in June.

Andrew Persily, group leader of the Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Group in the Building Environment Division, also received the 2002 Award of Merit. Persily has served in a leadership role on committees D-22 Sampling and Analysis of Atmospheres and E-6 Building Performance since 1992. During that time, he has served ASTM in the areas of standards development, symposia participation, and committee leadership. His work has included development of test methods for measuring air tightness and air change rates of buildings, a practice for interpreting carbon dioxide concentrations in buildings, and a guide for measuring emission rates from building materials in environmental chambers. Persily is currently chair of subcommittee E6.41 on Air Leakage and Ventilation Performance and chair of two sections under subcommittee D22.05 on Indoor Air Quality. The award will be presented at the ASTM committee meeting in Pittsburgh in April.

CONTACT: 
Nicholas Carino, 301-975-6063 
Structures Division
Andrew Persily, 301-975-6418
Building Environment Division

Privacy Policy/Security Notice  |  Disclaimer  |  FOIA NIST is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce