February 2008

BFRL Monthly Highlights

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Buildings and First Responder Communications

BFRL has developed a Building Information Services and Control System (BISACS) to demonstrate how realtime alerts can be sent to first responders. BISACS addresses the need by the first responder community for a well-defined protocol that permits emergency alert information to be communicated from sensors within a building to first responders and gives first responders the ability to control devices and systems within a building, such as exhaust fans, remotely. Using BISACS, BFRL is researching alternative ways for how building information such as sensor data, alert data and floor plans can be propagated to external entities such as first responder operation centers and mobile units. BFRL, in conjunction with the Montgomery County (Md.) Emergency Communication Center, is documenting alert message requirements for various emergency scenarios. This joint effort is providing insight on research and standards issues that must be addressed in order to enable the development and deployment of commercial products that will provide the emergency responder community with information available from modern buildings.

CONTACT:
Alan Vinh
301-975-5260

Research on Suspensions Featured at Supercomputing Conference

Results of a NIST team’s research on the flow of suspensions (mainly concrete), carried out with a 2006 NASA award of 1,000,000 CPU hours on the Columbia supercomputer at the NASA Ames Research Center, were demonstrated at the NASA and NIST booths at the Supercomputing 2007 conference held in Reno, Nev., on Nov. 10-16, 2007. This is the main conference in the United States showcasing research enabled by massively parallel computing. The simulations use dissipative particle dynamics to simulate the actual flow and interaction of solid particles in a fluid matrix. State-of-the-art realtime visualization based on nonphotorealistic rendering and graphical processing unit programming facilitated exploration of the rheology simulation output. At the NASA booth, these visualizations were shown on a large 3x3 array of monitors. The results demonstrated advances in understanding the influence of finite size effects, stress transmission, time scales, and system equilibration for both spherical particles and real-shape particles of gravel and sand. This work was carried out by a team of researchers in the Materials and Construction Research Division of BFRL and the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division of ITL, led by Nicos Martys and William George. 

CONTACT:
Nicos Martys
301-975-5915

BFRL’s Domanski Elected to the IIR Science and Technology Council

The General Conference of the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) elected BFRL’s Piotr Domanski to serve as the 2007-2011 president of Commission B1, Thermodynamics and Transfer Processes. This election also places Domanski on the IIR Science and Technology Council. The meeting took place on August 21, 2007, in Beijing, China, and coincided with the 22nd International Congress of Refrigeration. The IIR is an intergovernmental organization with 61 member countries representing over 80 percent of the global population. The mission of the IIR is to promote expansion of knowledge and dissemination of information on all refrigeration technologies and their applications to address today’s major issues, including food safety and protection of the environment (mitigation of global warming, prevention of ozone depletion), and the development of the least developed countries (food, health). Commission B1 is one of 10 IIR Commissions. It is concerned with thermophysical properties of working fluids, heat and mass transfer processes, thermodynamic evaluation of conventional and novel cooling/ refrigerating technologies, and their environmental impact.

CONTACT:
Piotr Domanski
301-975-5877

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