[Federal Register: October 25, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 207)]
[Notices]
[Page 63843]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr25oc00-45]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Announcement of Meeting and Opportunity To Join the Virtual
Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory Consortium
AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of public meeting.
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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
invites interested parties to attend the kick-off meeting of the
Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory consortium on November
30 and December 1, 2000 to be held at the offices of W.R. Grace & Co.
in Cambridge, MA. Meetings will be held Thursday afternoon and Friday
morning. The goals of this consortium are to develop an enhanced
version of a Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory and to
further the state-of-the-art in the materials science of cement-based
materials. The consortium will be supervised and administered by NIST.
Consortium research and development will be conducted by NIST staff
members along with at least one technical representative from each
participating member company. Membership fees for participation in the
consortium are Forty Thousand ($40,000) per year. The initial term of
the consortium is intended to be three years. NIST has made available
further information on the consortium, including the presentations made
at the initial June 14-15 consortium planning meeting, at http://
www.bfrl.nist.gov/862/vcctl
DATES: The meeting will take place on November 30, 2000 from 1 PM to 5
PM and on December 1, 2000 from 8 AM to 1 PM in Cambridge, MA.
ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at the offices of W.R. Grace & Co.-
Conn., 62 Whittemore Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dale P. Bentz, Chair, Virtual Cement
and Concrete Testing Laboratory Consortium, National Institute of
Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8621, Gaithersburg MD,
20899, USA; Telephone (301) 975--5865; Fax (301) 990-6891; E-mail:
dale.bentz@nist.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Consortium Goals
The goals of this consortium are to develop an enhanced version of
the Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory and to further the
state-of-the-art in the computational materials science of cement-based
materials. These goals will be pursued using a combined experimental/
computer modeling approach with strong technical supervision and
support being provided by the consortium members and the consortium
oversight board (one membership per participating company). The
developed Virtual Laboratory should result in a substantial reduction
in the extensive resources currently employed for the physical testing
of cement-based materials and should also expedite the research and
development process significantly.
More details on the planned activities are provided in the Virtual
Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory Consortium membership agreement.
A preliminary list of topics that will be addressed by the consortium
include: (1) Cement hydration and the influence of alkalis, slag, and
limestone additions; (2) measurement and modeling of rheological
properties including the influence of entrapped and entrained air
voids; and (3) prediction of the elastic/visco-elastic properties of
cement-based materials.
Background
Over the past twelve years, researchers in the Building Materials
Division of NIST have made tremendous strides in the modeling of
microstructure and the computation of performance properties of cement-
based materials. Currently, NIST is recognized as the undisputed world
leader in the ``Computational Materials Science of Concrete.''
Recently, much of this NIST research has been integrated into a
prototype Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory (VCCTL), which
will be made available over the Internet in November or December of
2000. The purpose of the VCCTL is to reduce the necessary number of
physical tests and expedite the R&D process.
The center of the prototype VCCTL is the NIST 3-D cement hydration
and microstructure development model (CEMHYD3D). Using the web-based
interface, a user may create an initial microstructure containing
cement, gypsum, mineral admixtures, and inert fillers following a
specific particle size distribution, hydrate the microstructure under a
variety of curing (temperature and saturation) conditions, and evaluate
the properties of the simulated microstructures for direct comparison
to experiment. Furthermore, hydrated microstructures may be degraded
using an NIST-developed leaching algorithm, and diffusion coefficients
for chloride ions in concrete predicted based on concrete mixture
proportions. As the consortium proceeds, the prediction of rheological
properties (viscosity and yield stress) of the fresh materials and
elastic properties (elastic modulus, creep, and relaxation) of the
hardened materials will be incorporated into the VCCTL.
The Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory Consortium is to
be chaired by Dale P. Bentz of NIST.
Dated: October 18, 2000.
Raymond G. Kammer,
Director.
[FR Doc. 00-27433 Filed 10-24-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-M