[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 207 (Wednesday, October 25, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 63843]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-27433]



[[Page 63843]]

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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: 
[email protected].

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