COOL SITE YIELDS HOT DATA ON HEAT TRANSMISSION.For what purpose would NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology, Washington, DC, www.nist.gov) The standards-defining agency of the U.S. government, formerly the National Bureau of Standards. It is one of three agencies that fall under the Technology Administration (www.technology. researchers use a 1 m diameter hot plate? If you guessed, "to heat up a mighty big pot of coffee," you're wrong. However, data derived from this device and previous hot plates have helped make the daily life of Americans more comfortable for nearly 80 years. For example, heat transmission values gained from calculating the thermal conductivity properties of materials measured in hot plates have enabled industry to build more efficient heating, refrigeration refrigeration, process for drawing heat from substances to lower their temperature, often for purposes of preservation. Refrigeration in its modern, portable form also depends on insulating materials that are thin yet effective. and air-conditioning systems as well as improving wall insulation properties. NIST-tabulated values for heat transmission properties of common building and insulating materials also have contributed to the development of modern building technology standards. Now, researchers at NIST have compiled the test data for steady-state heat transmission measurements in an Internet database. This database currently contains all of the evaluated thermal conductivity measurements produced by NIST from 1932 to 1983 using a 200 mm guarded hot plate apparatus. The data were previously unavailable because they were reported only to an individual sponsor or researcher, or simply recorded in handwritten hand·write tr.v. hand·wrote , hand·writ·ten , hand·writ·ing, hand·writes To write by hand. [Back-formation from handwritten.] Adj. 1. test logs. Additional data from other NIST heat transmission experiments will be added in the future. The new web site contains more than 2100 records of thermal conductivity data for a variety of thermal insulation The term thermal insulation can refer to materials used to reduce the rate of heat transfer, or the methods and processes used to reduce heat transfer. Heat is transferred from one material to another by conduction, convection and/or radiation. materials such as cellular plastics, corkboard cork·board n. A construction and insulating sheet material made of compressed and baked granules of cork. Noun 1. corkboard and glass fiber, as well as building materials such as fiberboard fi·ber·board n. A building material composed of wood chips or plant fibers bonded together and compressed into rigid sheets. Noun 1. and light-weight concrete. The NIST Standard Reference Database 81 on Heat Transmission Properties of Insulating and Building Materials may be accessed at http//srdata.nist.gov/insulation. For historical background on the guarded hot-plate apparatus, go to www.bfrl.nist.gov/863/hotplate/. |
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