National Guide Development
Codes
& Standards Home > National Guide Development In
many instances information that may be included in a national reference
standard is first developed in the form of a guide. Guides are often
developed to provide design and construction methods that exceed
the minimum requirements of national reference standards or building
codes. Guides may be developed by a national consensus standards
development organization (SDO), other types of organizations not
following an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) credited
process for SDOs, or the Federal government.
Information that is included in guides and standards often starts
with research, followed by papers and articles and then are introduced
into some form of committee process. PCA’s primary activities
in guide development work are with:
Fire Resistance of Building Elements
• ACI
216 Guide for Determining the Fire Endurance of Concrete Elements
provides practical information for determining the fire resistance
of concrete and masonry elements and is intended for use by architects,
engineers and building officials to design and evaluate structures.
Contact: Steve Szoke.
• Best
Practices Guidelines for Fire Safety Design of Concrete and Steel
Structures are being developed by the NIBS
MMC
as a task from the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The work is based
on a workshop held in October 2003 that laid out a roadmap of topics
requiring future development, NIST is stepping forward with one
of the many topics discussed. The Guide will include appendices
with information on existing guidelines, research needs, and design
examples. Contact: Jim
Messersmith.
Structural
• NEHRP
Recommended Provisions For Seismic Regulations For New Buildings
And Other Structures This BSSC
program is directed toward improving the seismic safety of new buildings
and has been conducted with funding from the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA). It is structured to create and maintain authoritative,
technically sound, up-to-date resource documents that can be used
by the voluntary standards and model code organizations, the building
community, the research community, and the public as the foundation
for improved seismic safety design provisions. The recommendations
are published as part of the National
Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and considered
in the development of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)/
Structural
Engineering Institute (SEI) standard ASCE/SEI
7 Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures
Contact: Jim
Messersmith
• National
Workshop on Prevention of Progressive Collapse was conducted
by the NIBS
MMC with funding from the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It featured presentations
on specific design and research topics related to progressive collapse
and three working groups that met separately to consider codes and
standards, structural systems and analytical tools, and existing
buildings. The workshop deliberations are expected to serve as the
basis for an action plan to integrate progressive collapse prevention
into standard design practice and relevant building codes and standards.
• National
Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) under contract with the
National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has convened a
panel of building code experts, representing the diverse technical
areas covered by the NIST World Trade Center recommendations, to
carry out the following tasks: 1) develop a strategy for implementing
relevant recommendations into model building codes; 2) develop awareness
of activities of other groups already focusing on implementing the
recommendations (e.g., NFPA, ICC, ASCE 7, ASTM, AISC, ACI, AIA,
and BOMA); 3) develop initial proposals for change to the model
codes; 4) shepherd proposed changes through the code-change processes;
5) identify additional steps to be taken with respect to relevant
standards, and 6) Identify any needed training and educational tools.
Contact: Jim
Messersmith
Thermal Performance of Buildings
• ACI
122 Guide to Thermal Properties of Concrete and Masonry Systems
reports data on the thermal properties of concrete and masonry constituents,
masonry units, and systems of materials and products that form building
components. The guide addresses thermal mass of concrete and masonry,
passive solar design, and procedures to limit condensation within
assemblages. Contact: Steve
Szoke.
• Semi-annual BETEC
Symposia focuses on a particular issues related to the development
of a sound technical and economic foundation for optimum energy
efficiency in the design, construction, operation, and modification
of new and existing buildings through the coordination of research,
development, and verification programs. The information transfer
expedites the use of existing and new technologies in building practice
through improved coordination of the activities of the various components
of the building community including building codes and standards.
Contact: Steve Skalko
|