NIST Wind Tunnel Project Study

Founded in 1901, The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a measurement standards laboratory and non-regulatory agency of the United States Chamber of Commerce.

Photo copyright: Nagy Melinda

As one of the nation’s oldest physical science laboratories, the agency’s mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.

According to a report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2012 there were a total of 557 coal-fired power plants in the U.S. The typical coal-fired power plant is only able to determine figures that are 10 to 20 percent accurate regarding the amount of carbon dioxide that is emitting from their smokestacks, which leaves the actual emissions totals unknown. As a result of this uncertainty, NIST decided to construct a 50 meter horizontal Smokestack Simulator (Wind Tunnel Simulator) to give researchers the ability to accurately test industrial stacks for emission controls in an environmentally-friendly manner with a 1 percent uncertainty, at a reasonable cost. Comparable to emissions controls testing on vehicles, industrial smoke stacks in the U.S. are responsible for complying with strict Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) compliance regulations, mainly in regards to greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants. The construction of this Smokestack Simulator would give researchers the ability to better understand and monitor gas flow. In 2013, NIST put this work out to bid and by September of that year, Patriot Construction had been awarded the project with RM Thornton Mechanical on board as the mechanical subcontractor.

RM Thornton began its critical work on the project during mid-to late-October. The company’s main role was to supply and fabricate 32,000 cubic feet per minute of insulated piping for the smokestack’s wind tunnel component. The wind tunnel is comprised of two fans that simulate air flow and force the air up the stack. Air is drawn into the stack at a controlled speed by these two fans and then is passed through two connected pipes that are set at right angles to one another. By setting the pipes at an angle, NIST is able to accurately mimic the path that gases travel up smokestacks at commercial plants.

RM Thornton specializes in highly difficult and convoluted mechanical projects—the type of contracts that require a specific expertise and certain level of confidentiality. It is this expertise that made the company the ideal subcontractor for this important project. Since the Smokestack Simulator became operational in 2014, dignitaries from South Korea, China, India, and Europe have visited the NIST facility and expressed interest in utilizing similar technologies.

Building the Ebola Containment Unit and Autoclave at the National Institutes of Health

The September 2014 Ebola outbreak in the United States was a huge wake-up call. We realized, seemingly overnight, how little we knew about this deadly virus and how ill-equipped we were to handle something of this magnitude.

According to an article by NBC News, health experts stated that the U.S. must immediately start working to establish a network of Ebola-ready hospitals. “Ebola has told us that we really need high-containment facilities…we need to be prepared not just for today but for the next decade, and for the next century,” said Dr. Nicole Lurie, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

When RM Thornton Mechanical and our Senior Project Manager, Matt Mehlman, were initially contacted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), there were only three hospitals in the country that were equipped with biocontainment units setup to effectively handle diseases such as Ebola—Nebraska Medical Center, Emory University Hospital, and Providence St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Montana.

Thanks to the expert knowledge and swift work of our team, NIH’s Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md. is now the fourth, much-needed location.

The project at NIH had two parts—a containment room to contain the virus and an autoclave to prevent it from spreading. An autoclave is a pressure chamber that is used to sterilize equipment and supplies by putting them through extremely high pressure-saturated steam. In other words, it is an industrial-sized dishwasher designed to kill any living and potentially deadly organisms. While the Ebola containment unit was in use, staff at NIH would run any used linens through the autoclave twice before completely incinerating them. This was a crucial step to preventing any spread of the Ebola virus.

While the importance of training NIH’s medical staff on how to properly handle Ebola patients infected was obvious, equally critical was the physical construction of the unit itself. Mechanical systems such as negative pressure air, HEPA-filtered ventilation, single-pass air flow, and constant 24-hour mechanical monitoring were also essential for keeping harmful contaminates inside patient rooms. Each component of these specialized mechanical systems plays an extremely important role in improving the air quality and protecting the health of the patients and staff occupying these areas. These specialized mechanical systems are something that our team of experts has extensive experience installing and the reason why NIH called upon RM Thornton to handle this work.

For a project of this magnitude, special materials and product installations must adhere to a very strict set of standards. Mechanical systems, in particular, must follow stringent industry regulations set forth by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). These types of projects are often very unique. When constructing or retrofitting an isolation or bio-contamination unit, contractors may need to work with materials that differ from what they are normally accustomed to using. This can be a brave new world to even the most skilled workers. During our work at NIH, we needed to make sure that all our team members were trained on how to properly install, weld, cut, and secure particular products. If not considered early in the process, these type of issues can become major obstacles down the line and cause detrimental delays. Attention to detail, regular communication, and often—around-the clock-schedules—are required when managing this project.

For our team and the folks at NIH, there was a lot on the line and the clock was ticking very fast. RM Thornton’s specialists were quickly divided up into two 12-person teams who were broken into two grueling 12-hour shifts. Throughout the project, our experts kept in close communication with engineers, subcontractors, equipment suppliers, and all decision-makers. The concern over the Ebola outbreak was incredibly high at the time and due to the intensity of the project, none of our team-members were even told what they were building until the project was almost completed.

Our team’s hard work and diligence paid off and both the containment unit and the autoclave were ready when the Ebola patient arrived at NIH on September 28, 2014.