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NMS Materials & Thermal Metrology

Materials

Materials technology is vital to industrial competitiveness and innovation across all sectors including healthcare and the environment. UK businesses which produce and process materials have an annual turnover around £200 billion, which is 15% of our GDP.

Three areas of expertise; structural materials, surface engineering and materials chemistry, and multifunctional materials cover the main thrusts of the NMS materials work, with a strategic focus on:-

• Building a standards and measurement infrastructure for the use of new structural materials, such as composites and light alloys  (including major effort in Structural Health Monitoring for civil and other applications)
• Developing a measurement and modelling framework for the effective design and utilisation of coatings and surface engineered materials (including ultra-low friction coatings optimised for energy management, and new methods for microstructural characterisation of textured materials)
• Investigating the measurement issues regarding the emerging areas of functional and multifunctional materials (multiferroic and piezoelectric for example), nanomaterials and nanoprobes (including microfluidic device characterisation and modelling), biomaterials (tissue scaffolds and bioactive materials) and fuel cells (for automotive, land-based and portable application)
• Developing an understanding of input data uncertainty on predictive model outputs; and multiphysics and multiscale materials modeling such as molecular modelling and finite element computational techniques to determine the behaviour of measurement systems and assess material properties
• Validating the lifetime prediction of materials in important infrastructure applications, and providing test procedures concerned with measurement of materials behavior under processing conditions to impact on sustainable and efficient production

Adoption of new materials - or their use in new applications - depends on an ability to understand, characterise and measure these materials throughout their working life. This includes their processing properties, performance and durability. The NMS has a leading role in measurement of materials and development of new international standards.

Humidity

Humidity is the presence of water vapour in air or other gas. Water vapour is the gaseous form of water, and can be thought of much like any other gas. Humidity can be expressed in relative terms (i.e. relative humidity) or in various absolute terms (such as vapour pressure, dew point, and concentration).

Air humidity directly affects the moisture content of materials. The presence or absence of water influences a vast range of physical, chemical and biological processes. Structures may deform or lose strength when their water content changes.  Water is a key agent in corrosion, and is critical to the formation and structure of chemicals from simple salts upwards. Bacterial, fungal and all higher plant and animal life forms incorporate water and depend on finely balanced interactions with water. Measurement of humidity is of widespread importance, and can be critical to product quality, reliability and lifespan.

Thermal

Temperature is:

• The great driver of almost all materials processing in industry, such as steel, petrochemicals, glass, ceramics, power generation, pharmaceuticals, foods, refrigeration, etc.
• Crucial to the management and modeling of the local and global environment.
• A vital parameter in healthcare for diagnostics and treatment.
• Vital also in defense and almost all technological activity.

As a result, temperature is one of the most commonly measured parameters in key sectors in industry, medicine, meteorology and technology, and in everyday life.

The NMS Thermal Programme is working on seven major projects:

• Primary acoustic thermometry
• Provision of contact thermometry standards
• Provision of non-contact thermometry standards
• Improved high-temperature thermocouple thermometry to 1500°C
• High-temperature fixed-points for improved non-contact scale definition and dissemination
• Future temperature scale developments
• Internal temperature measurement validation
• Knowledge transfer
• Joint Industrial Projects

The NMS operates a world class facility for the measurement of the thermal performance of materials and structures used in buildings; pipe insulation; high temperature insulation and refractories; and engineering materials including plastics, composites, ceramics, metals and alloys.

These measurements can be carried out from -170 °C to 800 °C on insulation materials and up to 500 °C for metals and alloys. The overall heat transfer (U-value) of large structures up to 2 m x 2 m x 0.3 m can be measured at any orientation, as well as masonry structures weighing up to 450 kg. Staff provide technical expertise to a wide range of CEN, ISO, CIPM and BSI Working Groups producing measurement and calculation standards. Another important role is the provision of reference materials and transfer standards (to ISO Guide 34) used to calibrate and validate commercial measurement apparatus.

Measurement of these thermal properties is closely associated with the Government's policy of reducing energy consumption and as the first step in reducing CO2 emissions and securing our future energy supplies. Traceable measurements also enable the implementation of EU products standards and CE marking of insulation, which enable materials and products to be fairly compared.