The proposed focused program, Composites in Civil Applications, will catalyze industry efforts in civil/construction, composites/materials, chemicals/petrochemicals, and offshore oil production to foster the development of new approaches and technologies for our nation's infrastructure. Industry has identified three major new application areas for composite materials: Infrastructure, Industrial Facilities, and Offshore Exploration & Production. These application areas are the focus of this program. NIST/ATP will provide an opportunity to leverage resources from government and industry in a cost-shared partnership to accelerate the development and dissemination of composite technology in civil applications.

Infrastructure systems are integral to the economic and social well being of our nation. Such systems affect our daily lives ranging from the ability to move from one location to another, the use of electrical power, and the disposal of waste to such fundamental issues as the quality of air and water. Because these systems are so pervasive and complex, they are often taken for granted, resulting in low levels of maintenance and uneven levels of attention from policy makers and technologists alike. The level of investment in the nation's infrastructure is massive, and keeping these assets in usable condition is one of the major challenges facing the nation over the coming decades. For example, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) estimates that the federal government alone has invested over $1 trillion in the nation's highway system. Of concern, over 40% of the nation's bridges are structurally or functionally deficient. In California alone, over $3.5 billion is required for seismic retrofitting of bridges. Because of this need, FHWA is stressing the use of asset management systems that will target the most economical allocation of resources in upgrading the nation's transportation system.

Other infrastructure systems as well are facing stress. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that billions of dollars must be spent to provide sewer and water treatment facilities for the nation's urban areas. Additional billions of dollars will be spent by the private sector in providing pipelines, tracks, and other network elements that are part of the nation's power and transportation grid. Technical challenges associated with aging structures include: time dependent materials degradation, widespread fatigue damage from increased usage, poor initial selection of materials, or initial flaws in design and/or fabrication. Industry/government/university collaboration can produce new materials and technologies that can extend the service life of constructed facilities with reduced maintenance and improved durability. For example, applications of advanced composite materials such as glass, aramid or carbon fibers in polymer matrices are becoming increasingly important to extend the service life of infrastructure.

Industrial facilities often operate in severely corrosive environments with stringent worker safety requirements for structural reliability, fire suppression and electrical isolation. Composite materials can provide lightweight, corrosion resistant, and non-conductive structures and components. Consequently, composites are already in limited use in industrial operations; however, major efforts at manufacturing affordability could make their use more encompassing. The general category of industrial facilities includes a wide range of functions and associated design and performance requirements. It could consist of refineries, chemical and processing plants, power generation and transmission facilities, and mining facilities.

Although composites have been extensively developed and used in the aerospace and marine industries, these technologies do not meet the specific needs of civil applications. Infrastructure and industrial applications are characterized by large scale and rapid construction. Compared to aircraft and marine component manufacture, civil applications deal in tons of product per project and thousands of projects per year, and at significantly more locations than a few aircraft plants and shipyards. While it is necessary to address the resolution of many outstanding issues such as reparability, flame and smoke toxicity, durability, environmental impact, and the availability of validated design codes, standards, and guidelines for civil applications, the NIST/ATP program can have a major impact on the composite's industries response to the problems of scale and production volume. Key program issues are the extent to which automation of the manufacturing process can reduce cost and increase volume and the degree of quality control and quality assurance that can be developed and provided during the manufacturing and installation phase utilizing the typical civil construction work force.

Specific issues to be addressed are:

1. the development of continuous composite fabrication processes, from fiber placement through resin impregnation and cure,
   
2. automated methods of component assembly into large scale structures,
   
3. the impact of automation and production volume on raw material and production costs,
   
4. methodologies for design and utilization of pre-manufactured structural elements assembled at the worksite instead of the build in place model used today, and
   
5. methods to build in health monitoring systems for subsequent field inspection.

Lastly, it is necessary to develop and validate a body of analytical and design tools which move beyond the mature methods for calculating material and structural response and extend the understanding into critical problems associated with application include issues of attachments, flexible joints, and field connections which characterize civil constuction.

The industry/government/university partnership in this program will utilize the strengths of each partner. The NIST/ATP program acts as a facilitator, providing two valuable services - it brings together the construction and composites industry to address a common technical challenge and it provides funding to leverage activities that industry is not willing to undertake alone thereby providing the critical level of resources for success. University research personnel and laboratories, often uniquely qualified for research in composites, can direct their efforts to address critical technical problems that inhibit the successful introduction of products into civil infrastructure applications. The industry-led program will provide the technology advancements needed to solve critical civil infrastructure problems and improve the U.S. economy by creating jobs in the composites and infrastructure service industries and improving the international trade balance of payments by exporting new products and services.

Composites utilization on offshore platform will help to enable/accelerate cost effective oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), in the ultra deepwater (>4000 ft.) regions and in environmentally sensitive areas along the coast line. Increased oil and gas production in the GOM will provide new job opportunities and create new business for the composites and oil and gas related industries. Composites for offshore operations will require a good balance between material utilization, cost, design tailoring, manufacturing, and other issues not faced before by the composite industry in other application areas. For example, the use of short pitch based carbon fiber for composite tension leg platform (TLP) tendons, will not only provide a technical challenge to design and material tailoring, but also for developing innovative manufacturing methods that can provide the high degree of reliability required for offshore construction. Promising new composite applications that would be created with advanced technology include: TLP tendons; synthetic fiber floating production system (FPS) mooring ropes; thick-walled tubulars for ultra high pressure; double-wall insulated subsea pipes; long-length, large-diameter pipes; extended reach smart drill pipes; linerless high-performance fiber-reinforced thermoplastic pipes; primary platform structures; pressure vessels and tanks; and metal/composite hybrid structures.

Although composite materials can offer many positive attributes, affordability achieved by reaching low-cost manufacturing and integration of new low-cost carbon fibers will be a crucial issue in this arena. The offshore oil and gas industry encouraged by the need defined by the U.S. government to reduce reliance on foreign oil imports is committed to develop Gulf of Mexico resources. Without support for U.S. based development, the industry will import technology from overseas. This could lead to loss of job opportunities and overseas technology dependency, which would not be beneficial to the U.S. industry as a whole. While heavy collaborative effort in composites is strongly encouraged by government agencies overseas, the U.S. composites industry is just recovering from the downturns in the late eighties and early nineties. Without NIST/ATP commitment for funding, many composite manufacturers will not venture into long term, high-risk projects with the oil and gas industry (which is also known, at times, to be as volatile as the composite industry). The NIST/ATP support provides the stability to ensure a continuous path of high-risk technology development where return of investment could be tremendous. In addition, the NIST/ATP not only will help reduce dependency on imported oil, but also help efficiently accelerate the pace of composite technology and encourage cost-effective development of future ultra deepwater Gulf of Mexico hydrocarbon resources.

POTENTIAL FOR U.S. ECONOMIC BENEFIT

Civil infrastructure including bridges and buildings forms a significant aspect of the nation's investment. Although our use of highways has increased dramatically over the past decade there has been chronic under investment in both maintenance and upgrading facilities resulting in the current situation wherein more than half our urban and rural roadways are in poor, mediocre or fair condition and 31.4% of our bridges are rated as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The FHWA estimates that over $80 billion will be needed to just eliminate the current deficiencies in bridge structures and to maintain current repair levels. The introduction of methods of renewal (including new construction) using high performance composite materials that are light and durable present the opportunity for immense economic benefits both in real terms and in intangibles. In real terms repairs could cost less and be conducted faster enabling a net savings to the nation while upgrading or maintaining our current infrastructure. New construction using these technologies would have a significantly longer life-time and technical issues related to dead weight which have often restricted functionality would be resolved. The durability of composite decks for example would significantly reduce the overall maintenance costs borne by state DOTs (for example some DOTs expend over 50% of their annual budget on maintenance of bridge decks).

Besides the tangible economic benefits there are myriad intangible benefits related to savings of GDP resulting from on-time delivery of goods and services that are currently delayed due to slow moving traffic over posted bridges and roads, traffic jams due to insufficient access etc. Further as traffic needs increase (including those related to higher speeds) losses due to old and deteriorating infrastructure will result in losses in the billions of dollars annually.

Civil transportation infrastructure is an important aspect of the world economy and contracts worth billions of dollars are let annually on a global basis. Without the development of the technology, U.S. companies will be at a disadvantage in competing in a global economy. Already U.S. primes are losing to Japanese and European companies due to the lack of such advances and their deployment in the U.S. Further foreign companies are even conducting rehabilitation jobs in the U.S. due to the lack of U.S. firms with similar technologies, resulting in a further economic loss.

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) have greater strength capabilities and are less susceptible to environmental deterioration than steel. FRP composites do not deteriorate in the presence of road salts, which shorten the life of a conventional structure. Additionally, FRP has weight to strength ratios of 50 times that of concrete and 18 times that of steel. An example for future use of FRP is in Ohio. Ohio has 42,865 bridges, 24,551 of those are currently rated inadequate to support today design loads. Nationwide out of the 600,000+ bridge structures there are 30% to 40% that are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. It has been estimated by FHWA that it would cost approximately $212 billion to eliminate these highway deficiencies. AASHTO has estimated approximately $263 billion to eliminate the deficiencies and $94 billion just to make modest repairs or upgrades. Ohio DOT alone spends approximately $200 million yearly to replace or rehabilitate bridge structures. All of these structures will gradually have to be replaced and composites could play a significant role. It is conceivable that with the good attributes composites have to offer the construction industry, and if high risk composite systems or products were developed they could have some impact on 10% of these structures. This would represent $20 billion nationwide and $20 million annually in Ohio.

The technology needed to safely and economically develop deepwater petroleum bearing reservoirs is extremely complex and will require advancements in several different disciplines. Technology is playing a vital role in reducing the cost of finding and producing oil and gas. Important advancements have been made in seismic technology, directional drilling, multiple completions, subsea systems, and production techniques. Composite materials are another technology, which could provide important enabling solutions for safe, affordable deepwater development. Floating platforms are the only practical configurations for deepwater and are commonly used in combination with subsea wells. Floating platforms are tied to the ocean floor by moorings or tethers, or for drilling can be dynamically positioned using thrusters. Saving weight is an important design consideration for floating platforms with more cost benefit for some configurations such as Tension Leg Platforms (TLPs) than others and corrosion prevention is also important. Successful introduction of secondary composite structures, such as gratings, hard rails, and ladders, on recent GOM TLPs and NIST/ATP research programs have positioned the oil industry to be receptive to composites for primary structural components. Low-cost manufacturing methods and utilization of hybrid materials to minimize cost are two examples of ways composite manufacturers are addressing the cost issue.

The ATP program initiated by NIST in 1995, which focused on composite manufacturing for the oil industry, provided significant stimulus to get composites acceptability within the broader petroleum industry. Products such as composite production risers, drilling risers, and spoolable pipe are being considered in project planning exercises. A significant amount of scientific technology has also been developed under these programs such as complex metal to composite joints, hybrid material design methods, and composite structure reliability analytical methods.

The oil industry is currently developing the deepwater solutions that will be implemented in the 1^st decade of the 21^st century. Many issues are multi-disciplinary in which a solution for one problem affects the design of many related components. Weight savings fall into this category and if composites are not considered in the early planning stage, the benefits will not be captured and the industry will become entrenched in an alternative inefficient solution. Advanced composites technology needs to be developed now and be ready for application during the introductory window of opportunity which for ultra deepwater GOM will be during the next five years.

GOOD TECHNICAL IDEAS

It is noted that the quality of construction strongly affects the wealth and productivity of a nation. More than 60% of the fixed reproducible wealth of the U.S. is invested in publicly and privately owned constructed facilities. Infrastructure represents approximately 25% of the nation's stock of physical capital. However, the quality, durability and flexibility of the construction materials and systems used restrict this investment. Current estimates place the value of the nation public works infrastructure at $2.7 trillion with the bulk of these assets (86%) in the hands of state and local governments. Also, infrastructure comprises approximately 25% of the current national construction related expenditures estimated at $450 billion annually. U.S. infrastructure, however, is perilously close to the limit of its design life because of a consistent history of inadequate maintenance and lack of motivation for rapid implementation of innovation in this area.

The visible consequences of the state of U.S. civil infrastructure are evident in structurally deficient bridges and deteriorating highway pavements. At the minimum, ten percent (60,000 miles) of the federal-aid pavement falls below minimum engineering standards. The Road Information Program (TRIP) notes that 60% of the nation's pavements require substantial rehabilitation. In the U.S., an estimated 40% of all bridges are judged to be structurally deficient or obsolete and require repair, strengthening or replacement. The cost to eliminate deficiencies as noted in 1993 was $78 billion, with the average annual cost to just maintain our deteriorating status-quo being $5.2 billion. Current estimates for repairing only bridges and roads that are seriously deficient or about to fall below minimum acceptable standards are projected at $167 billion. Another $90 billion is required for repairs to the 238,000 highway bridges. Similar levels of distress are also seen in pipelines used for the distribution of potable water and sewage with repair and replacement costs being estimated at the same level of magnitude (e.g. repair to major aqueducts in California alone are estimated to cost over $1 billion. Serious deterioration to de-icing salts is present in more than 55,000 parking garages, and a significant percentage of industrial facilities and multi-story homes fall below minimum acceptable standards for safety. The costs of an inadequate infrastructure are enormous. One study estimates that by the year 2005, traffic delays caused by inadequate roads and highways will cost the nation a staggering $50 billion in lost wages and wasted fuel. More than inconvenience, such losses are a fatal blow to the nation's economy and to its competitiveness in a global economy. Infrastructure is the single most pervasive element that affects a nation's economic competitiveness, and in today's world, it's national security.

Approximately 65% of United States energy needs are supplied by petroleum. Domestic oil and gas production, however, is declining and in 1998 the United States will import approximately 4 billion barrels of oil accounting for 56% of consumption and add approximately $63 billion annually to the international trade deficit. In 1972, just prior to the oil embargo, the United States imported 1.7 billion barrels of oil, which were only 29% of total consumption. One promising new source for petroleum in the United States is from reservoirs located beneath deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). It will be a significant challenge to produce petroleum from reservoirs located beneath ultra-deepwater (up to13,000 feet of water depth). Lightweight, corrosion-resistant composite materials could provide an important contribution to the safe, economical development of deepwater petroleum resources. In addition, if composite products are developed by U.S. manufacturers rather than overseas, they could be deployed in deepwater basins in other parts of the world to provide a valuable market for U.S. products. The export of composite products for the oil industry will help make U.S. oil and service companies more competitive in international exploration and production services and has a significant positive impact on the U.S. balance of payments. Based on the needs and opportunities identified, NIST/ATP established a focused program on Manufacturing Composite Structures for the oil industry and six programs addressing oil exploration and production applications were initiated in 1995. These programs will finish their third year of development in 1998 and several programs have made sufficient progress to move toward commercialization. The technology developed is also being used to develop alternative oil application products based on current market demands. NIST/ATP support helped create a critical mass of interested parties involving all the stake holders, the end users (oil companies), technology developers (industry and universities), and potential suppliers (materials and manufacturers). These interdisciplinary teams worked together to define the functional requirements, resolve critical technology barriers, conduct validation tests and establish specifications in preparation for the introduction of new products into service. Without NIST/ATP support, the oil industry would be much less prepared to accept and apply composite materials.

STRONG COMMITMENT OF INDUSTRY

Two Working Group Committee meetings occurred on January 29 and March 5, 1998, in which five technical areas were identified by industries during the planning meetings. Eight white papers have been submitted to ATP Program Manager by industry recommending three major industries needing ATP program stimulus: Infrastructure, Industrial Facilities, and Offshore Exploration & Production. The recent ATP Workshop on Composites in Civil Applications on June 17-18 has shown that these industries have great interest and enthusiasm about participating in the recommended focused program. This ATP Workshop attracted more than 140 participants from industry, governmental agencies, and academia. The industries represented included civil/construction, composites/materials, chemical/petrochemical, and offshore industries. Using offshore E&P as an example: the oil industry provided strong support to first NIST/ATP composite focused program. The oil industry appreciates the potential of composites to provide economic and technical enabling contributions in ultra deepwater developments. From the first solicitation of the composite focused program, it is clear that composite manufacturers have good ideas to incorporate in proposals for new ATP programs. Major oil and oil service companies can be expected to participate in high payoff programs if ATP focused program is offered. The timing of the need for a new focused program for industry is now. The industry can be expected to submit proposals to the Composites in Civil Applications focused program competition whenever ATP composite focused program becomes available.

OPPORTUNITY FOR ATP FUNDING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE NOW

It should be noted that the civil and construction industries are fragmented and although willing to use and implement new technologies, have historically needed facilitation from other sectors. The NIST/ATP program functions as a facilitator, providing two valuable services (1) It brings together the construction and composites industry under a common umbrella with a common goal, and (2) it provides funding to leverage activities that industry is willing to undertake thereby providing the critical level of resources for success. Substantial progress has been made over the past five years in the development of composites for civil infrastructure applications ranging from reinforcing and dowel bars, to cables, bridge decks and girders, retrofit, repair and strengthening techniques, and even full structural systems. The civil engineering industry has a far greater understanding and degree of comfort associated with the use of these materials and this predicates a higher degree of success for programs initiated now over those initiated a few years ago.

Although ATP has previously funded a more general competition in this area aimed at low-cost manufacturing previously, it should be stressed that with a few exceptions the programs funded were not focused strictly on civil infrastructure but rather were aimed at the development of manufacturing methods in general with civil infrastructure components being used as technical demonstrators only. The needs of civil infrastructure are such that specific materials systems, design approaches and manufacturing methods need to be developed that focus on the technical needs, functionality and economic criteria specific to civil infrastructure. The adaptation of methods for other areas to civil infrastructure is likely to end in a more costly product with little value in terms of that component or in terms of spin-off advantages.

The civil infrastructure industry routinely and generally has a high commitment to technologies that meet their needs. It has only been with in the past several years that the civil infrastructure has shown interest in composites as alternatives to or in use with steel and concrete to solve various needs. There are several organizations or committees now that state DOT's engineering firms and contractor companies have organized or sit on that reflect their interest in using composite. Several of these are American Concrete Institute (ACI440) which deals with composites in concrete, AASHTO for the state DOT's has a new committee designated solely for composites in infrastructure, Highway Innovative Technology (HITEC) which sets up panel evaluations for company products and is evaluated by state DOTs. The Composite Institute has their Market Development Alliances (MDA) for bridge applications, which has members from the resin industry, fiber industry, contractors and manufactures.

It is generally accepted that light-weight, fiber-reinforced, composite materials could play a major role in facilitating the safe, reliable, economical production of oil and gas from deepwater reservoirs; however, significant work needs to be done to make the technology ready. Steel is the primary material used in the construction of offshore platforms and infrastructure and tubulars are the most common structural element. Steel is relatively inexpensive, but heavy and susceptible to corrosion. Low-density and corrosion resistance are the primary properties which make composites attractive for offshore developments. In deepwater, the value credited to saving weight increases and composites become more economically attractive.

Unlike the aerospace area, the oil industry does not have a strong sponsor for development work in the materials area, either within oil companies or the oil service industry. In the modern highly competitive commodity market driven by stockholder expectations of ever increasing profits, most oil companies have in the last 5 years reduced or eliminated in-house research in the materials area. Oil companies have downsized or closed materials laboratories with the expectation that the oil service industry and universities would fill the need. The net result is that in the last five years much less research has been sponsored in the materials area. Fortunately for composite materials, the NIST/ATP programs have helped keep active a critical level of research and development activity in support of oil E&P applications.

By the time project engineers enter the planning stage to develop the supporting infrastructure of field developments, it is usually too late to develop new technology unless it is impossible to accomplish the objective otherwise. Project teams focus their attention on existing technology, even if it is more expensive or less efficient. The uncertainty of changing development scenarios during such long lead times is a primary concern for product manufacturers and becomes one of the primary reasons government support is needed to help accelerate the pace of development and ensure that products are available when they are needed.

A successful development program spurred by a NIST/ATP initiative will have a significant impact on the economic development of ultra deepwater in the GOM. The increased utilization of composites will have an extensive impact on the composites supply and manufacturing industries. An expansion of the composites industry will result in a large net increase in needs for skilled labor in the U.S. to supply materials and products. A new market for composite materials will be developed. The increase in the market for carbon fiber over the next ten years, for example, could be on the order of 250 million pounds. This market will also consume large quantities of aramid fiber, glass fiber, matrix resins and other associated materials used in the manufacture of composite structure. The potential market for new components for the GOM offshore market over the next ten years could exceed $5 billion. The global market could be even larger.

Realistically, however, the composites industry has little capital to invest in new product development and oil companies allocate little resources to the materials development area. Without a NIST/ATP or other external stimulus, only a portion of the needed development will occur and such efforts will not be at the pace needed to meet the window of opportunity concurrent with the early development of ultra deepwater resources.

TECHNICAL AND BUSINESS SCOPE

The key advantages of fiber-reinforced composites, such as free-form and tailored design characteristics, strength/weight and stiffness/weight ratios which significantly exceed those of conventional civil engineering materials, high fatigue resistance, and a high degree of inertness to chemical and environmental factors, are often overridden by high materials and manufacturing costs, particularly in direct comparison with conventional structural materials such as steel and concrete. However, the recent downturn in defense spending and the resulting need for new markets has spurred renewed efforts in reducing the costs of both raw materials and manufacturing processes, making composites more competitive to use in civil infrastructure applications. In addition, the anticipated availability of low-cost carbon fiber will allow composite composites to be competitively applied to a much larger class of civil infrastructure and offshore applications. These materials, are easily applied to a variety of civil infrastructure, industrial facilities, and offshore E&P problems and their application can generically be classified as in the following diagram.

Although composites have been extensively developed and used in the aerospace industry, they need to be developed further in specific directions for use in civil infrastructure and industrial facilities. In fact, the extent of these applications are used will depend on (1) the resolution of outstanding issues such as repairability, fire, durability and environmental concerns, (2) the extent to which automation in the manufacturing process can reduce cost, (3) the development of composite material based design concepts that optimize the use of the material, (4) the availability of validated codes, standards, and guidelines which can be used as design references and tools by the civil engineering community, and (5) the degree of quality control and quality assurance which can be developed and provided during the manufacturing/installation phase utilizing unskilled general construction labor.

Similarly, although composite technology applied to the oil industry has much in common with aerospace, infrastructure and automotive, it also is driven by unique requirements, both technical and economic. Some applications will benefit significantly from technology transfer while other applications or issues require unique new developments to succeed. In addition, technology transfer can propagate in two directions. Research conducted in support of oil industry applications has generated several advanced capabilities, which could be helpful to other industries. Examples of frontier areas of research conducted for the oil industry include understanding of the mechanics of hybrid structures, design of ultra high strain components, and design of thick-walled tubulars. In addition, very advanced failure prediction analytical methods have been developed in support of NIST/ATP composite production riser and spoolable tubing projects. Through complementary teaming arrangements with universities and small companies, an ideal model for ATP programs is to encourage participation by the academic community to ensure that good engineering principles are applied and advanced technology capabilities are developed as needed.

There are several areas in which more research is needed to advance the state of understanding to support the design of future oil industry applications. More work needs to be done on hybrid structures. Most of the advanced applications will rely on combinations of carbon and glass to meet high performance requirements at minimum cost. The availability of low cost carbon will move toward greater carbon utilization. Another interesting area which has surfaced in the development of certain applications is the requirement to resist ultra high impact loads. The hull of a TLP, for example, must resist impact by 2500 kJ and the drilling riser must resist a 250 kJ impact. These are extremely large energies and work needs to be done to be able to survive this level of impact load safely. Sensor technology is rapidly advancing in drilling and logging operations. It is not only possible to integrate fiber optics into the wall of composite tubes as transmission lines, but to better use the sensors themselves for structural integrity monitoring. The area of damage tolerance and repair are important as well as inspection and nondestructive test methods. The use of new materials and combinations of materials means that design allowables are not well established and safety factors have not been well defined. In addition, much work remains to be done to develop and translate advanced analytical methods into more automated design procedures. Low-cost manufacturing will continue to play an important role in the successful economical development of new composite applications as will creative structural engineering to take advantage of the design flexibility offered by composite materials.

The ultimate goal of this program is that the technology developed will encourage and enable a broad range of new applications for composite technology in civil infrastructure, industrial facilities, and offshore oil and gas operations. Some of these potential new applications include creative concepts for long-life, low-cost, large structures/joining technology for bridge construction; growing design/manufacturing/construction with new materials/shapes/manufacturing technologies with safer, corrosion-free, and more cost-effective for industrial facilities; and a whole new series of products for the oil industry to enable the cost-effective development of ultra deepwater petroleum resources. It is also anticipated that these advancements will improve the economy of the United States by creating jobs and reducing the international trade deficit through the export of products and services and decreased dependence on foreign oil. A NIST/ATP focused program is key to making certain that a critical level of effort is deployed in the United States to capture these advantages.

Exclusions from technical scope include the following:

• Demonstration projects.
• Development of design codes and standards/specifications.

Date created: October 1999
Last updated: April 12, 2005