May 2019 Monthly Meeting

When
-
Meeting Title
Service Life Prediction Models
Location

Aceh Community Room
Mercy Corps, 45 SW Ankeny St
Portland, OR 97204

Presenters
Dr. Christopher White
Description

Sometimes the glass that was part of the building envelope ends up on the street. Nobody is happy. Buildings age and fail when the properties of the materials change. Currently, there is no effective method of determining the design life of materials used in building enclosures. Materials are thus selected based on first cost. This transfers the benefit of lower cost materials to the specifier, but the risk associated with that decision on the building owner. When there is a way to determine the accurate design life, economically efficient materials selection decisions are possible. The glass stays stuck to the building for as long as it is expected. This presentation will discuss development of tools to accurately predict design life of materials to mitigate those risks to project teams.

Dr. White has been at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for over 20 years developing a fundamental understanding of the degradation of polymers exposed to outdoor exposures. This passion is focused on developing the adoption of new method to establish the prediction of in-service design life, or service life prediction of materials. The innovative research of this NIST team has been published in journals, standards, and the popular press The Research focused on producing validated predictive models has generated new instruments, models, statistical methods, procedures and insight to both indoor and outdoor weathering of these materials. In addition to the many papers, Dr. White has edited four books related to durability and service life prediction. Dr. White is a sought-after speaker who has organized international conferences, symposiums as well as many invited and contributed talks to a wide variety of audiences.

Dr. White has a formal background in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, -Madison, 94). This deep technical knowledge is augmented by with a business background (MBA, University of Maryland, 2007). Dr. White is the rare combination of a world class scientist/engineer who also understands business. He is a successful entrepreneur with several successful startup companies, the latest being Bee-America.

While the main focus has been on Service Life Prediction model development, Dr. White’s diversity of background and broad understanding has lead to a wide variety of interesting projects including: rheological measurement of the Tg of ultra-thin polymer films for electronic packaging applications, working with the Department of Homeland Security on a project to standardize procedures for explosive force mitigation within the mass transit system, developing new standards and test methods for the adhesion of spray applied fire resistant materials for protecting structural steel, working with the department of Housing and Urban Development on translating the work on service life prediction to a sustainable materials mortgage credit, working on the task force to successfully develop a Enterprise Risk Management framework for NIST.