Inactive

Amendment 01: The purpose of this sources sought notice amendment is to confirm that ALL capable sources are encouraged to respond, regardless of size classification. The notice response instructions ... Amendment 01: The purpose of this sources sought notice amendment is to confirm that ALL capable sources are encouraged to respond, regardless of size classification. The notice response instructions text is revised to remove language that was unclear. The notice response date remains unchanged. ____________________ SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE Development of a Computational Wind Engineering Pre-Standard for Use of Computational Wind Engineering in Building Design NAICS: 541330 – Engineering Services PSC: R425 – Engineering Services INTRODUCTION This is a Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of qualified business sources. This notice is strictly for market research and information purposes only. Your responses will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. NIST is seeking responses from all responsible large and small business concerns. Small businesses are defined under the associated NAICS code for this effort, 541330 (Engineering Services) as those domestic sources with average annual receipts not exceeding $25.5 million. Background: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Engineering Laboratory (EL) has a long history of research and development and providing innovative solutions in wind engineering for windstorm impact reduction. More recently it has been focusing on developing and applying innovative Computational Wind Engineering (CWE) and Performance-Based Design for Wind (PBWD) methodologies as part of its research roadmap to advance the nation’s measurement science in wind engineering. Specifically, the use of CWE in the built environment has become more common over the past two decades, both in academia and industry. Industry practitioners working in the built environment are more frequently looking to CWE tools to support design. Given the low-cost barrier for entry to CWE and the lack of consistency in modelling approaches, absence of guidance and limited prevalence of peer reviews, there is a growing lack of trust in the industry around the outcomes produced by some forms of CWE. This can be seen through codes and standards around the world (such as the ASCE7-22 and NBCC-20) not permitting the use of CWE for design at present. Thus, currently the results of a CWE study must be verified by running costly wind tunnel experiments to provide validation of the results. The more wide-spread use of CWE in practice is currently limited by the lack of standards to ensure consistency in its use. This is compounded by the limited validation and verification of the results to provide confidence in the use of CWE to produce results that can be used in design. To address the potential for industry adoption of CWE it is critical to assemble a team of experts in CWE across academia and industry, with experience in writing Pre-standards, who can outline the necessary approach to utilization of CWE in building design. During the recent NIST-sponsored workshop for the Advancements of Computational Wind Engineering (https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/gcr/2023/NIST.GCR.23-047.pdf), the development of this Pre-standard was the No. 1 Priority identified by the participants as being needed to advance CWE into practice. Scope of Requirement: NIST requires contractor services to identify and convene a panel of national experts in CWE to form a Project Team and develop a framework and recommended outline for the Pre-standard for Use of CWE in Building Design, including appropriate computational modeling techniques, validation and verification methodologies, selection of boundary conditions, and output requirements. The Pre-standard shall be developed using mandatory language that can be used by academia and design professionals in their practice. The Pre-standard shall address external environmental concerns such as pollutant dispersion and pedestrian comfort and safety as well as large scale numerical weather modelling, such as characterizing the Santa Ana winds. The scope of the work shall cover the basic framework for a ‘building scale model’ where CWE could answer questions around flow conditions, pedestrian wind comfort and safety concerns, and wind pressure loading for a building. Finally, the Pre-standard shall establish the baseline conditions for ensuring that CWE simulations are conducted respecting the physical characteristics of wind, while highlighting provisions around acceptable assumptions and experimental fundamentals that can be used in simulations. Note: Development of standards and pre-standards for building design in the United States is a consensus process performed by the private sector with potential participation and contribution by Government employees. This requirement is NOT an inherently governmental function. Key Requirement Tasks: The goal of this requirement is for the Contractor to convene a panel of national experts in CWE and develop a pre-standard for the use of CWE in building design. The required work includes the following key task areas: Convene National Experts in CWE: This requirement necessitates contractor ability to identify, contact, and convene national experts in computational wind engineering. Development of a CWE Pre-Standard: This requirement includes organizing national CWE experts to discuss and develop a refined, detailed, pre-standard, and then to prepare a pre-standard for approval. Production and Distribution of a CWE Pre-Standard: This task area requires development of a plan for publication and wide distribution of the approved Pre-standard as an electronic document that is freely available for download to the practicing wind engineering community as well as to the public. QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS NOTICE Questions regarding this sources sought notice may be submitted via email to Ms. Lauren Roller, Contract Specialist, at Lauren.Roller@nist.gov. Questions are due by or before 11:00 AM ET on April 29, 2024. Questions will be anonymized and answered via sources sought notice amendment following the question submission deadline. RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS All responsible sources able to provide the services described above are asked to email a response to Ms. Lauren Roller, Contract Specialist, at Lauren.Roller@nist.gov by or before 1:00 PM ET on May 6, 2024. Please include the following information in the response: 1. Name of company authorized to provide services, along with their address and a point of contact for the company (name, phone number, and email address). 2. The company’s primary NAICS, size classification, and socio-economic status (i.e., Small Business, Woman Owned Small Business, Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, Other than Small Business etc.). 3. Brief description of capabilities in relation to the three key task areas identified in this sources sought notice. 4. Information on any GSA Federal Supply Schedules (FSS) or other Government-wide contracts through which the company offers these services, if applicable. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider. Responses are limited to a maximum total of six (6) pages in MS Word or searchable PDF format. IMPORTANT NOTES This notice is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. Responses will not be considered as proposals or quotes. No award will be made as a result of this notice. The Government will not be responsible for any costs incurred by the respondents to this notice. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response; however, NIST will recognize as restricted or proprietary data which is clearly marked such.