SOLICITATION NOTICE
D -- Development of a new generation of physics-based earthquake models.
- Notice Date
- 6/13/2006
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- Contracting Office
- U S GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, APS BRANCH OF ACQUISITION AND GRANTS 3020 STATE UNIVERSITY DR. EAST, MODOC HALL STE 3001 SACRAMENTO CA 95819
- ZIP Code
- 95819
- Solicitation Number
- 06WRSS0013
- Response Due
- 6/28/2006
- Archive Date
- 6/13/2007
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- The U.S. Geological Survey, Geology Discipline, Earthquake Hazards Program (USGS) has a requirement for a software developer or development company to develop/refine a comprehensive physics-based earthquake model in modern object-oriented computer code along with relevant manuals in collaboration with USGS scientists. This will be a negotiated acquisition in accordance with (IAW) the procedures of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 12. Full and open competition will be provided for. This acquisition is set aside for participation by small business concerns, under NAICS code 541511 - Custom Computer Programming Services, for which the associated size standard is $23.0 million in average (last three years) annual revenue. The USGS desires a contract with one base period consisting of approximately four months, with two option periods, each consisting of approximately six months. Each period will represent the next stage of design or development. Presently, funding is available only for the base period. A brief description of the required services follows. The contractor will be responsible for completing development of Finite Element Method (FEM) computer code that calculates (1) the amount of slip on one or more faults from stress-induced forces-and other factors such as friction, roughness, and curvature; (2) the immediate changes in stress and displacement; (3) the seismic waves that are produced; and (4) the evolution of stress and displacement over time caused by viscoelasticity and plasticity. When needed, the contractor will utilize modeling techniques from compatible scientific and engineering fields, and adapt them for use in earthquake computations. The contractor will be responsible for extending the computer code to create and test a comprehensive 3D model of the Hayward fault system. This element requires direct interaction with USGS scientists in Menlo Park, CA who will guide development of the model and supply the necessary 3D data sets. Accordingly, regular visits to the USGS campus in Menlo Park, CA will be required. The contractor will be responsible for preparing the code for publication, including writing appropriate documentation. The contractor will present oral updates on modeling progress to staff scientists as requested. The contractor will be responsible for creating software interfaces that enable USGS earthquake scientists to adapt and extend the code to meet their future research needs. >From time to time, as need arises to accomplish USGS scientific goals, the contractor will provide modules for special short-term research projects related to earthquake modeling which can be considered natural extensions of the contractor's work on the Comprehensive Earthquake Model. The contractor will develop and implement the necessary software, and provide model results and images for these projects. The extended program and its documentation shall address all requirements set forth in Items 1 and 2 below. 1. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM Computational Domain - The existing program has been designed so that computation takes place in 3D "coordinate space". In particular, a non-linear transformation maps the coordinate space into the "physical space" where the earth resides. Because the transformation is nonlinear, the coordinate space is a non-Euclidean space; specifically a Riemannian manifold with a curved metric. In the performance of this task, any upgrades that the contractor performs on the core program shall conform to this 3D computational system. FEM Formulation - The existing program has been designed so that the finite element method (FEM) is carried out in the computational domain. Because the domain is a curved manifold, it is necessary to use a tensorized version of FEM, where all physical equations are expressed in tensors in a form appropriate for curved space. All volume and surface integrals must be performed using curved-space formulations involving the metric and Levi-Civita tensors. In the performance of this task, any upgrades that the contractor performs on the core program shall conform the the FEM formulation design as described below. The existing program generates a mesh surrounding a specified fault system. Cell boundaries are positioned to coincide with the fault surfaces, and the mesh includes special nodes that represent slip along the fault surfaces. Extensions to the mesh design must be able to read in topographic and bathymetric data, as well as data specifying a 3D warped fault surface, and distort the mesh accordingly. New FEM code shall be constructed in object-oriented form, and needs to be sufficiently general to handle any arbitrary cell shape, needing only a suitable description of the desired shape. For example, it needs to be able to support cell shapes such as hexahedra, tetrahedra, triangular prisms, and quadrilateral pyramids; as well as handle both linear and quadratic cells. The existing program includes a linear solver able to handle very large problems and able to solve sparse linear systems of several million equations on a desktop PC in a few minutes. The solver is able to impose constraints, for example, constraining the motion of certain nodes to lie in a fault surface. The linear solver shall be extended to solve non-linear problems through the use of tangent stiffness matrices. These additional constraint support capabilities need to be intrinsic to the solver (for example, not rely on the addition of fictional "springs"). The extended capabilities shall preserve the ability to modify constraints "on-the-fly" without recomputing the coefficient matrix. Validations Tools - As a validation tool, the contractor shall extend the program to incorporate an analytic dislocation solver, which will be used in simple cases to provide analytic solutions for comparison to the FEM solutions. The analytic solver must be able to implement a solution similar to the well-known Okada formulas, except modified and extended so that the fault slip is given by an FEM shape function. The contractor shall develop an additional validation tool, a built-in patch-test module, in order to test various cells and combinations of cells to ensure they behave correctly. Geophysical Effects - The existing program supports both flat-earth and curved-earth computations. Its geodetic model takes into account: the oblateness of the earth; centrifugal forces due to earth's rotation; and the variation of gravitational acceleration with depth. In the performance of this task, the contractor shall develop 3D model capabilities that account for gravitational body forces and for the effects of friction, roughness, and curvature on the fault surface by calculating normal and tangential forces at each node, and by constraining the motions of nodes on the fault to produce the correct total seismic moment tensor at each node. The contractor shall test the capability of the Comprehensive Earthquake Model to specify the rheological properties of the crust, and allow them to vary arbitrarily with location by importing rheology properties for linear and non-linear elastic, viscoelastic, and plastic materials from existing 3D data sets based in the EarthVision geologic software package. 2. PROGRAMMING CONSIDERATIONS The specified extensions, revisions, and upgrades to the Comprehensive Earthquake Model computer program will be written in C++, and will be designed to ensure portability. There are several dimensions to portability: Code Portability - The contractor shall ensure that new code will adhere to the ISO C++ standard, and not use functionality specific to any one operating system. The extended program will avoid arcane or obscure code constructions (whose support might vary amount different compilers) and programming practices that are known to introduce portability issues. Where system dependency is unavoidable (e.g., file naming conventions), such code will be isolated in one place for easy modification. At a minimum, the code will be compiled and tested on both Windows and Linux systems. Data Portability - The contractor shall maintain strict control of I/O on a byte level (so that data files are byte-for-byte identical) to ensure data-file portability on different systems. Where the code must read files prepared by other programs (i.e., text files created by a text editor), the extended code will be flexible enough to accept a variety of different formats, and such code will be isolated in one place so additional formats can be added easily. Command Portability - For any new script files (used to issue complicated series of commands), the contractor shall avoid the problem of non-portable files by utilizing the previously defined script language, which includes expression evaluation, conditional execution, loops, and user-defined procedures, and built-in code to read and execute the script. Time Portability - In order to provide a complete software product that will execute on future computer systems, running operating systems that are yet to be developed, the contractor shall not rely on any facility that has a significant risk of becoming unavailable in the foreseeable future. Scientific Portability - The contractor shall ensure program portability to a variety of seismotectonic settings, as well as provide documentation to ensure access to scientists with more modest computer skills. Self-diagnostics - The completed program will have built-in diagnostics to run tests of the various program modules and verify that they are operating correctly. DELIVERABLES The contractor will prepare the software identified above for publication so that scientists both inside and outside the USGS can use it. In addition to public release of the core FEM program, the contractor will provide the documentation, test model, and interface functionality described below. These products are to be provided in digital report format, via e-mail or anonymous ftp data transfers. Documentation - The contractor shall deliver User Manuals that describe how to operate the program, how to write scripts, how to generate meshes, how to run FEM calculations, and how to export results for visualization. Hayward Fault Model - The contractor shall construct a detailed model of the Hayward fault, using the latest data available from USGS scientists. The model will test and demonstrate the ability of the program to perform leading-edge research. Implementation of the Hayward fault model will help identify any additional functionality that may be needed, and any changes that may be needed to ease creation of additional models. The Hayward fault model will also serve as a large, detailed example to assist scientists in their use of the program. Note that full development and testing of this model will require funds beyond the current level. Modified Program Code - The entire program will be upgraded with changes and extensions resulting from development of the Hayward fault model as described above. The following deliverables are conditioned on the availability of funds: Documentation - The contractor shall deliver Theory Manuals that describe how the program works internally, how the tensorized FEM is formulated, and how the coordinate transformations are achieved, including appropriate equations. Documentation - The contractor shall deliver Programming Manuals that describe the software architecture, how users can extend the program with their own code, how to add new capabilities, and what programming interfaces are available. Application Programming Interfaces - Because research is inherently unpredictable, it is important that scientists be able to extend and modify the program by adding their own code. The contractor shall create defined interfaces within the program where scientists can add code safely, without disrupting the operation of the program or needing to understand every detail of program operation. These interfaces will include extending the script language by adding additional commands, defining new types of material constitutive properties, defining new types of FEM cells, defining new fault behavior models, and defining new geodetic models. Additional Research Modules - As needed, the contractor shall develop and implement additional research modules that perform new functions. These modules may include a New Madrid stress field model and a rate-and-state constitutive model. Complete specifications will be provided with the Request for Proposals, which is anticipated for release on or about 29 June 2006. For further information regarding this announcement, please contact Jeff Caravelli, Contracting Officer, at (916) 278-9341 or jcaravelli@usgs.gov. Numbered note 1 applies.
- Web Link
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Please click here to view more details.
(http://ideasec.nbc.gov/j2ee/announcementdetail.jsp?serverId=GS1434HQ&objId=851071)
- Record
- SN01068838-W 20060615/060613221318 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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