SPECIAL NOTICE
99 -- Single Source Announcement - High efficient and accurate computational methodologies and tools for damage-tolerance based aircraft reliability assessment.
- Notice Date
- 8/29/2013
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- Contracting Office
- FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, AAQ-620 CT - William J. Hughes Technical Center (Atlantic City, NJ)
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- 14996
- Response Due
- 9/6/2013
- Archive Date
- 9/6/2013
- Point of Contact
- Nicole Saiauskie, nicole.saiauskie@faa.gov, Phone: 609-485-4781
- E-Mail Address
-
Click here to email Nicole Saiauskie
(nicole.saiauskie@faa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Single Source Announcement High efficient and accurate computational methodologies and tools for damage-tolerance based aircraft reliability assessment. A full and open competition is not available for this procurement. If your firm does not agree with the single source determination, please provide evidence of your firm s capabilities and experience in providing the below service, the FAA will evaluate this accordingly. All responses to this announcement must be directed to Nicole Saiauskie, no later than 5pm EST on September 6, 2013. Purpose of the Announcement: In accordance with the FAA Acquisition Management System (FAAAMS) paragraph 3.2.2.4, to inform industry of the basis of the FAA s decision to contract with a selected source via single source procedures. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) William J. Hughes Technical Center (WJHTC) proposes to award single source contract to CompRel, Inc. The damage-tolerance concept has been universally used by the aircraft industry for design and maintenance of safety-critical structural components. As part of the continuing effort to ensure aircraft safety, the FAA has investigated state of the art damage-tolerance methodologies. Most recently, the FAA has funded contracts to develop new probabilistic damage-tolerance analysis tools. These tools will be available in the near future to assess the reliability of a number of aircrafts that require timely attention. To check against safety requirements, it is necessary to assess very small probability of failure (e.g., one in 10 million per flight) using a damage-tolerance model and associated data. The adoption of accurate models has resulted in excessive computer time. Furthermore, a key component of the damage-tolerance methodology is to employ inspection and maintenance strategies to sustain reliability throughout the life cycle. With this added component, the analysis time tends to grow exponentially, making reliability assessment too slow to make timely decisions. While approximate and faster methods exist, their accuracies are inconsistent and cannot be relied on with confidence. Therefore, the FAA s requirement for a solution method that on average is at least a thousand times faster than the conventional method and still sufficiently accurate - error controlled to 5 % or less. This new project/requirement will need a source who can provide a satisfactory solution within 18 months, in order to support the anticipated probabilistic damage-tolerance analysis work. CompRel, Inc. has been identified as the only source with the demonstrated capability to meet this objective. CompRel has recently completed an FAA-funded project ( Damage Tolerance based Maintenance Planning of Aircraft Structures subjected to Stochastic Process Random Effects ), and developed an aircraft reliability analysis approach that features (1) an innovative smart-sampling scheme for speed, and (2) an error-controlled algorithm for high accuracy. Although the developed approach requires additional algorithmic tuning and minor enhancements, the core of the approach has been demonstrated to be capable of meeting our requirements of treating practical issues that involve time-dependent correlated-strengths, while incorporating both gradual and abrupt strength-changing events (such as maintenance and impact damage effects). For these requirements, no prior methods could achieve the required level of speed and consistent accuracy. The only other known approach that is fast but less accurate is limited to three variables, which would severely constraints the range of candidate models. In contrast, CompRel s approach has no limitations in the number of variables. This flexibility allows any available damage-tolerance models to be used. If any other methodology or tool is utilized, it would be expected to require more time and effort, and to have a significantly decreased likelihood of success and repeated work. Because CompRel personnel developed the only method proven to meet the FAA stringent requirements of accuracy and reduced computational requirements, they are the only known source that can meet the FAAs requirements. No other subject matter experts in the field have a deep knowledge of the method. Using any other source, this field would need at least 6-12 months to become familiar enough with the method to even begin research. Furthermore, use of unproven sources and their methodology and tools represents an unacceptable risk to the FAA. No other source is capable of accomplishing the tasks specified at this time. All responses to this announcement must be directed to Nicole.Saiauskie@faa.gov no later than 5pm EST on September 6, 2013. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted. If you're viewing this announcement from a source other than Federal Aviation Administration Contract Opportunities (FAACO), visit https://faaco.faa.gov/index.cfm/announcement/view/14996 to view the original announcement.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOT/FAA/WJHTC/14996/listing.html)
- Record
- SN03169336-W 20130831/130830001326-0b4ea4f4f70d5b7a9f852947daf5bde1 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |