U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Acquisition and Grants Services, RAD-30, 400 7th Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590

A -- CRITICAL FLAW SIZE ANALYSIS -- PARAMETRIC MODELING FOR DOT SPECIFICATION TANK CAR DESIGNS SOL DTFR53-97-C-00011 DUE 072497 POC Contract Specialist, Christine Henderson, 202-632-3239/Contracting Officer, Elaine C. Duke, 202-632-3235 The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) intends to negotiate on a sole source basis with the University of South Carolina (U.S.C.) to develop procedures to predict tank car integrity. The contractor will perform literature search on present acceptance and ejection parameters for damage, defects, and/or flaws. The contractor will analyze the tank car through accepted practices such as finite element analysis in order to identify its critical parts. The contractor shall propose flaw rejection/acceptance limits and test/inspection techniques to qualify the proposed limits. In conducting the subject research activities, the contractor will be required to perform the following tasks: (1) analyze each tank car design for critical parts based on tank car failures; (2) perform a literature search of experience databases, technical associations' analyses, etc; (3) propose a validation plan to the project manager; and (4) prepare draft and final reports. U.S.C. is considered uniquely qualified to perform the proposed work based on its ownership of a facility for full, three-dimensional, surface deformation measurement which is essential to the verification of the proposed modeling methodology. The applicable authority for this announced intention is that under 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1) as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, "Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements." This task is not a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) and a competitive RFP is not available. See Note 22. (0156)

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