Training and On-Call Technical Support for OpenSeesPy

Title Training and On-Call Technical Support for OpenSeesPy Synopsis The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) intends to award a non-competitive, firm fixed price purchase order to Oregon State University (OSU), School of Civil & Construction Engineering, 1491 SW Campus Way, Corvallis, OR 97331 for the project entitled “Training and On-Call Technical Support for OpenSeesPy.” The acquisition is conducted under the authority of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 13.106-1(b) which provides that contracting officers may solicit from one source if the contracting officer determines that the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available (e.g., urgency, exclusive licensing agreements, brand-name or industrial mobilization). The designated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 541715 - Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences. The anticipated period of performance is one year. Background U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) requested Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) to conduct confirmatory research and develop technical bases in four technical areas, as described below, to inform the update of Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.92, “Combining Modal Responses and Spatial Components in Seismic Response Analysis,” and RG 1.122, “Development of Floor Design Response Spectra for Seismic Design of Floor-Supported Equipment or Components.” RG 1.92 and RG 1.122 provides methods that the staff considers acceptable to meet General Design Criterion (GDC) 2, “Design Bases for Protection against Natural Phenomena,” of Appendix A, “General Design Criteria for Nuclear Power Plants,” to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 50, “Domestic Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities.” Under this user need work, RES staff will perform research to address the following four technical areas: • Technical issues raised with respect to the applicability of methods in RG 1.92 to typical hard rock, high frequency seismic ground motion response spectra shapes at sites in the Central and Eastern United States; • Technical issues related to the 100-40-40 rule in RG 1.92 for combining responses due to the three orthogonal components of the ground motions; • Clarity of the guidance and gaps related to the closely spaced modes for certain combinatorial methods in the current RG 1.92; and • Evaluation and update of RG 1.122 to replace the peak widening method, which is considered outdated, with methods that can better capture uncertainties in the in-structure response spectra. The resolution of these issues requires complex stochastic simulations of multiple structural and component models using many input time histories. The resultant insights from these analyses will inform the update of the regulatory positions in RGs 1.92 and 1.122. In order to execute these analyses efficiently and effectively, the RES staff has identified OpenSeesPy, a Python version of OpenSees, as an essential tool for the staff to perform the planned analyses. OpenSeesPy allows the staff to take the full advantages of the well-known OpenSees program and the powerful Python capabilities that are already available to all NRC staff. OpenSees (the Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation) is an object-oriented software framework created during the National Science Foundation-sponsored era (1997-2007) of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center. OpenSees allows users to create finite element applications for simulating the response of structural and geotechnical systems subjected to earthquakes. OpenSees and OpenSeesPy are free to use for educational, research and noncommercial purposes. Objective The objective of this acquisition is to obtain technical assistance to (1) develop and deliver two short courses to the staff so the staff can use OpenSeesPy in the confirmatory research described above, and (2) set up a technical support agreement to help resolve potential issues the staff may run into during model development and analysis execution using OpenSeesPy. Contact This Notice of Intent is NOT a request for proposal NOR a solicitation of offers; however, if any interested party believes they can meet the above requirements, it may submit a statement of capabilities. The statement of capabilities must be submitted in writing and must contain material in sufficient detail to allow the government to determine if the party can perform the requirements. Additionally, in order to perform work for the NRC potential sources must be free of organizational conflict of interest (OCOI). For information on the NRC COI regulations, visit NRC Acquisition Regulation Subpart 2009.5 (https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/contracting/48cfr-ch20.html). A determination not to compete this proposed procurement based on responses to the notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. All interested parties must express their interest and capabilities in writing via email to Geoffrey H. Coleman, Contracting Officer via e-mail at [email protected] no later than April 25, 2022 by 4:00 P.M. Eastern Time (i.e. 15 calendar days from the date this announcement was posted).