A--Testing Facilities

The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD), requires the services of an experimental sediment basin to aid in determining the flow stream lines beneath nuclear aircraft carriers (CVN).Using Simplified Acquisition Procedures, NSWCCD intends to negotiate a non-competitive procurement with Texas A&M University and award a firm-fixed price purchase order under the authority provided in FAR 6.302-1 -- Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements. The NSWC Carderock Division has generated, through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) the streamlines from the sea chest at the baseline of the nuclear aircraft carrier (CVN) when it is transiting in a channel under - deadstick mode. The CFD streamlines have been formulated for a non-deformable bed. It is thought that the streamlines of the outflow sea chests will be altered due to deformation in the sediment of the channel bottom. There is also a need to know how much sediment will be entrained in the water column. In order to validate this CFD output, Carderock Division requires the services of an experimental sediment basin to aid in determining the flow stream lines beneath the CVN. The objectives of the experiment are threefold. First, the results of the experiment will be used to determine the amount of bed deformation due to a jet of water impinging on the bottom. The second objective is to determine the amount of sediment entrainment in the water column due to the impinging jet. Third, the experiment will help determine the change in both the jet's flow rate and The experiments needed by the Carderock Division require a basin with a towing carriage that can be outfitted with a 5 inch diameter nozzle to generate a jet that will impinge on a bed composed of fine sand. The towing carriage must be able to travel at least 2 meters per second on a rail above the basin controlled by a computer for consistent carriage speeds with each run. The basin must have viewing ports for taking videos of each run, capability to measure the jet velocities both near the jet nozzle and at the sediment bed with an acoustic Doppler velocimeter with a sampling rate of 20 Hz and a particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) technique. The laboratory must also be able to measure the changes in the sediment bed due to the jet. The sediment pit must be long enough and deep enough to ensure the veracity of the experiments measuring at least 25 feet long and 5 feet deep. The basin itself should be at least 150 feet long and 12 feet wide to ensure the carriage will be up t! o speed over the sediment pit, which is the test section, and have enough room to slow down to a stop after the test section. The Haynes Coastal Engineering Laboratory at the Texas A&M University fits all the required attributes for the NSWC Carderock Division test. Its dimensions for the experimental basin are within the range, and it is the only facility in the United States with the ability to place a support structure on it's carriage for mounting the 5 inch diameter jet nozzle and operate the carriage at speeds up to 2 m/s with a sediment pit. Other facilities with towing capability are either not equipped with a deep sediment pit or the carriage cannot support the payload. All responsible sources submitting offers will be considered. A determination by the Government not to compete with this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Interested parties may forward their capabilities statements to the Government POC on or before 07/14/2006.