SOW Wind PreStandard Final.docx

STATEMENT OF WORK

DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPUTATIONAL WIND ENGINEERING PRE-STANDARD FOR USE OF COMPUTATIONAL WIND ENGINEERING IN BUILDING DESIGN

A. Background The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Engineering Laboratory (EL) has a long history of research and development and providing innovative solutions in wind engineering for windstorm impact reduction. More recently it has been focusing on developing and applying innovative Computational Wind Engineering (CWE) and Performance-Based Design for Wind (PBWD) methodologies as part of its research roadmap to advance the nation’s measurement science in wind engineering. Specifically, the use of CWE in the built environment has become more common over the past two decades, both in academia and industry. Industry practitioners working in the built environment are more frequently looking to CWE tools to support design. Given the low-cost barrier for entry to CWE and the lack of consistency in modelling approaches, absence of guidance and limited prevalence of peer reviews, there is a growing lack of trust in the industry around the outcomes produced by some forms of CWE. This can be seen through codes and standards around the world (such as the ASCE7-22 and NBCC-20) not permitting the use of CWE for design at present. Thus, currently the results of a CWE study must be verified by running costly wind tunnel experiments to provide validation of the results.

The more wide-spread use of CWE in practice is currently limited by the lack of standards to ensure consistency in its use. This is compounded by the limited validation and verification of the results to provide confidence in the use of CWE to produce results that can be used in design. To address the potential for industry adoption of CWE it is critical to assemble a team of experts in CWE across academia and industry, with experience in writing Pre-standards, who can outline the necessary approach to utilization of CWE in building design.

During the recent NIST-sponsored workshop for the Advancements of Computational Wind Engineering, the development of this Pre-standard was the No. 1 Priority identified by the participants as being needed to advance CWE into practice.

It is envisioned that the Pre-standard for the Use of Computational Wind Engineering in Building Design will provide the technical basis for consistent CWE results by prescribing the required mathematical modeling requirements for the wind flow and building parameters and boundary conditions for the wind-structure interaction. Additionally, the Pre-standard will provide the minimum requirements for monitoring and reporting of the flow conditions in the computational domain. Having these provisions documented and verified from known wind tunnel studies will allow practitioners and CWE users to have confidence in the use of CWE and move this tool into practice. This Pre-standard will be performance-based, not prescriptive.

The purpose of this requirement is to obtain contractor support services to convene a group of world-leading experts in CWE, computational model validation and verification techniques, and in developing national standards, for development of the Pre-standard for the Use of CWE in Building Design in the U.S. The Pre-standard will establish provisions which, when adhered to, enable CWE building scale simulations to appropriately simulate wind pressures and wind flows in the built environment, from both a mean and peak perspective. This work will build the trust needed across the community of academia, practitioners, and regulatory agencies to enable CWE to become more widely accepted and relied upon in practice.

Additionally, the potential power of CWE to allow for the investigation of real-life conditions that cannot be modeled in a wind tunnel, (e.g. high Reynolds Number conditions, dense urban environments where blockage effects are of a concern, etc.) cannot be negated. Unlocking this potential is a further goal of this effort.

B. SCOPE OF WORK

The Contractor shall identify and convene a panel of national experts in CWE to form a Project Team and develop a framework and recommended outline for the Pre-standard for Use of CWE in Building Design, including appropriate computational modeling techniques, validation and verification methodologies, selection of boundary conditions, and output requirements. The Pre-standard shall be developed using mandatory language that can be used by academia and design professionals in their practice. The Pre-standard shall address external environmental concerns such as pollutant dispersion and pedestrian comfort and safety as well as large scale numerical weather modelling, such as characterizing the Santa Ana winds. The scope of the work shall cover the basic framework for a ‘building scale model’ where CWE could answer questions around flow conditions, pedestrian wind comfort and safety concerns, and wind pressure loading for a building. Finally, the Pre-standard shall establish the baseline conditions for ensuring that CWE simulations are conducted respecting the physical characteristics of wind, while highlighting provisions around acceptable assumptions and experimental fundamentals that can be used in simulations. Section C below describes the specific tasks necessary to meet the above stated Scope of Work.

C. Specific Tasks

(1) Task 1: The Contractor shall appoint:

- A Project Director (PD) who shall serve as the Principal Investigator and have overall responsibility for completion of the Pre-standard. The PD shall be key personnel.

- A Project Technical Director (PTD) who shall serve as Co-Principal Investigator for the project. The PTD shall be key personnel.

- A Project Manager (PM) who shall be key personnel

- A Project Steering Committee (PSC) that is comprised of a panel of three eminently qualified academic and practicing experts in different aspects of CWE to work with the PD, PTD, and PM to oversee the technical development of the CWE Pre-standard.

The Contractor shall consider experience; expertise; and geographic, gender, and ethnic diversity in selecting the PD, PTD, PM, and PSC members. All selections shall be made in consultation with the NIST Contracting Officer Representative (COR). The Contractor shall also include representatives from NIST as ex-officio members of the PSC.

(2) Task 2: The Contractor - through the PD, PTD, PM, and PSC - shall confer with the NIST COR to develop a draft general Pre-standard outline that includes all relevant chapter topics. The Contractor shall also confer with the NIST COR to select a Peer Review Panel (PRP) that is comprised of up to three leading CWE and structural and wind engineering experts, with due consideration to subject matter expertise, geographic balance, academic and professional activities, and track record in similar projects, for review of the draft Pre-standard outline. The Contractor shall respond to the PRP comments and develop the final general Pre-standard outline and submit to NIST for final review and approval.

(3) Task 3: The Contractor - through the PD, PTD, PM, and PSC - shall confer with the NIST COR to select a Project Writing Team (PWT) for the chapters included in the final general Pre-standard outline. The PWT shall include up to six Primary Chapter Authors and up to six Secondary Chapter Authors, and PWT members shall be selected with due consideration to subject matter expertise, geographic balance, academic and professional activities, and track record in similar projects. The Primary Chapter Authors are responsible for completion of the individual chapters, and the Secondary Chapter Authors are to work with the Primary Authors and provide specific written input in areas of specialized expertise.

(4) Task 4: The Contractor - through the PD, PTD, PM, and PSC - shall convene a meeting with the PWT (Primary and Secondary Chapter Authors) to develop a refined, detailed Pre-standard outline, with a detailed Table of Content (TOC), and make final writing assignments and completion deadlines for individual sections of the TOC. The detailed Pre-standard outline with TOC shall be submitted to the NIST COR for review and approval.

(5) Task 5: The Contractor shall confer with the NIST COR to convene three (3) one-day project status review meetings with the project team (which includes the PD, PTD, PM, PSC, and PWT) to discuss overall progress and address any technical and/or logical issues within each individual chapter and between chapters of the overall Pre-standard that had surfaced and become known during the writing process. The three project status review meetings include:

5.1 – The 50% completion review.

5.2 – The 80% completion review, and

5.3 – The 100% completion review.

(6) Task 6: After addressing the comments received from the 100% completion review, the Contractor shall develop the draft final Pre-standard that is also compliant with typical standard languages and submit to NIST and to the PRP for review.

(7) Task 7: After receiving review comments from NIST and the PRP, the Contractor shall incorporate the comments as appropriate and required to ensure general consensus of the PWT and produce the final Pre-standard for NIST final review.

(8) Task 8: After final NIST review and approval, the Contractor shall develop a plan for publication and wide distribution of the approved Pre-standard as an electronic document that is freely available for download to the practicing wind engineering community as well as to the public.

D. DELIVERABLES AND DELIVERABLE DUE DATES

The Contractor shall submit the following deliverables to the NIST COR within the required due dates indicated in the Table below:

E. Payment Schedule Payments are expected to be made by NIST to the Contractor in four equal installments per the below schedule:

· First installment: At completion of Task 2.2

· Second installment: At completion of Task 5.1

· Third installment: At completion of Task 6

· Fourth and final installment: At completion of Task 8 The Contractor may propose an alternate payment schedule for consideration.

F. Period of Performance and Place of Performance All work supporting this purchase order shall be completed within 24 months of purchase order award. The estimated award date is early July 2024.

Work shall be performed at the Contractor’s facility.

G. Government-Furnished Property, Data, and/or Information No Government-furnished property, data, or other information is involved. The Contractor shall have no access to NIST facilities or information technology systems.

All deliverables generated under this requirement remain the property of the Government.

H. TRAVEL COSTS

The Contractor is required to travel for the meetings prescribed in this Statement of Work. The Contractor shall be responsible for the travel expenses of its personnel, including the non-Government members of the PSC, PWT, and PRP, who attend these meetings.

The Contractor shall be reimbursed in accordance with the Federal Travel regulation. The Contractor shall not exceed a negotiated funding ceiling for travel. All travel shall be approved in advance by the COR.

I. Key Personnel Minimum Qualifications Key personnel minimum qualification requirements are as follows:

1. One (1) Project Director (PD) who shall serve as the Principal Investigator and have overall responsibility for completion of the Pre-standard. The PD shall be a recognized practicing structural and wind engineer who has experience in code, standards, and pre-standards development and strong ties to the wind and structural engineering research communities and codes and standards development organizations.

2. One (1) Project Technical Director (PTD) who shall serve as Co-Principal Investigator for the project and have extensive experience in both wind tunnel testing and development of application of CWE techniques as can be demonstrated by peer-reviewed research records and publications.

3. One (1) Project Manager (PM) who shall provide project management skill, deep knowledge of the standard development process, and additional structural engineering expertise to ensure the project team is properly organized and focused and the CWE Pre-standard is successfully and timely completed. The PM shall have a minimum of 5 years of experience in managing a standards development team and a structural engineering background.

J. References:

(1) Advancements in Computational Wind Engineering: Workshop Report, NIST GCR 23-047 DOI: https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.GCR.23-047, November 2023, Reston, VA

(2) Pre-standard for Performance-Based Wind Design, American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, Virginia, 2019.

(3) Computational wind engineering: Past achievements and future challenges, Theodore Stathopoulos, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Volumes 67-68, Pages 509-532, April-June 1997.

(4) Strategic Plan for the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program, NIST, 2017

(5) Measurement Science R&D Roadmap for Windstorm and Coastal Inundation Impact Reduction, Coulbourne et. al., 2014