V3332114_SSJ_Signed_Redacted.pdf

This document is a Sole Source SAP Justification from the Department of Transportation's Volpe National Transportation Systems Center for procuring software maintenance licenses. The procurement involves purchasing thirty-five (35) site license keys for LS-DYNA Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software to support ongoing engineering projects related to rail equipment crashworthiness for the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

Market research conducted from June to December 2019 determined that LS-DYNA is the only software capable of modeling all required Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATDs) specified in American Public Transportation Association (APTA) safety standards. As of March 2025, Ansys is specified as the sole vendor for software maintenance on these LS-DYNA licenses. The justification notes that translating these specialized models to different software would be time-intensive and prohibitively expensive, thereby necessitating a sole source procurement. The 35 permanent license keys were originally purchased in 2020, and annual software maintenance is now required.