LS-DYNA Software Maintenance License Renewal

The Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, MA is procuring LS-DYNA software maintenance license renewal services on behalf of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to support ongoing finite element analysis for rail equipment crashworthiness engineering projects. The government intends to award this procurement on a sole source basis to Ansys, Inc., as they are the specified vendor for software maintenance on the existing LS-DYNA licenses. The procurement is necessary to maintain thirty-five site license keys for LS-DYNA Finite Element Analysis software, which is uniquely capable of modeling all required Anthropomorphic Test Devices specified in American Public Transportation Association safety standards. Market research conducted from June to December 2019 confirmed that LS-DYNA is the only software meeting these specialized requirements, making translation to alternative software time-intensive and prohibitively expensive. The anticipated award date is June 24, 2025, which also serves as the response deadline for this pre-solicitation notice.

This procurement does not utilize any set-aside designations and specifically targets Ansys, Inc. as the sole source vendor for the maintenance services. The contract involves maintaining thirty-five permanent license keys that were originally purchased in 2020, with the current maintenance requirement covering the period from the date of award through June 11, 2026. The procurement falls under NAICS code 513210 for Software Publishers and PSC category DA10 for IT and Telecom Business Application/Application Development Software as a Service. The sole source justification emphasizes the critical nature of maintaining these specialized licenses to continue supporting FRA's rail safety engineering projects without interruption. No award value or budget range has been disclosed in the pre-solicitation materials.