Trisonic Wind Tunnel Repair

Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN):

An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.

Definition of the requirement:

The National Research Council Canada (NRC), Aerodynamics Research Centre (ARC), has a requirement to repair the NRC 1.5 m Trisonic Wind Tunnel, following a system failure that resulted in the tunnel becoming inoperable.

The NRC 1.5 m Trisonic Wind Tunnel was commissioned in 1961 under the supervision of the company Dilworth-Ewbank who acted as the tunnel designer and general contractor. In October 2021, the tunnel sustained significant damage to the upper flexible nozzle assembly due to an undetected system failure, which occurred during normal operations. In order to return the facility to normal operations, the upper flexible nozzle requires sub-assembly replacement and/or repair.

The work will involve the following:

• support the evaluation of the tunnel performance due to the condition of the existing damaged flexible plate; including but not limited to, additional plate stresses during operation caused by the damage in the existing plate and optimal upper jack station screw stop offsets required to account for plastic deformation in the existing plate;
• support the procurement of components and manage all necessary sub-contractors for fabrication and installation of a new 1.5 m x 13.7 m (5 ft x 45 ft) flexible upper plate; complete shop visits at critical milestones during the fabrication process; arrange and supply all subcontractors’ on-site requirements; review subcontractors’ as-built drawings and incorporate into a final drawing package;
• provide engineering documentation including updated as-built drawings, manuals and other relevant documentation;
• develop and participate in commissioning and acceptance testing to return to normal operating conditions, including training of staff as required; calibrate the supersonic nozzle through tuning of the jack stations based on test volume experimental calibration data;

Criteria for assessment of the Statement of Capabilities (Minimum Mandatory Requirements):

Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that it meets the following requirements:

• Supplier must demonstrate experience in the successful engineering and design of at least one (1) supersonic blowdown wind tunnel that has a flexible nozzle and a test section cross-sectional area of at least 1.2 m x 1.2 m (4 ft x 4 ft) in size, within the last five (5) years;
• Supplier must demonstrate experience in procurement support, installation and construction support at site, and start-up and acceptance testing at site for at least one (1) trisonic blowdown wind tunnel facility within the last ten (10) years;
• Supplier must demonstrate knowledge and understanding of compressible flow aerodynamics, wind tunnel flexible nozzle design for supersonic flow, supersonic nozzle jack station tuning based on test volume experimental calibration data and large capital asset construction;
• Supplier must have extensive experience, at least five (5) projects with similar complexity, where client custom requirements were the main driver in the solution development. At least (2) of such projects must have been developed in a scientific and/or Research and Development environment;
• Supplier must be a licensed Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario;
• The Project team must have at least one (1) specialist and one (1) back-up in the related project areas: project management, mechanical engineering, electrical and controls engineering, and aerodynamics and process engineering;
• The project team must include at least one (1) member that has at least twenty (20) years of relevant trisonic blowdown wind tunnel design experience;
• Supplier must be capable to allocate a dedicated team to deliver on-site services at the NRC 1.5 m Trisonic Wind Tunnel, building U66 in Ottawa, ON; until the completion of the project.
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• Applicability of the trade agreement(s) to the procurement
• Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA);
• World Trade Organization - Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-AGP);
• Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA);
• Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP);
• Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA);
• Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement;
• Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement;
• Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement;
• Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement;
• Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA);
• Canada-United Kingdom Trade Continuity Agreement (Canada-UK TCA);
• Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA)

Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier:

The pre-identified supplier, Aiolos Engineering Corporation, meets all the minimum mandatory requirements in Section 3 and is an expert in the area of interest. 

Aiolos Engineering Corporation, is the latest descendent of organisations tracing their origin back to Dilworth-Ewbank, and subsequently, DSMA (Dilworth Secord Meagher & Associates). Dilworth-Ewbank was the original designer of the NRC 1.5 m Trisonic Wind Tunnel. For this reason, Aiolos Engineering Corporation has intimate knowledge of this tunnel design, and the technology upon which it is based. They also have access to original design documentation and correspondence going back more than 65 years. More recently, Aiolos Engineering Corporation has continued supporting the NRC 1.5 m Trisonic Wind Tunnel by conducting a safety review to ensure continued safe operation.

Aiolos Engineering Corporation has a wide range of experience with trisonic blowdown wind tunnels over a period of several decades, including 2 major projects currently underway. The team has a broad understanding of all applicable design, performance and operational features that has leveraged the best technologies during each project. As such, Aiolos Engineering Corporation is well positioned to assess optimal repair solutions for an older NRC 1.5 m Trisonic Wind Tunnel and leverage best practices implemented on more current designs.

Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s)
The following exception to the Government Contracts Regulations is invoked for this procurement under Part 1 Conditions of Contract Entry, subsection 6(d): Only one person is capable of performing the contract.

Exclusions and/or Limited Tendering Reasons:

The following exclusions and/or limited tendering reasons are invoked under the section of the trade agreements specified:

• Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) - Article 513.1(b) (iii);
• World Trade Organization - Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-AGP) - Article XIII 1(b) (iii);
• Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) - Article 19.12.1(b) (iii);
• Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) - Article 15.10.2(b) (iii);
• Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) - Article Kbis-09.1(b);
• Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement - Article 1409.1(b) (iii);
• Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement - Article 17.11.2 (b) (iii);
• Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement - defer to WTO-AGP Article XIII 1(b) (iii);
• Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement - Article 16.10.1(b) (iii);
• Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA) - Article 16.10.1(b) (iii);
• Canada-United Kingdom Trade Continuity Agreement (Canada-UK TCA) - defer to CETA Article 19.12.1(b) (iii); and
• Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA) - Article 16.10.1(b) (iii).

Ownership of Intellectual Property:

During the development of the project under this Advanced Contract Award Notice new intellectual property may be created to address development challenges. In the case that a foreground “technological innovation” or “technological invention” arises out of the proposed contract it will be managed as follows:

In the case that the “technological innovation” or “technological invention” is proposed and developed independently by the service provider, the Intellectual Property will vest in the service provider.

In the case that the “technological innovation” or “technological invention” is proposed and developed independently by the NRC, the Intellectual Property will vest in the NRC.

In the case that the “technological innovation” or “technological invention” is proposed by any of the two parties and co-developed in any way by a collaboration of the NRC and the service provider, the Intellectual Property will vest in the NRC and the service provider. For this case, both parties agree that a separate Intellectual Property agreement, will be made.

Period of the proposed contract or delivery date:

NRC is expecting the onsite work to take place over a 24 month period starting after the contract is awarded.

Name and address of the pre-identified supplier:

Aiolos Engineering Corporation

135 Queens Plate Drive,

Suite 300 

Toronto, Ontario, Canada,

M9W 6V1

Suppliers' right to submit a statement of capabilities:

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the goods, services or construction services described in the ACAN may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this notice on or before the closing date of this notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets each of the advertised requirements in Section 3.

Closing date for a submission of a statement of capabilities:

The closing date and time for accepting statements of capabilities is: June 01 2022

Inquiries and statements of capabilities are to be directed to:

Inquiries and statements of capabilities are to be directed to:

Name: Johnathon Gillis

Title: Contracting Authority

National Research Council Canada

Address: 1200 Montreal Road, Building M58, Ottawa Ontario K1A 0R6

Telephone: 343-552-4124

E-mail address: Johnathon.Gillis@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca