ONHS Report: DARPA-PA-25-07-05

Liquid Surge

Solicitation ID: DARPA-PA-25-07-05

Agency: DARPA/DSO

Type: Solicitation

Deadline: 2026-12-14T16:00:00 ET

Eligibility: Maybe (Team Member/MIPR)

Funding: Total award value limited to $995,000, with the Phase 1 amount not to exceed $550,000 and the Phase 2 amount not to exceed $445,000.

Doc Type: BAA

Clearance: CUI

Program Manager: LiquidSurge@darpa.mil

Last Updated: 2026-10-15 16:03

Analyzed File: DARPA-PA-25-07-05.pdf

Eligibility Reasoning

DARPA, under this solicitation, will not award separate contracts to FFRDCs as prime or subawardees but will instead leverage their existing sponsors' agreements. ... any proposal submitted directly by these entities in a prime contractor capacity may be deemed non-conforming and not evaluated. Proposals that include a... FFRDC... as a subcontractor... price proposals must exclude their funding, as DARPA will not fund them through the prime.

Note: This is an AI-generated summary...

Summary

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) 'Liquid Surge' program is a Disruption Opportunity focused on advancing the fundamental understanding, predictive modeling, and metrology of transient wave phenomena in compressible fluids under challenging conditions. The program mandates a dual-thrust approach, requiring proposers to concurrently develop: 1) innovative prototype experimental hardware for diagnosing and validating wave propagation in pressurized liquids, and 2) a novel, physics-based computational prediction tool to model the coupled thermodynamic and mechanical fluid behavior across scales. The effort is structured as an 18-month, two-phase project (Phase 1: Feasibility, Phase 2: Proof of Concept) with a total award value up to $995,000. Performers are expected to meet increasingly stringent technical metrics for operating conditions (pressure, temperature, wave Mach number), measurement accuracy, and prediction error, ultimately delivering prototype hardware designs and a standalone computational tool.

Overall Technical Areas

Wave Propagation in Compressible FluidsNovel Metrology DevelopmentTransient Wave PhenomenaCoupled Thermodynamic ProcessesExperimental Fluid DiagnosticsNon-Intrusive Sensing TechniquesPhysics-Based Predictive ModelingMultiscale Computational MethodsKinetic Theory SimulationsComputational Fluid DynamicsHigh-Performance ComputingExperimental Model ValidationMicrofluidics and MicroreactorsUncertainty Quantification

Probable LBNL Areas

BSACSAEESAESAETAPSA

Focus Areas

Example Priorities:

This thrust seeks innovative prototype wave diagnostic hardware demonstrators to characterize transient phenomena in pressurized liquid media under controlled conditions.
Efforts should generate reliable measurements that support validation of predictive models and improve understanding of coupled fluid mechanical and thermodynamic behavior.
What non-intrusive sensing techniques can characterize relevant transient responses with sufficient temporal fidelity while minimizing interference with the phenomena under study?
DARPA encourages proposers to consider methods that take advantage of scale invariant properties of these dynamics to increase the rate of data collection and reduce burdens of large facilities and equipment.
Examples include, but are not limited to, miniature shock-tube solutions (Udagawa, 2011), cavitation-on-a-chip devices (Rokhsar Talabazar, 2021) or high-pressure and temperature microreactors (Marre, 2010).

Specific Technical Skills:

Experimental Fluid DynamicsWave Propagation MetrologyNon-intrusive DiagnosticsHigh-Pressure SystemsShock Tube DesignMicrofluidicsThermodynamic MeasurementSensor DevelopmentData Acquisition SystemsModel Validation

Potential PIs for this Area:

Name	Score	Organization
Simo Makiharju	0.77	ETA \| Energy Analysis \| Systems & Energy Tech Analysis · Experimental Fluid Dynamics
Amy Herr	0.76	BSA \| Biological Systems & Engineering \| Process Engr & Analytics · Microfluidics
Joelle Frechette	0.75	ETA \| Energy Technologies and Systems \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Thermodynamic Measurement
Han Lee	0.74	PSA \| Engineering \| Electronic Engineering · Data Acquisition Systems
Holger Mueller	0.74	BSA \| Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging \| Structural Biology Dept · Wave Propagation Metrology
Noel Keen	0.74	EESA \| CESD \| Earth System Sciences · High-Pressure Systems
Aaron Lattanzi	0.74	CSA \| AMCR \| Applied Mathematics · Shock Tube Design
Guanjing Lin	0.74	ETA \| Building & Industrial Energy Systems \| Whole Building Sys Dept · Non-intrusive Diagnostics
Carl Blumstein	0.73	ETA \| Building & Industrial Energy Systems \| Whole Building Sys Dept · Model Validation
Stephen Holland	0.73	PSA \| PHY \| Detector Development · Sensor Development

Example Priorities:

To interpret experimental findings and improve predictive capability, this thrust focuses on the development of a novel computational prediction tool able to capture the coupled fluid mechanical and thermodynamic behavior across relevant spatial and temporal scales.
Improving predictive capability will require advanced multiscale computational methods that capture relevant fluid behavior across appropriate spatial and temporal scales.
How can computational approaches represent transient molecular-scale and thermophysical processes associated with transient wave phenomena?
What theoretical frameworks can translate microscale and mesoscale behaviors into reliable continuum-scale model representations?
The tool should be a standalone software solution that can be executed on commonly available high-performance computing platforms (CPU or GPU)...

Specific Technical Skills:

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)Multiscale ModelingPhysics-Based SimulationKinetic TheoryMolecular DynamicsThermophysical ModelingHigh-Performance Computing (HPC)Numerical MethodsSoftware DevelopmentContinuum Mechanics

Potential PIs for this Area:

Name	Score	Organization
Erich Strohmaier	0.77	CSA \| AMCR \| Computer Science · High-Performance Computing (HPC)
Aaron Lattanzi	0.76	CSA \| AMCR \| Applied Mathematics · Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
Per-Olof Persson	0.76	CSA \| AMCR \| Mathematics · Numerical Methods
Gregory Lemieux	0.76	EESA \| CESD \| Earth System Sciences · Software Development
Pramod Bhuvankar	0.75	EESA \| EG \| Hydrogeology Dept · Thermophysical Modeling
Piotr Zarzycki	0.75	EESA \| EG \| Geochemistry Dept · Molecular Dynamics
Ahmad Omar	0.74	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Kinetic Theory
Mohammad Kaazem Pur Mofrad	0.74	BSA \| Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging \| Structural Biology Dept · Multiscale Modeling
Tarek Zohdi	0.74	PSA \| Engineering \| Engineering Division Office · Continuum Mechanics
Anthony Ciavarella	0.73	CSA \| AMCR \| Computer Science · Physics-Based Simulation

Potential LBNL PIs (Overall)

Note on PI Matching: These suggestions are generated through an AI-driven semantic analysis of LBNL staff profiles.

Name	Score	Organization
Simo Makiharju	0.78	ETA \| Energy Analysis \| Systems & Energy Tech Analysis · Experimental Fluid Diagnostics
Aaron Lattanzi	0.77	CSA \| AMCR \| Applied Mathematics · Computational Fluid Dynamics
Lisa Claus	0.76	CSA \| NERSC \| Sci Eng & Workflows Department · High-Performance Computing
Ian Lacey	0.76	ESA \| ALS \| Photon Science Development · Novel Metrology Development
Amy Herr	0.76	BSA \| Biological Systems & Engineering \| Process Engr & Analytics · Microfluidics and Microreactors
Steven Pride	0.75	EESA \| EG \| Geophysics Dept · Wave Propagation in Compressible Fluids
Jon Wilkening	0.75	CSA \| AMCR \| Mathematics · Transient Wave Phenomena
Tarek Zohdi	0.75	PSA \| Engineering \| Engineering Division Office · Multiscale Computational Methods
Kevin G Knauss	0.74	EESA \| EG \| Geochemistry Dept · Coupled Thermodynamic Processes
Zhe Bai	0.74	CSA \| AMCR \| Computer Science · Physics-Based Predictive Modeling

Fundamental Research Exemption (FRE)

Based on the anticipated type of proposer (e.g., university or industry) and the nature of the solicited work, the Government expects that some awards will include restrictions on the resultant research that will require the awardee to seek DARPA permission before publishing any information or results relative to the program.