UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center

The organization's logo as of 2012

The Advanced Structures and Composites Center is an independent research unit at the University of Maine that provides research, education, and economic development encompassing material sciences, manufacturing and engineering of composites and structures.

Alfond W2 Ocean Engineering Lab
The Alfond W2 Ocean Engineering Lab at the UMaine Composites Center is a unique facility equipped with a high-performance rotating wind machine over a wave basin. The facility can simulate 1000+ year return period wind and wave conditions, representing some of the worst storms possible anywhere on earth at 1:50 scale.[1]

The center was founded in 1996 with support from the National Science Foundation by Dr. Habib Dagher, P.E. Annually, the center employs a staff of 180, inclusive of 140 undergraduate and graduate students from a range of academic backgrounds.[2]

The center is housed in a 100,000 square feet (9,300 square meters), ISO 17025 testing laboratory accredited by the International Accreditation Service.[3]

In 2014, the center was designated as a "Signature Research Area" of the University of Maine.[4]

The center has gained national and international recognition for major research and development projects such as the VolturnUS 1:8, the first grid-connected floating offshore wind turbine in the US and the first in the world made out of concrete and composite materials, the inflatable composite arch bridges "Bridge-in-a-Backpack" technology now approved in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Code, the first Modular Ballistic Protection System (MBPS) approved by the US Army to protect troops in tents from blast and ballistic threats, development of coated wood technology for blast and hurricane resistant wood buildings, and the longest carbon-fiber composite vessel built for the US Navy.

  1. ^ "Alfond W2 Ocean Engineering Lab". Advanced Structures & Composites Center. University of Maine. Retrieved 2016-07-06.
  2. ^ "Who We Are". UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center. University of Maine.
  3. ^ "ISO 17025 Accreditation". Advanced Structures & Composites Center. University of Maine. Retrieved 2016-07-06.
  4. ^ "Provost Names Signature and Emerging Areas of Excellence in Research and Education". UMaine News. University of Maine. 30 June 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2016.