Advanced Structures & Composites Center

An article titled, “Wood–Plastic Composite Technology,” authored by Dr. Douglas Gardner, Dr. Yousoo Han, and graduate student Lu Wang, has been published in the June 2015 Current Forestry Reports. This article is part of the Topical Collection on Wood Structure and Function. Click to view the article, here. The abstract reads: “Wood–plastic composites (WPCs) are […]

Lu Wang is pursuing his Ph.D. in Cellulose Nanofibril-Reinforced Plastics at the University of Maine under advisement of Dr. Douglas Gardner. Their team hopes to produce a 3D printed plastic, combined with Maine nanocellulose, that can compete with industrial synthetic plastics currently on the market. Typically carbon fiber or glass is used in industrial plastics. These […]

A paper titled, “Hydrodynamic Module Coupling in the Offshore Wind Energy Simulation (OWENS) Toolkit,” co-authored graduate student Matthew Fowler, Dr. Andrew Goupee, and others, was awarded the OMAE 2014 Best Paper of Ocean Renewable Energy Symposium. The paper was written in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories, Texas A&M University, the University of Maine, and the […]

The University of Maine’s Composites Arch Bridge System, commonly known as “Bridge-In-A-BackpackTM,” was featured in the cover story of Plastics Engineering May 2015. The article titled, “Reinforced Plastics Move into Non-Traditional Markets,” was written Peggy Malnati. Click here to view the full article (PDF). An excerpt from the article follows: Composites for Rapid Bridge Replacement With increasingly unpredictable […]

“Maine’s abundant natural resources have supported various manufacturing industries over the years, most notably the paper industry. But the paper industry doesn’t have the economic impact it once did and people have been talking about other industries that would create jobs in communities like Millinocket, East Millinocket, Bucksport and Lincoln, all of which have lost […]

Dr. Juana Doménech Subirán has joined the UMaine Composites Center for the summer from La Rioja, Spain. She holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering from University of País Vasco. Subirán’s current research interest is centered around passive houses, which is a building standard that reduces energy consumption. Passive house standards aim to reduce energy consumption by 60-80% through improved materials and […]

The University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center has received a $497,965 award from the National Institutes of Standards and Technology for mapping technical manufacturing challenges in structural thermoplastic materials. UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, in collaboration with Celanese Corporation, Eastman Chemical Company, Polystrand and Royal TenCate, will launch CMIST — the Consortium […]

Several undergraduate student employees at the UMaine Composites Center are presenting their senior capstone projects in Mechanical Engineering today at Crosby Lab. Each capstone team, under the direction of Michael “Mick” Peterson Jr., Ph.D., Professor, has created a website detailing their capstone project. Congratulations to Professor Peterson and all of the participating Mechanical Engineering students. […]

The UMaine Composites Center has been awarded $351,092 by the Maine Technology Institute through the Maine Technology Asset Fund to add two additional pieces of equipment to the W2 Wind-Wave Basin, currently under construction. The equipment, an automated tow carriage and a floating floor to create variable water depths, will enhance model testing capabilities of Maine-based technologies in the boat building, […]