Offshore Wind Lab

Offshore Wind Lab

The 8100 m2, $160 million laboratory employs more than 260 people with expertise in large-scale and coupon-level instrumentation and testing, composites manufacturing and analysis, finite element analysis, and other modeling techniques. UMaine Composites Center faculty and staff may be engaged to jointly develop products or may be contracted to fabricate and test composite or concrete products.

The OWL

In 2011, the Center officially opened the OWL, adding structural testing of blades, towers, and foundation components up to 230 feet in length to its list of capabilities. This expansion was the first building on campus to receive LEED Gold certification.

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John Arimond

John Arimond

Business Development Manager

Blade Testing

  • 605 m2 strongfloor 
  • Blade lengths up to 70 m 
  • Reaction wall static capacity > 30,000 kN·m 
  • Reaction wall fatigue capacity > 20,000 kN·m 
  • MTS FlexDAC and AeroPro testing systems 
  • Six winch frames with 130 kN static capacity 
  • Servohydraulic actuators to 2000 kN capacity 
  • MTS inertial resonance excitation systems 
  • Complete fixturing and instrumentation services

IEC 34100-23 Wind Blade Testing

  • Blade lengths up to 70 m
  • Static proof loads to > 30,000 kN·m
  • Up to seven simultaneous load points at 130 kN
  • Fatigue loads to > 20,000 kN·m
  • Natural frequency and damping measurements
  • Blade rotation system with >150 kN·m brake system
  • Digital image correlation to characterize surface buckling
  • Rolling ultrasonic probe to inspect adhesive joints
  • Finite element analysis in ANSYS or ABAQUS
  • Nonlinear material modeling including impact and fatigue
  • Multiphysics simulation in LS-DYNA
  • Aeroelastic wind turbine analysis in FAST
  • Hydrostatic design and damage stability analysis in GHS
  • Hydrodynamic analysis in Multisurf, WAMIT, and Aqwa
  • Coupled analyses, floating offshore wind focus

Hastest Solutions Environmental Test Chamber

Capable of simulating the extreme temperatures and other conditions of offshore environments, this chamber can be outfitted with load frames and actuators to apply loads to your components during testing.

  • Door opening 4.3 m x 4.25 m high
  • Temperature range -40 to +50°C
  • – Uniformity ±3.0°C, constancy ±0.2°C
  • Relative humidity range 20% to 95%
  • – Uniformity ±5%, constancy ±2.5%
  • Ramp rate in thermal cycling ±10°C per hour