NMDC Opens Marine Testing Facility in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi-based engineering company NMDC Dredging and Marine, a subsidiary of NMDC Group, has inaugurated the NMDC Coastal and Hydrodynamic Center, which it describes as the region’s first commercial hydraulic physical modelling facility for advanced marine and coastal testing. Unveiled during ‘Make it in the Emirates 2026’, the facility is designed to provide local testing and validation capabilities for coastal and offshore infrastructure projects, reducing reliance on international laboratories and supporting faster project delivery and cost control. The centre allows engineers to simulate and assess the impact of waves, tides and currents on infrastructure including ports, breakwaters, sea walls and offshore structures. Using scaled physical models that replicate real-world environments, the facility captures data on wave forces, pressures and structural response to validate how structures are expected to perform at full scale. The facility includes a 3D wave basin and a 2D wave flume equipped with digital wave-generation systems capable of stress-testing both fixed and floating structures under severe operational and environmental conditions. According to NMDC Dredging and Marine, the centre’s capabilities cover the full project lifecycle, from foundational research to large-scale project validation. Testing areas include wave transformation, overtopping dynamics, sediment transport, hydro-erosion and port optimisation across different navigational conditions. The centre was constructed entirely by NMDC Infra, the construction subsidiary of NMDC Group, as part of the company’s wider engineering and delivery ecosystem. NMDC Dredging and Marine stated that the facility positions the UAE alongside major hydraulic modelling centres across Europe, North America and Asia, describing it as the first integrated commercial laboratory of its scale in the Middle East and West Asia.