Concrete Canoe
What is it?
The ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition provides students a unique opportunity to gain hands-on practical experience while testing their skills with structural design, concrete mixing, and project management. Team members then get to participate in competition and race their canoe!
Teams are tasked with modeling a hull design that aligns with team preferences and regulations. The guidelines are generally broad, with the main constraint being team priorities.
Members will use CAD to model and analyze a to-scale version of the competition canoe as they prepare to create the mold. Several elements such as freeboard, shear stress, bending moment, tensile and compressive stresses, and more are calculated to determine the structural integrity of the canoe.
Structural Design
Team members are tasked with designing a lightweight concrete mix. They first must research on possible materials and mix designs while remaining within competition constraints. They then test mixes to finalize their design and build the canoe.
The mix is a unique combination of cement, water, aggregates, pozzolan, and additives each year; it is adjusted according to previous performance.
To determine mix characteristics, slump, air pot, and strength tests are performed. Cylinders of concrete are broken vertically and horizontally for compressive and tensile strengths respectively.
Concrete Design and Testing
Team members must create a project timeline, budget estimate, adhere to competition restraints, and submit a technical paper.
This includes collecting technical and safety information on materials, managing spending, delegating tasks, and tracking hours. They must also think ahead for the following year and determine best practices to improve the process.
Project Management
Meet the Team
Team Captain: Brian Karch
Mix Design Lead: Taylor Brown
Hull Design Lead: Sydney Pettit
Members and Paddlers:
Chris Daus
Cayden Johnson
Bethany Betts
Karina McCabe
Alessandro Spigolon
Mentors:
Katherine Tyler
James Grayson
Join the Team · Join the Team ·
Join the Team · Join the Team ·
Interested in joining the concrete canoe competition team? Contact us at asce@gmu.edu.