The Student News Site of Colorado State University

The Rocky Mountain Collegian

The Student News Site of Colorado State University

The Rocky Mountain Collegian

The Student News Site of Colorado State University

The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Print Edition
Letter to the editor submissions
Have a strong opinion about something happening on campus or in Fort Collins? Want to respond to an article written on The Collegian? Write a Letter to the Editor by following the guidelines here.
Follow Us on Twitter
Unlocking the Digital Treasure: A Dive into Cryptocurrency Exchanges
Unlocking the Digital Treasure: A Dive into Cryptocurrency Exchanges
March 7, 2024

Ever wondered, amid all this digital currency buzz, what is the value of Ethereum today? It's a question that sparks the curiosity of many,...

CSU students make concrete canoe float for competition

A group of civil engineering students build a concrete canoe for the annual competition. The students will be racing the canoe at the south bay of Horsetooth Reservior on Saturday from 12-4pm.
A group of civil engineering students build a concrete canoe for the annual competition. The students will be racing the canoe at the south bay of Horsetooth Reservior on Saturday from 12-4pm.

Almost every year, a group of Colorado State University’s civil and environmental engineering seniors participate in a national contest to designing a concrete canoe.

“Each concrete canoe is judged based on four components: oral presentation, final product/aesthetics, design paper and engineering notebook and the races,”said Anthony Grasso, the captain of CSU’s team this year.
According to Grasso, there are various activities the canoes are tested on.

Ad

“The swamp test is when you have to push the canoe all the way under water and see if it floats back up,” Grasso said. “There are two different races as well; the sprint race which is short and tests how fast the canoe is and the endurance race which is long and tests how much the canoe can withstand.”

In order to be successful at passing all these tests, Grasso explained the team worked the entire year on this project.

Civil and environmental engineering senior Jennifer Dattolo said each person put in over 200 hours of work.

“We tested different strengths of mixes, comparing tense strengths to compressed strengths,” Dattolo said.

“We also looked at what stresses the canoe was going to experience over its lifetime including display and transport, we compared the strength from the mix design test with the canoe’s experience.”

Grasso explained that there are three components in the concrete mixtures: aggregate, cement and water.

“Most of the material is donated by local companies, so securing sponsorships is important,” Grasso said.
Vaishak Gopi was the team member in charge of designing the concrete mix.

“We contacted these places and asked if they would be willing to donate to our student organization.” Gopi said.

Many of the donations were local, but this year Gopi obtained donations from as far as Ohio and even Canada. These donations helped the students create and test their mixture for the canoe.

Ad

“We chose a mix that CSU has never used before,” Gopi said. “The material is lightweight, but has the same strength as the previous material, and is highly sustainable.”

The material is a mixture using recycled glass aggregate, according to Gopi.

After finding the correct mixture, the students also had to create the perfect design.

According to Dattolo, they designed the shape of the canoe based on several components relating to the fluid flow analysis, or the way in which water flows past the canoe.

“We used a program to look at how the water flowed past the boat to see which design had the least resistance, or drag, against the water,” Dattolo said.

Dattolo explained two important aspects: the pointy boat shape with a sharp angled keel to keep the boat straight, and the shallow “V” shape which has less surface area, decreasing the amount of drag.

“We went with an optimization between the two,” Dattolo said.

It’s many team members’ first year participating in the contest, so it was a hands-on learning experience. Tony Grasso was chosen as captain because he participated in the contest twice before.

The activities for the 2014 Rocky Mountain Regional Competition is being held April 3-5. There are 12 universities participating.

“The canoes in the contest range from super well made to put together last minute,” Grasso said. “There is always at least one canoe that breaks in half.”

Collegian Reporter Jenni Jalilevand can be reached at news @collegian.com.

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

When commenting on The Collegian’s website, please be respectful of others and their viewpoints. The Collegian reviews all comments and reserves the right to reject comments from the website. Comments including any of the following will not be accepted. 1. No language attacking a protected group, including slurs or other profane language directed at a person’s race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social class, age, physical or mental disability, ethnicity or nationality. 2. No factually inaccurate information, including misleading statements or incorrect data. 3. No abusive language or harassment of Collegian writers, editors or other commenters. 4. No threatening language that includes but is not limited to language inciting violence against an individual or group of people. 5. No links.
All The Rocky Mountain Collegian Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *