Week 4: During week 4, we learned about a club at Cal Poly that uses lightweight concrete to make canoes. Concrete is notorious for its weight so this was quite the shock when we learned about the Concrete Canoe Club. We reached out to the club with hopes of learning more about the materials and process used to make this extremely lightweight concrete. This week also consisted of testing the concrete we made in week 3. The concrete turned out a lot better than our first attempt, but there were still evident issues with our process.
Pictured Above: Concrete Canoe Team posing with their finished product after winning their 7th National Title at the 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers Concrete Canoe Competition
Pictured Above: Photos during construction, Cal Poly Concrete Canoe Team using carbon fiber mesh and lightweight concrete.
Week 5: We made several experiments using various ratios of concrete, wire mesh, fiberglass mesh, and/or fiberglass insulation.
Pictured Above: Weighing Process to determine Mass, Fiberglass Mesh/Chickenwire Mesh
Week 6: By the end of Week 6, we tested various ratios of concrete and finalized a design for the ISEC. Alycia constructed a virtual model in 3-D Computer-Aided Design (CAD Model) software, to figure out the dimesnions and amount of materials needed. In this week, we demolished the concrete slab using wire mesh and found that it had greater strength than the prior two, but still crumbled under the pressure of our hands alone.
This week also consisted of following up with the Concrete Canoe Club and making first contact with Salma who makes ISECs in Togo. We reached out to Salma to compare the concrete making process used in Togo with what we have been using and what could be used from the Concrete Canoe.
Elaborate on this further (COLE)
Comments