Media Release
February 26 2009
UniSA's lightest concrete canoe ready to race
Civil
engineering students from UniSA
will race their lightest-ever concrete canoe in the annual South
Australian Concrete Canoe Race at West Lakes tomorrow.
The event, supported by the South Australian Branch of the
Concrete Institute of
Australia, is an annual race between students from
UniSA and the University of
Adelaide.
UniSA Associate Professor and Program Director in Civil Engineering
Julie Mills said the UniSA team had worked hard over the summer
break to build the university’s lightest and sleekest canoe in the
event’s short history.
“While we don’t want to give away our secrets before the race, we can
say this year’s boat is much lighter than our boats from previous years.
The difference in weight is quite amazing,” she said.
The exact materials used for this year’s canoe are also being kept under
wraps.
Associate Professor Mills said water and cement were the basic materials
used to make concrete, as well as sand, gravel or stone. Conventional
concrete is then reinforced with steel bars. To get a lightweight
concrete that can float, students experimented with replacing stone with
other materials such as foam and steel reinforcement with fibreglass or
synthetic fibre reinforcement.
“The students experiment with a range of different materials and a range
of different formulas to come up with the best mix for a concrete
canoe,” she said.
“We’re pretty confident this year’s canoe, designed, built and paddled
by students Adnane Benhammouche, Karzan Aryan, Ali Mohammadi and Pyrros
Radimissis, with extra paddling support from Paul Koufalakis, will do
well. The students are very passionate and have done a fantastic job
both in designing the canoe and training for the event.
“We also have students from last year’s team racing their 2008 canoe and
from the 2007 team in their canoe.”
Associate Professor Mills said being involved in the race was beneficial
to the students’ studies and personal development.
“Besides finding out more about concrete, the students liaise with
industry, build teamwork skills, gain project management experience and
of course they actually learn how to paddle a canoe,” she said.
“They also gain six of the 12 weeks’ industrial experience required as
part of their degree.”
Final year student Ashley Bowden from the 2007 team said being involved
in the race was a great experience which gave students an insight into
the commercial engineering marketplace.
“The project also opens your eyes to the adaptability of the materials
you are using,” he said.
“The common belief is that concrete is much denser than water and, as
such, will sink when placed on the water.
“However, by shaping the concrete to disperse the weight and creating a
less dense mixture, the variance between the density of water and
concrete become less and the ability for concrete to float becomes a
reality. In essence, the concrete canoe project exists to open your mind
to the true possibilities that exist and not restrict your thinking by
only tunnelling your thoughts before looking at the overall
surroundings.”
Racing starts at West Lakes off Bower Road at 11am.
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- Kelly Stone office (08) 8302 0963 mobile 0417 861 832 email kelly.stone@unisa.edu.au