The purpose of this project is to design and construct a lightweight concrete canoe to enter into the annual ASCE Pacific Southwest Regional Conference in April 2014 and to prove that the team is capable of completing this project. The canoe is to be constructed using materials permitted by the 2014 ASCE National Concrete Canoe Competition Rules and Regulations handbook. The final product needs to be transported to the event without any failures, and built by the students alone. Another main purpose of constructing the canoe is to ensure that the ASCE Northern Arizona University (NAU) chapter remains officially a part of the National ASCE organization.

The overall purpose of this project is to apply the team’s own individual strengths to the completion of the canoe. Successfully understanding the different components that designing and constructing a canoe entails will prepare the team for a lifetime of real world projects. Most importantly, the team will be able to relate all engineering knowledge to the step-by-step process of a design project.

The concrete canoe project is a time consuming and demanding final project. The reason being is it serves as senior design capstone as well as an ASCE project. This means, the teams has almost double the amount of work in comparison to other capstone teams. This project requires completion before most teams begin to design a solution to the other projects. It includes a demanding schedule but with hard work, dedication and a background of engineering knowledge, the project will be rewarding to the team.

The overall goal for this year’s design and construction of the concrete canoe is to improve upon the construction and analysis completed by last year’s concrete canoe team, Night Fury. The existing conditions include a wood strip mold that can serve as the basis of the overall concrete canoe shape, concrete mixes that proved to be successful in last year’s competition,the hull designs, and reinforcement that was implemented into the final product. All conditions previously stated are to be improved upon and adjusted in compliance with this year’s competition rules and regulations. They will serve as a starting point for the 2013-2014 concrete canoe team. However, more design and research will be conducted to improve the overall success of the canoe.

Photograph by: Alejandra Quesada

Click here to see this year's competition photographs!! :)

Click here to see the production photographs!! :)

Capstone Schedule

This schedule depicts the required elements pertinent to the capstone class.

PSWC Schedule

This schedule depicts the required elements pertinent to the Pacific Southwest Regional Conference.

CADD Drawing

This document depicts the design drawing and bill of materials for the form. The drawing also shows elevation, plan, and typical cross-section views of the form and formwork with applicable dimensions and other details as desired.

Concrete Mix Design Decision Matrix

This document depicts the design aspects that were considered for the concrete mix design.

Reinforcement Decision Matrix

This document depicts the design aspects that were considered for the reinformcement material.

Internal Fiber Decision Matrix

This document depicts the design aspects that were considered for the internal fibers used in the concrete mix desing..

Internal Budgeting

This document depicts the estimated budgeting for a client if we were to manufacture our design of the concrete canoe in the real-world.

PSWC Bill of Materials and Production Cost Estimate

This document lists the name, quantity, unit price, and total cost of each material used for the construction of the canoe. Costs associated with engineering, testing, construction, prototypes, etc. are not included in this document.