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By KENNETH KESNER Another UAH team paddles to win in composite craft that's flexible like a fish Wednesday afternoon I was paddling a concrete canoe. You're forgiven if you think that sounds a little crazy. You're simply unaware that every year for the last 15 or so, engineering students at the University of Alabama in Huntsville have participated in a national competition to design, build and race a concrete canoe. Participate, heck. They've dominated.
Hoping for concrete results. André Danson and Myia Redic use last year's canoe to practice at the University of Alabama in Huntsville for the national concrete canoe championship in San Diego later this month. The UAH team's new canoe uses a unique, buoyant mix of materials that also allows the hull to flex. Times Science Writer Ken Kesner took it for a test drive this week. Photograph by Huntsville Times photographer Bryan Bacon. I didn't really know anything about it either until Wednesday, when I was on the sidewalk shore of Lake UAH, watching students lower last year's boat, Ingenuity, into the water as their teammates flash-paddled past in a practice canoe. The team members are getting ready for the national championship, which is June 14-16 in San Diego. They've been working all year, designing their boat, creating the unique blend of materials, molding and crafting the hull, planning a theme and promotional package for their entry, making deadlines, raising money, painstakingly documenting every step - it's all part of the package on which they'll be judged, along with the races. They've also had classes, tests and, in some cases, graduations to deal with. Now they're on the water seven days a week, building endurance, honing paddle skills and teamwork. They'll be representing Alabama and the entire Southeast at the competition in California. And yet they're smiling, energetic and excited. It's serious science, serious engineering, but it's also serious fun. André Danson is working toward his master's degree in structural engineering, and toward another national title for UAH. "This is my fourth boat,' he says, talking about the 2001 canoe, Survivor, which is back on campus, awaiting a paint job. As he climbs into the back of Ingenuity, he wonders what's the first thing I notice about the concrete craft. "No seats,' I venture. Watching Danson kneel in the back, I realize I'll be spending this cruise on my middle-aged knees. No, he says, then points out the lack of thwarts, the braces that go across a canoe to strengthen it and hold the shape. "Our composite is so strong we don't need them," he says, grinning.
André Danson takes an oar as Myia Redic climbs aboard last year's concrete canoe at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Both are members of the team that will take a new, high-tech canoe to the national championship in San Diego later this month. Photograph by Huntsville Times photographer Bryan Bacon. Their canoe is concrete in the same sense that Dom Perignon is alcohol. Ingenuity is made of remarkable stuff, and Survivor even more so. Their composite is a mix of cement, latex, a glass microbead, acrylic and more, built up in layers with carbon fiber sheeting. Survivor's hull, says Danson - he can't hide his glee - is only 0.3 inches thick. And here's where it gets really interesting: It flexes, but retains its shape, as the paddlers work it through the water. So, you've got a paddle on each side, exerting forces on the boat, causing it to twist slightly, then untwist, like a spring. "What we're proposing," says Danson, "is that our boat actually stores energy." In the fraction of a second the paddles are out of the water moving toward the next stroke, the canoe's flexing action, like that of a shark or dolphin, helps propel it through the water. At least, that's the theory, says Dr. John Gilbert, professor of mechanical engineering and the team's faculty adviser. "I think it's really indicative of a secret that's been held by nature for years," said Gilbert, describing how the material mimics the action of a fish. The team noticed the flexing action while racing Ingenuity last year, and designed Survivor to take advantage of it. Now the Navy has expressed an interest; it has never had a boat that can swim, says Danson, who tells me to watch for flexing as we paddle. Myia Redic, who set a women's sprint record with her teammate in Ingenuity last year, holds the boat steady as Danson talks me through the best way to climb aboard. It's a little tipsy, he says, because it's designed for speed and maneuverability. So I rest a stabilizing hand on the bottom, swing my right leg over a triangular piece of foam that will go between my knees as a kind of seat, then bring my right leg aboard and kneel comfortably on a foam pad in the bow. This isn't so bad. Redic hands me a paddle, then lets go. Ingenuity suddenly feels like it is much more than a little tipsy. Instinctively I lean forward, lowering my substantial center of gravity, suddenly aware of my life jacket. Danson, still smiling, tells me that's just the right thing to do. We stop rocking and I begin paddling. He's now a coach, patiently telling me to keep my arm straight, how the paddle should hit the water at a 90-degree angle. In the water, it seems like any other boat. But I know the hull has another special property: The composite is very buoyant. During one of the national competition events, teams actually have to tip their boat over, fill it with water, push it under the surface and let it go. It must float. Ingenuity has front and back buoyancy compartments to help it up, but Survivor doesn't need any, says Danson. Then we head for home. As we dock, Redic again steadies the canoe for the exiting land-lubber. She's eager to take Ingenuity - her favorite boat - out for practice. 'It's addicting," she says. "It's a drug." She earned her bachelor's in mechanical engineering in December, and works for Sparta Inc., but will take graduate classes "because I want to canoe next year." Stuart Johnson, who just graduated with a degree in civil engineering and is chairman of this year’s canoe project, cites another benefit: Three years of experience with the canoe competition have more than prepared him for the workplace. "I don't think I could ever be put through anything as stressful as this on the job," he says. In the past 14 years, Gilbert's UAH teams have won 12 regional and four national championships, competing against engineering powerhouses like Berkeley, Clemson and Michigan at nationals. "We've produced more national champions in the Southeast than have representatives from any of the other regions," he says during a tour of their shop. "This is one of the few times in their entire life, even if they own a company, that they will be able to take a project from design phase to final product in eight months," says Gilbert. "Paddle-A-Thon" The UAH concrete canoe team is hosting its first Paddle-A-Thon beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday on the UAH lake. Team members, sponsored by area individuals and companies as part of a fund-raising effort, will race, and a number of practice boats and concrete canoes will be available for the public to try. All tax-deductible contributions from the Paddle-A-Thon will help with the team's expenses for the national concrete canoe championship June 14-16 in San Diego. The annual competition is sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and Master Builders, a concrete development company. |
