UAF AGC STUDENT CHAPTER NEWSLETTER

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1 UAF AGC STUDENT CHAPTER NEWSLETTER TRANSFORMING THE ENGINEERING STUDENTS OF TODAY INTO SUCCESSFUL LEADERS OF TOMORROW COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT AND VOLUNTEERING Many hands make light work The UAF AGC student club practices this saying during every competition and club project. Using this teamwork nature on the needs of the local community contributes equally to the groups we help and the organizations we serve. We continue to devote time and energy to community involvement and volunteering efforts. Through traditions of social commitment, outof-class learning and personal development we enhance perspectives, and build teamwork and communication abilities. This year the student club successfully participated in at least one volunteer event per school season. In the fall we assisted in winterizing the UAF Georgeson Botanical Garden. In the winter we helped at the Food Banks of Fairbanks, AGC Christmas party, and UAF Engineering Week. And in the spring we volunteered at Loving Companions Animal Rescue, a middle school science fair, and a middle school canoe competition. Below is a brief photo compilation of some of these events.

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3 ICE ARCH Design Phase: The 2016 Ice arch was designed primarily to utilize transparent ice blocks, as this design has not been used since the 2012 arch. Instead of constructing one arch, the design included both an upper arch and lower arch which were connected by steel cables supporting a steel ornament. The upper arch stood at 12.5 feet and the lower arch at 5 feet. Constructing with block ice eliminated the need for constructing forms, freezing the ice, and tipping the structure once completed. Structural analysis of the arch was conducted and the design was found to lie well within the maximum stress tolerance for ice. Ice cannot retain its structure in tension, therefore it must be in compression. The catenary curve design ensures that the stress on the ice is largely in compression, minigating destructive forces. The catenary arch design was analyzed in SAP, a finite element software, and indeed showed that very little axial stress was applied to the points along the arch. No moment analyis was necessary since the arch will be built using false works of which were only removed once the entire construction of both arches were completed. The arch was analyzed in 6 segments to determine the tensile and compressive stress at each segment. The legs of the arches were fixed at initial construction, and produce an axial stress of psi on the upper arch and 3.93 psi on the smaller arch. Because this design follows the exact equation for the catenary curve, very little compressive axial stress is applied to the arch. As the maximum allowable stress for ice is approximately psi, the design of the arch lied well within the structural parameters.

4 Construction Phase: The construction of the arch spanned over approximately seven weeks and was constructed in three phases: the lower arch, the upper arch, and the steel cable and ornament. Several freshman in addition to upper classman participated in the construction process. To represent the spirit of CEM, a steel nanook cutout with the letters UAF was hung from the steel cable supports. The ice blocks were purchased from Ice Alaska and cut into ten inch cubes to ensure they would not exceed thirtyfive lbs. Approximately 60 blocks total were used for both arches. The first phase of construction began with the lower arch, and once the falsework was in place, blocks were stacked on either side and joined with a capstone in the center. The blocks were ground and angled to ensure full contact between both sides of the blocks. Once full surface contact was reached, water was poured on the block surface and another block placed on top with applied pressure. Within seconds the blocks freeze and over time become a single ice structure. Upon completion of the upper arch, holes were drilled in both arches for the seven steel cable supports. The design intention was for the lighting and cables to represent sun rays, ultimately symbolizing Alaska s midnight sun. The arch was completed shortly before the E-Week, an annual event put on by the individual engineering departments within the College of Engineering and Mines to help reach out to children of all ages and expose them to the opportunities within engieering. The ice arch was a stimulating display which drew much interest from a wide array of both children and parents. Not only do demonstrations of engineering projects expose future students to the opportunities within engineering and construction, but also motivates current students to apply the knowledge learned in the classroom to everyday applications.

5 Through the entire process of design and construction of the annual ice arch, we as students are exposed to applicable engineering projects that we will utilize once in the workforce.

6 STEEL BRIDGE The annual Steel Bridge competition is organized by the (ASCE) to foster excellence and ingenuity among civil engineering undergraduate and graduate students across the nation. The regional steel bridge competitions are held at the ASCE regional student conferences in conjunction with a concrete canoe competition, an environmental challenge, a transportation challenge, and a technical paper competition. Most of these competitions are standalone but UAF generally participates in all five competitions with great success. The top schools from each regional conference get invited to the national steel bridge competition, held at BYU Provo this year. UAF has a long history of strong performance. We are nationally known for placing well in both the regional and national competition. Many of these universities are prestigious engineering schools such as University of California - Berkley, University of California - Davis and Michigan Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). These Universities have large budgets and outside contractors to do some or all of the manufacturing. UAF students proudly complete the entire process, from fundraising to design and fabrication in-house. The rules and specifications for the competition are generally made official (distributed) early September. The entire design and manufacturing process is focused on these specifications (the official rules). Similar to real world projects, regulations and industry standards govern the final product greatly. The rules can best be described as a bid document for a real world river crossing where the site conditions and the desired bridge performance specifications are clearly outlined. The bridges are designed and manufactured to 1/10 scale according to the specified requirements of overall span (in order to cross the river), the required vehicle passage way and the required lane width (to make sure that vehicles and semi-trucks will be able to pass across the bridge), the largest possible member size order to be able to transport the pieces to the site based on local road restrictions and equipment assembling the bridge), and the approved types of connections. In addition, a large emphasis is put on accelerated bridge construction (ABC) in order to save money and time during manufacturing and assembly of the bridges on site. There are three main factors affecting the final score of the 1/10 scale bridges in the competition. These factors are: weight of the bridge (pounds), stiffness of the bridge (aggregate deflection measured in inches at three locations and summed to create the aggregate deflection used for scoring), and time to assemble the bridge (minutes). These factors are entered into a formula that converts the three factors (weight, stiffness, and time to assemble) into a dollar amount. The bridge with the lowest calculated dollar cost wins the competition. The factors used to determine the score simulate that of a real-world low-bid process. The weight represents the material cost (structural steel is priced per pound of material), the time required to assemble the 1/10 scaled bridge at the competition simulate the amount of man-hours (labor cost) that s required to erect a full-scale bridge, and the stiffness of the 1/10 scale ensures proper

7 serviceability of the full-size bridge. Engineers need to design structures not only to be sufficiently strong, but also to serve clients needs. The steel bridge competition challenges and inspires students. It is easy to design a bridge, but extremely tedious and challenging to design a highly competitive bridge for the national arena. The steel bridge project also prepares students for the world outside of academia. Traditional academic education is extremely valuable and important in today s competitive work environment. Engineering degrees help students develop a problem-solving approach that may be applied to almost any challenge. Traditional degrees, however, fail to give students real world experience and skills necessary to prepare graduates for successful professional development. The steel bridge competition helps students gain a lot of valuable skills that traditional academic education fails to offer such as, machining, welding, design, fundraising, community involvement, and public speaking as well as project management and team work. Steel bridge is an excellent opportunity for students to gain experience by seeing an entire project come together from start to finish. It is especially valuable to manufacture what you design. Participants in steel bridge develop a keen mind for innovative problem solving and unmatched work ethic. It requires late nights, early mornings, all-nighters, and everything in between to complete the design and manufacturing of a competitive bridge. It is not uncommon for students to spend over 100 hours of their spring break, and hours a week working on the bridge throughout the spring semester. The 2016 rules were similar to the rules in The dimensional specifications and the loading were almost identical. The major changes in the rules were the overall span (19.5 feet instead of 18.5 feet) and more freedom to design innovative and quick-to-assemble connections. The 2016 bridge (designed by Elliott Anderson) sported a delicate lower chord spanning 20.5 feet along with a stout 13/4 inch upper chord. The bridge had a clearance of 21 inches over the river and a total height of 48 inches. Just as previous years, the bridge was manufactured out of 4130 chrome molly steel. Much attention and time was spent designing and manufacturing state of the art connections for the bridge to allow for quick assembly. In addition, members in the lower truss were standardized to accelerate the manufacturing process.

8 This year the UAF team returned from the 2016 Regional ASCE Steel Bridge Competition in Moscow, Idaho. The UAF Steel Bridge Team placed 1 st overall in the competition, in addition placed 1 st in display and 2 nd in every additional category: 2016 Regional Steel Bridge Competition 1 st Place Overall Performance 1 st Place Display 2 nd Place Stiffness 2 nd Place Construction Speed 2 nd Place Construction Economy 2 nd Place Structural Efficiency 2 nd Place Lightness In addition to the Regional competition, the ASCE Steel Bridge team went on to compete in Provo, Utah at Nationals. At Nationals all teams from around the world competed, including China, Mexico, and Canada, to name a few National Steel Bridge Competition 6 th Place Overall Performance The success of the UAF steel bridge team should however not be measured by the trophies and titles won, but rather by the camaraderie and educational advantage that the members of the 2016 steel bridge team has acquired through unmatched teamwork and focus on a common goal.

9 Concrete Canoe Concrete Canoe encompasses the technical and managing aspects of the Civil Engineer field. The team must understand the structural aspects of the canoe through mathematical analysis and testing. All while, maintaining a project schedule and proper managing regime within a group structure. Then they must present their techniques in a professional presentation and, an appealing display. They finish the competition through various races among other teams. Concrete Canoe Team in Moscow, Idaho The University of Alaska, Fairbanks Concrete Canoe Team is sincerely grateful for the generous donations and support. With the all the support, they were able to compete this year in the Pacific Northwestern Regional ASCE Student Conference in Moscow, Idaho. The team placed 4 th out of the top fourteen schools in the region Regional Concrete Canoe Competition 4 th Place Overall Performance 2 nd Place Presentation 4 th Place Race Time 5 th Place Design Paper 4 th Place Display They brought innovations that impressed others with a canoe being 100lbs lighter than the top schools, weighing in at 130lbs. There results were based on presentation, display, design paper, and race time. Displaying a strong performance this year, they are already looking forward to the upcoming year and excited to continue their relationship. We would like to thank AGC for your support, as without it we would be unable to have these unique opportunities!