ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WIN CONCRETE BOWLING BALL COMPETITION
At the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Convention in Los Angeles, five students from the Concrete Industry Management (CIM) program in Arizona State University’s Del E. Webb School of Construction took first prize in a concrete bowling ball design competition.
The team included Vern Loraditch (junior), Jennifer Harris (junior), Kendra Warner (freshman), Jay Baracree (freshman), Wes Morrill (sophomore), and Luke Snell (faculty advisor and director of the CIM program). To win the competition, the students designed and created a fiber-reinforced lightweight concrete bowling ball and accurately predicted the load that would cause a one-inch deflection in it.
The annual competition challenges teams of students to develop a bowling ball that will be successful in both a roll test and a load test. The ACI sets very strict criteria regarding the materials that can be used and each ball is checked thoroughly before it is qualified to compete in the tests.
The competition’s objectives are to demonstrate the effect of fibers in reinforcing concrete, to give students practical experience in forming and fabricating a concrete element, and to encourage creativity in engineering design. This year’s competition drew teams from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, and the United States.
The CIM team from ASU began early preparations for this project in January. After working with Southwest Architectural Castings to create a mold for their bowling ball, the team began testing various mix designs. Five different mixes were experimented with before the final selection was made. The team fabricated five bowling balls with their final mix and tested two of them to determine the structural behavior of the concrete. This allowed the team to develop their accurate prediction to secure their first place win.
The CIM program at ASU is relatively new but is quickly establishing itself as a strong power in ACI Student Competitions. Earlier this academic year, ASU CIM students won fourth place in the Concrete Cubes Competition, and fourth place in the Concrete Construction Competition.
The CIM program at ASU was initiated by the concrete industry to meet the urgent need to develop a future workforce of broadly educated, articulate graduates grounded in basic construction management, who are also knowledgeable of the concrete industry and construction techniques, able to manage people and systems, and able to promote products or services related to the concrete industry.
If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Luke Snell at (480) 965-6628 or luke.snell@asu.edu. For more about the CIM program at ASU, please visit www.cimasu.org
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The Load Test at the ACI Competition |
The Roll Test at the ACI Competition
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