Nado Engineering: October 2012

Cardboard Canoe

Overview/Summary

I think our team did very well in the cardboard canoe challenge. We successfully made a boat that lasted through the rigorous races and challenges that it faced in the pool. My team brought together all of it’s strengths, ideas, and creativity to build the best boat in the period.

18 out of 20 achievements earned.

Design Achievements (7 out of 7)

· Define The Problem and Brainstorm Solutions – We need a canoe/boat that is made solely of cardboard and duck tape. Ideas:

o V-Bottom

o V-Front

o Flat interior

o High Walls

o Double layers of tape

o Double layers of cardboard

o Double up around the stress areas

o Have a paddle

o Cut out each side/panel separately.

o Make a tiny model

o Test the tiny model

o Remake the tiny model

o Retest the tiny model

o Measure the second model, upscale it to know the dimensions of the bigger boat.

o Measure the angles of the v-bottom and v-front

o Build the second boat proportionally to the 2^nd model boat.

o Upscale it just enough to fit 1 person

o Possibly have a center beam

o Have cardboard in the v-bottom to help with floating

o Have a beam that goes out on one side of the boat to help with balance

o Have a keel on the boat

o Have a rudder on the boat

o Have fins on the bottom of the boat, like a surf board

· Big Brain – I had 24 brainstorm ideas to contribute to the group, making me the student with the most ideas.

· Criteria and Constrains –

Criteria:

o Build a watercraft that allows you to traverse the CHS swimming pool.

o Your "boat" must float at least one student through the course of the competition.

o Protect your workspace from damage!

Constraints:

o You may only use Cardboard and Duct Tape for this event.

o All Staples or other foreign material must be removed from your cardboard. If we trash the pool, we will not be invited back for other activities during the year (yes, we have other activities in mind for 2nd semester).

o Cardboard must meet our quality standard and be approved by the instructor (more info to follow)

o Each boat must have a minimum of a 3" tall "sidewall" (no completely flat designs).

o All exposed cardboard must be covered in duct tape (this will reduce cardboard disintegration in the pool).

o Each team will be provided one "versa table" cardboard box piece and three 60yrd rolls of duct tape. Any materials beyond this (likely need more cardboard) need to be resourced by your team.

Implied Criteria:

o Has to be fully built before the pool day

o Has to have a pilot in proper swimming gear (The day of competition)

o The boat must be able to float.

Implied Constraints:

o Must fit through the door

o Has to be light enough to be carried to the pool

o Must remove all foreign materials from cardboard (Nails, Staples)

· Sketch Ideas –

	- V-Front and V-Bottom - Flat panel back - Extremely long compared to the width
	- Split the passenger area into two sections with a cross beam - Covered bow (Front) - V-Front, Flat bottom
	- Curved front, probably harder to do with cardboard - Very little boat underwater - No distinguished bottom, the walls come together to make the bottom

· Prototype Ideas – We made not one, but two prototypes. The first was a general design. The second was improved design of the first, after we saw what worked and didn’t work in the first.

	This was our first design. We made too big of a v-bottom. It ended up not floating because it was too light.
	This was our second design. We noticed that a steep v-bottom didn’t float very well, so we decreased the v-bottom to 20 degrees from the horizontal.

· Select an Approach – We selected to upscale our second model by 1000% (x10) As an example, the width of the boat was 2.4 inches, and that was up scaled to 24 inches (2 ft)

· Surface Area – We ended up using all three rolls of ducktape provided, then went back for more. To keep our boat extremely waterproof, we were very generous on overlapping the strands of tap (About 30%)

Build Achievements (2 out of 3)

· Build It – We obviously should get this achievement because we successfully built the boat. We weren’t the first team to build the boat, but we got it done the day before competition.

· V-Bottom – By using a v-bottom in our boat, we were able to make the boat more streamlined and able to balance better. The v-bottom also increased the speed the boat could get to. This was a very challenging achievements to get because of the problem with the v-bottom front. The dimensions of the front part of the v-bottom had to be measured and precisely cut. We also had to figure out a way to have a v-bottom, and a flat interior for our pilot.

Test Achievements (5 out of 5)

· The Fastest – Our boat was most definitely the fastest out of the period, coming in first in the 25 meter dash.

· The furthest – Our boat managed to get 3 laps (Six 25’s, there, back, there, back, there back) where a lap is measured by 25 meters to the other side, and then 25 meters back. Upon collaboration with the other teams, we found out that the next highest score was 2 laps (Four 25’s)

· The longest – Our boat managed to stay afloat for the entire duration of the cardboard canoe challenge. When we cut the boat open (after the challenge), we found that the insides were still perfectly dry, therefore, our taping job succeeded. Not a single drop of water managed to find its way inside the boat and compromise the cardboard.

· Balance master – Our boat pilot managed to stay standing for a good 3 seconds before the boat flipped over on its side. We didn’t have enough time in the period to try again.

· Videographer – We took a video of the cardboard canoe challenge.

Reflection Achievements (4 out of 5)

· Feedback

o The boat could’ve used thicker walls and a thicker v-bottom

o We could’ve designed a better paddle. We only had a one sided paddle, but the optimal design seemed to be a two sided long-shaft paddle.

o We could’ve put more supporting cardboard in the v-bottom to make a flatter interior.

o A keel would’ve made balancing in the boat much easier, and would’ve made the boat much more stable in general.

o The layers and layers of duct tape that we used seem to pay off, because no water leaked into the cardboard core of the boat

o Having the v-front combined with the v-bottom seemed to help “cut” the water and increase the speed to boat could go.

o The scrap cardboard we used to fill the v-bottom into a flat interior top helped the pilot very much. It weighted the boat to bring the v-bottom and about an inch of the walls under water and balance it more.

o It would’ve been nice to work on the boat during afterschool hours so we could’ve gotten more done

o Could’ve worked better together and more efficiently.

· How Low Did It Go? I was very surprised with how high out boat sat in water. It only went about an inch up from the bottom of the 18” walls. It was a very heavy boat because of all the layers of duct tape and then all the stuffing in the v-bottom to create the flat interior.

· Redesign – If we were to do another, I would make sure to include the following ideas.

o Have a keel on the boat

o Double layer the cardboard

o Cardboard area splitter to keep the walls separated while in water

· (Made up Achievement) Travel Master – The achievement that our team decided upon was the Travel Master achievement. The boat travelled around campus the most because we stored out boat in a separate classroom.