Six UTRGV civil engineering students will participate Wednesday in the National GeoWall Competition in Minneapolis, where they will design, construct and test a wooden sandbox to carry out a large vertical load.
The GeoWall competition is hosted by the GEO-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers and challenges students to provide optimal design of bridge abutments at model scale.
Thuy Vu, an associate professor and associate chair of the Civil Engineering department, said the team’s optimal design report was ranked in the top eight. Up to 20 teams were selected for the National Finals GeoWall competition based upon scores earned on the design reports.
Asked why they decided to participate this year, Vu replied, “Before, we were not confident enough. Technically, I have a little bit more time to form the team and Dr. [Thang] Pham, the [faculty adviser], has the specialty for that specific area for the competition.”
Students competing are upperclassmen Yolanda De La Torre, Miguel Garcia, team captain Jose Garcia, Deborah Jimenez, Everardo Mendez and Cassandra Salas.
The sandbox, which has already been built by the team, consists of a bottom and four vertical sides with no top. The front panel and part of the two side panels are removable.
Sand will be provided by competition organizers and must be clean, dry and rounded to subrounded.
During the construction stage of the competition, the team will fill the box with sand up to the fill line. An empty rectangular vertical surcharge bucket will be placed on top of the sand.
After the construction stage is complete, the team will remove the front and side panels and place the vertical surcharge. After one minute from the removal of the panels, judges will check for the following three criteria: excessive deformation, soil leakage and catastrophic failure.
A formula designed for the competition will be used for scoring. The score will be determined by the report points minus violations.
Vu said the team has a lot of support from the people in the industry.
“All of the companies in our specific area send some donations to support the team,” she said. “They are happy about it because they know, of course, it’s very competitive.”
