The team of the University of Győr achieved a first place with a canoe made of concrete

SZEnavis, a non-profit organisation of Széchenyi István University in Győr, makes canoes, but not just any canoes, but concrete canoes, according to a statement from the competition team.

According to the information, the organisation was launched in 2012, following a number of national and international examples. Over the years, the team and the University have produced countless good professionals, successful entrepreneurs and educators. András Pollák, Dániel Harrach and Dr. Attila Németh are the three most influential people in the team's 10 years of existence, as they have become founding members, as well as excellent lecturers at the University, and they still help and guide the team's daily life.

The aim of the association is to provide students of architecture and civil engineering, who will work with concrete in the future, with an interesting and exciting way to learn about concrete technology, concrete design and the development of new formulations, following foreign models. Since then, they have proven themselves in several competitions and are the only Hungarian team representing Hungary in some international competitions.

Concrete on water?

The idea of a concrete floating vehicle is not that far from reality. Most boats are made of steel, which weighs twice as much. An object floats on water if the ratio of its volume to its mass is less than 1000 kg/m³. So it's just a matter of generating as much volume as possible with as little mass as possible.

In 2012, the first boat weighed 380 kg. The wall thickness of the canoe reached 100 mm. Thanks to continuous improvements, the young craftsmen were able to achieve ever more precise and accurate designs. In 2022, at the Brandenburg race, they competed with a canoe weighing 47 kg and with a wall thickness of 1-3 mm. In 2023, the canoe was slightly re-fattened for stability and safety, and they competed in the Netherlands with a weight of 64 kg and a wall thickness of 3 mm.

The team is committed to continuous improvement

Year after year, the team strives to create the most ideal shape for the races. Work on the new formula for the Dutch event began in February 2023. The basic concept was to replace the low tensile strength of the concrete with geotextile, so that the boat would be made of textile concrete. A major challenge in creating the recipe was to get fresh concrete that could soak through the geotextile mesh, adhere well to the material and create as little excess concrete as possible, they say.

As they said, the March trial mixes proved that the recipe changes were successful, with reduced body density and increased strength. At 7 days of age, the concrete used already met the C30 concrete quality category.

The canoe was completed in April 2023. The competition was the first time the team had competed in the Netherlands. Strabag-MML Kft. provided essential assistance in getting there as the main sponsor. The team has been partnering with the company for two years now, as the competition to be held in Germany in 2022 was also made possible with their support. In addition to its sponsorship, the company strives to showcase its work as much as possible, giving students an insight into each project under construction.