On Wednesday 4 May, the SAICE Stellenbosch Student Chapter and Civil Engineering Laboratory Managers lead engineering students on a tour through the Civil Engineering Laboratories. Students from every year were exposed to the diverse range of projects and research being conducted in the different Civil Engineering departments. This was the first time that many of the students had seen the facilities of the Civil Engineering Department.
The tour began at the hydraulics laboratory, where physical model studies are used in conjunction with numerical modelling to account for the complex nature of water when designing large and intricate hydraulic structures. A demonstration of the proposed Berg River Voëlvlei Augmentation Scheme (BRVAS) was presented by Mr. Tanduxolo Nguza. The BRVAS model is a 1:40 scale physical model built to test the design of abstraction works as well as the impact of large floods on the structure. The proposed scheme will increase the water security of the City of Cape Town by abstracting water from the Berg River during the rainy season and storing it in the Voëlvlei Dam. Students were also astonished to learn that the Stellenbosch University Hydraulics lab is the biggest in the country, with a floor space of 3500 m2 and a pump capacity of 700 L/s.
The tour proceeded to the structure’s lab, where Dr. Jacques Kruger explained that various postgraduate students are conducting research into 3D-printing of concrete. Their research is aided by two 3D printers in the lab, both of which were designed and manufactured by postgraduate students in the Structural Engineering & Civil Engineering Informatics division. The students learnt that 3D printing of building materials enables more geometrically intricate structural elements to be built and could also significantly reduce the waste generated in the construction industry. Students were also shown the materials lab, where the first- and second-year civil students were excited to learn that they would soon be designing and mixing their own concrete in an upcoming module.
In the Pavement and Geotechnical Laboratories, MEng student Mr. Riaan Lourens explained how asphalt used in road construction is made and why various asphalt design criteria is used for different pavement applications. The students also learnt that “tar” roads should be referred to as Asphalt roads due to the fact that tar is no longer used in the production of pavement surfaces because of its carcinogenic nature. The students were also shown another project that focused on roads, specifically the orientation of the aggregates in surface seals, and the failure mechanisms that roads experience because of continuous heavy traffic loadings.
The tour was well received by the students. A lot of appreciation and credit goes to the students and laboratory staff who offered up their time and effort to coordinate the annual laboratory tour.
