Featured Scholar:
Alison Trachet
2005 - 2006 University Scholar
Mentor: Perry Green
College of Engineering
Why are some trees able to withstand hurricane force winds while others snap under pressure?
That is a question many Floridians pondered last hurricane season and Gainesville native Alison Trachet hoped to get to the bottom of with her University Scholars Program research.
A civil engineering major, Trachet worked with former Civil and Coastal Engineering Assistant Professor Perry Green on a study examining the elasticity of live oak trees and how pruning effects trunk stress caused by wind loading. She conducted two types of bend tests on three different variables: green versus dry wood, bark removed versus bark left on the trunk, and the sample versus the entire trunk.
The first test examined a 1” x 1” x 16” section of trunk set up as a simply-supported beam with a centrally applied load. For the second test, a four-foot section of the trunk was attached as a cantilever beam and pulled horizontally by an actuator, while the deflection of the trunk and the load applied were measured. It was hoped the results of these two tests would determine if there is any difference between the modulus of elasticity of green wood and that of dry wood and the whole trunk versus a section of it, and if bark provides any additional structural support.
“Unfortunately, when we got our data back, the statistical analysis could not be performed because we didn’t have normally distributed data,” Trachet says. “So somewhere along the line either there was a glitch in our equations or with the program that we used—we are not really sure—but basically, we could not come to any definite conclusions. It was disappointing and a hard lesson to learn, but now I’m prepared for graduate school. There is nothing I can’t handle!”
Trachet came to UF as a Bright Futures Scholar after graduating from Buchholz High School in 2001. She has served as a mentor for the Engineering Freshman Transition Program in her college and is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. She was the 2004-2005 president of the engineering honors society, Tau Beta Pi, and has received the dean’s scholarship in her college. She plans to graduate in May 2006 and go on to graduate school in civil and coastal engineering.
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