In general, civil engineering is
concerned with the overall interface of human created fixed projects with the
greater world. General civil engineers work closely with surveyors and
specialized civil engineers to fit and serve fixed projects within their given
site, community and terrain by designing grading, drainage, pavement,
water supply, sewer service, electric and communications supply, and land
divisions. General engineers spend much of their time visiting project sites,
developing community consensus, and preparing construction plans. General civil
engineering is also referred to as site engineering, a branch of civil engineering that primarily focuses on
converting a tract of land from one usage to another. Civil engineers typically
apply the principles of geotechnical engineering, structural engineering,
environmental engineering, transportation engineering and construction
engineering to residential, commercial, industrial and public works projects of
all sizes and levels of construction.
Materials science and engineering
One of the major aspects of Civil
engineering is materials science.
Material engineering deals with ceramics such as concrete, mix asphalt
concrete, strong metals such as aluminum and steel, and polymers such as polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and carbon fibers.
Materials engineering also consists
of protection and prevention like paints and finishes. Alloying is another
aspect of materials engineering, combining two types of metals to produce a
stronger metal. It incorporates elements of applied
physics and chemistry. With significant media attention focused on nanoscience and nanotechnology in recent years, materials
science has been propelled to the forefront
at many universities. It is also an important part of forensic engineering and failure
analysis. Materials
science also deals with fundamental
properties and characteristics of materials.
Coastal engineering
Coastal engineering is concerned
with managing coastal areas. In some jurisdictions the terms sea defense and
coastal protection are used to mean, respectively, defense against flooding and
erosion. The term coastal defense is the more traditional term, but coastal
management has become more popular as the field has expanded to include
techniques that allow erosion to claim land.
Construction engineering
Construction engineering involves
planning and execution of the designs from transportation, site development,
hydraulic, environmental, structural and geotechnical engineers. As
construction firms tend to have higher business risk than other types of civil
engineering firms, many construction engineers tend to take on a role that is
more business-like in nature: drafting and reviewing contracts, evaluating logistical
operations, and closely monitoring prices of
necessary supplies.
Earthquake engineering
Earthquake engineering covers
ability of various structures to withstand hazardous earthquake exposures at
the sites of their particular location.
Earthquake engineering is a sub discipline of the broader category of Structural
engineering. The main objectives of earthquake engineering are:
- Understand interaction of structures with the shaky ground.
- Foresee the consequences of possible earthquakes.
- Design, construct and maintain structures to perform at earthquake exposure up to the expectations and in compliance with building codes.
Environmental engineering
Environmental engineering deals with
the treatment of chemical, biological, and/or thermal waste, the purification
of water and air, and the remediation of contaminated sites, due to prior waste disposal or
accidental contamination. Among the topics covered by environmental engineering
are pollutant transport, water purification,
waste water treatment, air pollution, solid
waste treatment and hazardous
waste management. Environmental engineers can be
involved with pollution reduction, green engineering, and industrial ecology.
Environmental engineering also deals with the gathering of information on the
environmental consequences of proposed actions and the assessment of effects of
proposed actions for the purpose of assisting society and policy makers in the
decision making process.
Environmental engineering is the
contemporary term for sanitary engineering, though sanitary engineering traditionally had not included
much of the hazardous waste management and environmental remediation work
covered by the term environmental
engineering. Some other terms in use are public health engineering and
environmental health engineering.
Geotechnical engineering
Geotechnical engineering is an area
of civil engineering concerned with the rock and soil that civil engineering systems are supported by.
Knowledge from the fields of geology, material
science and testing, mechanics, and hydraulics are applied by geotechnical engineers to safely and
economically design foundations, retaining
walls, and similar structures.
Environmental concerns in relation to groundwater and waste disposal
have spawned a new area of study called geoenvironmental engineering where biology and chemistry
are important.
Some of the unique difficulties of
geotechnical engineering are the result of the variability and properties of
soil. Boundary conditions
are often well defined in other branches of civil engineering, but with soil,
clearly defining these conditions can be impossible. The material properties
and behavior of soil are also difficult to predict due to the variability of
soil and limited investigation. This contrasts with the relatively well defined material
properties of steel and concrete used in other areas of civil engineering. Soil
mechanics, which describes the behavior of
soil, is also complicated because soils exhibit nonlinear (stress-dependent)
strength,
stiffness, and dilatancy (volume change associated with application of shear
stress).
Water resources engineering
Water resources engineering is
concerned with the collection and management of water (as a natural
resource). As a discipline it therefore
combines hydrology, environmental science, meteorology, geology, conservation,
and resource management.
This area of civil engineering relates to the prediction and management of both
the quality and the quantity of water in both underground (aquifers) and above ground (lakes, rivers, and streams) resources.
Water resource engineers analyze and model very small to very large areas of
the earth to predict the amount and content of water as it flows into, through,
or out of a facility. Although the actual design of the facility may be left to
other engineers.
Hydraulic engineering is concerned
with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water. This area of civil
engineering is intimately related to the design of pipelines,
water supply network, drainage facilities (including bridges, dams, channels,
culverts, levees,
storm
sewers), and canals. Hydraulic engineers
design these facilities using the concepts of fluid
pressure, fluid
statics, fluid
dynamics, and hydraulics, among others.
Structural engineering
Structural engineering is concerned
with the structural design
and structural analysis
of buildings, bridges, towers,
flyovers (overpasses), tunnels, off shore structures like oil and
gas fields in the sea, aerostructure and other structures. This involves identifying the loads
which act upon a structure and the forces and stresses which arise within that
structure due to those loads, and then designing the structure to successfully
support and resist those loads. The loads can be self weight of the structures,
other dead load, live loads, moving (wheel) load, wind load, earthquake load,
load from temperature change etc. The structural engineer must design
structures to be safe for their users and to successfully fulfill the function
they are designed for (to be serviceable).
Due to the nature of some loading conditions, sub-disciplines within structural
engineering have emerged, including wind
engineering and earthquake engineering.
Design considerations will include
strength, stiffness, and stability of the structure when subjected to loads
which may be static, such as furniture or self-weight, or dynamic, such as
wind, seismic, crowd or vehicle loads, or transitory, such as temporary
construction loads or impact. Other considerations include cost,
constructability, safety,
aesthetics and sustainability.
Surveying
Surveying
is the process by which a surveyor measures certain dimensions that generally
occur on the surface of the Earth. Surveying equipment, such as levels and
theodolites, are used for accurate measurement of angular deviation,
horizontal, vertical and slope distances. With computerisation, electronic
distance measurement (EDM), total stations, GPS surveying and laser scanning
have supplemented (and to a large extent supplanted) the traditional optical
instruments. This information is crucial to convert the data into a graphical
representation of the Earth's surface, in the form of a map. This information
is then used by civil engineers, contractors and even realtors to design from,
build on, and trade, respectively. Elements of a building or structure must be
correctly sized and positioned in relation to each other and to site boundaries
and adjacent structures. Although surveying is a distinct profession with
separate qualifications and licensing arrangements, civil engineers are trained
in the basics of surveying and mapping,
as well as geographic information systems. Surveyors may also lay out the routes of railways, tramway
tracks, highways, roads, pipelines and
streets as well as position other infrastructures, such as harbors, before construction.
Land
surveying
In the United States, Canada, the
United Kingdom and most Commonwealth countries land surveying is considered to
be a distinct profession. Land
surveyors are not considered to be engineers,
and have their own professional associations and licencing requirements. The
services of a licenced land surveyor are generally required for boundary
surveys (to establish the boundaries of a parcel using its legal description)
and subdivision plans (a plot or map based on a survey of a parcel of land,
with boundary lines drawn inside the larger parcel to indicate the creation of
new boundary lines and roads), both of which are generally referred to as cadastral
surveying.
Construction
surveying
Construction surveying is generally
performed by specialised technicians. Unlike land surveyors, the resulting plan
does not have legal status. Construction surveyors perform the following tasks:
- Survey existing conditions of the future work site, including topography, existing buildings and infrastructure, and even including underground infrastructure whenever possible;
- Construction surveying (otherwise "lay-out" or "setting-out"): to stake out reference points and markers that will guide the construction of new structures such as roads or buildings for subsequent construction;
- Verify the location of structures during construction;
- As-Built surveying: a survey conducted at the end of the construction project to verify that the work authorized was completed to the specifications set on plans.
Transportation engineering
Transportation engineering is
concerned with moving people and goods efficiently, safely, and in a manner
conducive to a vibrant community. This involves specifying, designing,
constructing, and maintaining transportation infrastructure which includes streets,
canals, highways, rail
systems, airports, ports, and mass
transit. It includes areas such as
transportation design, transportation planning, traffic engineering, some aspects of urban engineering, queueing
theory, pavement engineering, Intelligent
Transportation System (ITS), and infrastructure
management.
Municipal or urban engineering
Municipal engineering is concerned
with municipal infrastructure. This involves specifying, designing,
constructing, and maintaining streets, sidewalks, water supply networks, sewers, street
lighting, municipal solid waste management and disposal, storage depots for various bulk
materials used for maintenance and public works (salt, sand, etc.), public
parks and bicycle paths. In the case of underground utility networks, it may also include the civil portion (conduits
and access chambers) of the local distribution networks of electrical and
telecommunications services. It can also include the optimizing of waste
collection and bus service networks. Some of these disciplines overlap with other
civil engineering specialties, however municipal engineering focuses on the
coordination of these infrastructure networks and services, as they are often
built simultaneously, and managed by the same municipal authority.
Forensic engineering
Forensic engineering is the
investigation of materials,
products,
structures or components that fail or do not operate or function as
intended, causing personal injury or damage to property. The consequences of
failure are dealt with by the law of product liability. The field also deals
with retracing processes and procedures leading to accidents in operation of
vehicles or machinery. The subject is applied most commonly in civil law cases,
although it may be of use in criminal law cases. Generally the purpose of a
Forensic engineering investigation is to locate cause or causes of failure with
a view to improve performance or life of a component, or to assist a court in
determining the facts of an accident. It can also involve investigation of
intellectual property claims, especially patents.
Control engineering
Control engineering
or control systems
engineering is the branch of Civil
Engineering discipline that applies control
theory to design systems with desired
behaviors. The practice uses sensors to measure the output performance of the
device being controlled (often a vehicle) and those measurements can be used to
give feedback to the input actuators that can make corrections toward desired
performance. When a device is designed to perform without the need of human
inputs for correction it is called automatic
control (such as cruise control for
regulating a car's speed). Multi-disciplinary in nature, control systems
engineering activities focus on implementation of control
systems mainly derived by mathematical modeling of systems of a diverse range.
No comments:
Post a Comment