What is Buttress Dam
What is Buttress Dam
a gravity dam reinforced by structural supports
Sunday, May 30, 2010
What is Buttress
What is Buttress
a support that transmits a force from a roof or wall to another supporting structure
What is Bulking
What is Bulking
increase in volume of a quantity of sand when in a moist condition compared to its volume when in a dry state.
What is Brittle
Brittle
characteristic of a material that fails without warning; brittle materials do not stretch or shorten before failing
What is Brace
Brace
(n.) a structural support; (v.) to strengthen and stiffen a structure to resist loads
What is Blended Hydraulic Cement
Blended Hydraulic Cement
cement containing combinations of portland cement, pozzolans, slag, and/or other hydraulic cement.
What is Bleeding
Bleeding
flow of mixing water from a newly placed concrete mixture caused by the settlement of the solid materials in the mixture.
What is Blast Furnace Slag
Blast Furnace Slag
nonmetallic byproduct of steel manufacturing, consisting essentially of silicates and aluminum silicates of calcium that are developed in a molten condition simultaneously with iron in a blast furnace.
What is Bends
Bends
an affliction developed by people moving in and out of caissons quickly; also called the bends and decompression sickness
What is Bend
Bend
(v.) to curve; bending occurs when a straight material becomes curved; one side squeezes together in compression, and the other side stretches apart in tension
What is Beam Bridge
Beam Bridge
a simple type of bridge, composed of horizontal beams supported by vertical posts
What is Batching
Batching
process of determining quantities either by mass or volumetric measurement and introducing into the mixer the ingredients for a batch of concrete, mortar, grout, or plaster.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
What is Autoclaved Cellular Concrete
Autoclaved Cellular Concrete
concrete containing very high air content resulting in low density, and cured at high temperature and pressure in an autoclave.
What is Architectural Concrete
Architectural Concrete
concrete that will be permanently exposed to view and which therefore requires special care in selection of concrete ingredients, forming, placing, consolidating, and finishing to obtain the desired architectural appearance.
What is Architect
Architect
a person who designs all kinds of structures; must also have the ability to conceptualize and communicate ideas effectively -- both in words and on paper -- to clients, engineers, government officials, and construction crews
What is Arch Dam
Arch Dam
a dam with an arched shape that resists the force of water pressure; requires less material than a gravity dam for the same distance
What is Arch Bridge
Arch Bridge
a curved structure that converts the downward force of its own weight, and of any weight pressing down on top of it, into an outward force along its sides and base
What is Aqueduct
Aqueduct
a bridge or channel for conveying water, usually over long distances
What is Anchorage
Anchorage
a secure fixing, usually made of reinforced concrete to which the cables are fastened
What is Aluminum
Aluminum
a lightweight chemical element (Al); the most abundant metallic element in the Earth's crust
What is Alkali Aggregate Reactivity
Alkali Aggregate Reactivity
production of expansive gel caused by a reaction between aggregates containing certain forms of silica or carbonates and alkali hydroxides in concrete.
What is Air Void
Air Void
entrapped air pocket or an entrained air bubble in concrete, mortar, or grout. Entrapped air voids usually are larger than 1 mm in diameter; entrained air voids are smaller. Most of the entrapped air voids should be removed with internal vibration, power screeding, or rodding.
What is Air Entrainment
Air Entrainment
intentional introduction of air in the form of minute, disconnected bubbles (generally smaller than 1 mm) during mixing of portland cement concrete, mortar, grout, or plaster to improve desirable characteristics such as cohesion, workability, and durability.
What is Air Entraining Portland Cement
Air Entraining Portland Cement
portland cement containing an air-entraining addition added during its manufacture.
What is Air Entraining Admixture
Air Entraining Admixture
admixture for concrete, mortar, or grout that will cause air to be incorporated into the mixture in the form of minute bubbles during mixing, usually to increase the material’s workability and frost resistance.
What is Air Content
Air Content
total volume of air voids, both entrained and entrapped, in cement paste, mortar, or concrete. Entrained air adds to the durability of hardened mortar or concrete and the workability of fresh mixtures.
What is Aggregate
Aggregate
granular mineral material such as natural sand, manufactured sand, gravel, crushed stone, aircooled blast-furnace slag, vermiculite, or perlite.
What is Admixture
Admixture
material, other than water, aggregate, and hydraulic cement, used as an ingredient of concrete, mortar, grout, or plaster and added to the batch immediately before or during mixing.
What is Accelerating Admixture
Accelerating Admixture
admixture that speeds the rate of hydration of hydraulic cement, shortens the normal time of setting, or increases the rate of hardening, of strength development, or both, of portland cement, concrete, mortar, grout, or plaster.
What is Abutment
the outermost end supports on a bridge, which carry the load from the deck
Read more...Municipal or urban engineering
Municipal or urban engineering
Main article: 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 garbage 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.
Transportation engineering
Transportation engineering
Main article: Transport 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.
Construction 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.
Land Surveying
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 indicated the creation of new boundary lines and roads).
Surveying and Construction surveying
Surveying
Main articles: Surveying and Construction surveying
An all-female surveying crew in Idaho, 1918
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.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Structural engineering
Structural engineering
Main article: Structural engineering
Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, in Dubai
Clifton Suspension Bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, in Bristol, UK
Structural engineering is concerned with the structural design and structural analysis of buildings, bridges, towers, flyovers, tunnels, off shore structures like oil and gas fields in the sea, 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.
Materials engineering
Materials engineering
Main article: Materials science
Another aspect of Civil engineering is materials science. Material engineering deals with ceramics such as concrete, mix asphalt concrete, metals Focus around increased strength, 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 material engineering, combining two different types of metals to produce a stronger metal.
Water resources engineering
Water resources engineering
See also: Hydraulic engineering
See also: Hydrology
Hoover dam
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 distribution systems, 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.
Geotechnical engineering
Geotechnical engineering
A slab-on-grade foundation
Main article: 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.[18][19]
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 define the behavior of soil, is complex due to stress-dependent material properties such as volume change, stress–strain relationship, and strength.[18]
Environmental engineering
Environmental engineering
Main article: Environmental engineering
A filter bed, a part of sewage treatment
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.
Earthquake engineering
Earthquake engineering
Main article: Earthquake engineering
Earthquake engineering covers ability of various structures to withstand hazardous earthquake exposures at the sites of their particular location.
Earthquake-proof and massive pyramid El Castillo, Chichen Itza
Earthquake engineering is a sub discipline of the broader category of Structural engineering. The main objectives of earthquake engineering are:[citation needed]
Snapshot from shake-table video [2] of testing base-isolated (right) and regular (left) building model
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.
Earthquake engineering structure does not necessarily mean "extremely strong" or "expensive", e.g., El Castillo pyramid at Chichen Itza shown above.[original research?]
Now, the most powerful and budgetary tool in earthquake engineering is base isolation which pertains to the passive structural vibration control technologies.[citation needed]
Construction engineering
Construction engineering
Main article: 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.
Coastal engineering
Coastal engineering
Main article: Coastal management
Coastal engineering is concerned with managing coastal areas. In some jurisdictions the terms sea defense and coastal protection are used to mean, respectively, defence against flooding and erosion. The term coastal defence 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
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