Introduction to Civil Engineering

 Engineering is a profession of converting scientific knowledge into useful practical applications, where the materials & forces in nature are effectively used for the benefit of mankind. An Engineer is a person who plays a key role in such activities.

Civil engineering is the second oldest branch after military engineering. The professional civil engineers are concerned with projects for the public or civilians. The role of civil engineers is seen in every walk of life or infrastructure development activity such as follows:-

1.     Complete construction project s by preparing engineering design and documents and confirming specifications.

2.     Providing shelter to people in the form of low-cost houses to high rise apartments.

3.     Laying ordinary village roads to express highways.

4.     Constructing irrigation tanks, multipurpose dams & canals for supplying water to agricultural fields.

5.     Supplying safe and potable water for public & industrial uses.

6.     Protecting our environment by adopting sewage treatment & solid waste-disposal techniques.

7.     Constructing hydro-electric & thermal-power plants for generating electricity.

8.     Providing other means of transportation such as railways, harbour & airports.

9.     Constructing bridges across streams, rivers and also across seas.

10.  Tunnelling across mountains & also underwater to connect places easily &reduce distance.

The different fields of civil engineering and the scope of each can be briefly

discussed as follows.

 Surveying:

It is a science and art of determining the relative position of points on the earth‘s surface by measuring distances, directions and vertical heights directly or indirectly. Surveying helps in preparing maps and plans, which help in project implementation. (Setting out the alignment for a road or railway track or canal, deciding the location for a dam or airport or harbour) The cost of the project can also be estimated before implementing the project.


Coastal Engineering:

Coastal engineering is concerned with managing coastal areas. In some jurisdictions, the terms sea defence and coastal protection mean defence against flooding and erosion, respectively. The term coastal defence is the more traditional term, but coastal management has become more popular as the field has expanded to techniques that allow erosion to claim land.



Construction engineering

Construction engineering involves planning and execution, transportation of materials, site development based on hydraulic, environmental, structural and geotechnical engineering. As construction firms tend to have higher business risk than other types of civil engineering firms do, construction engineers often engage in more business-like transactions, for example, drafting and reviewing contracts, evaluating logistical operations, and monitoring prices of supplies.



Earthquake engineering

Earthquake engineering involves designing structures to withstand hazardous earthquake exposures. Earthquake engineering is a sub-discipline of structural engineering. The main objectives of earthquake engineering are to understand the interaction of structures on the shaky ground; foresee the consequences of possible earthquakes; and design, construct and maintain structures to perform at the earthquake in compliance with building codes.




Environmental engineering

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 environmental engineering. Public health engineering and environmental health engineering are other terms being used.

Environmental engineering deals with the treatment of chemical, biological, or thermal wastes, purification of water and air, and remediation of contaminated sites after waste disposal or accidental contamination. Among the topics covered by environmental engineering are pollutant transport, water purificationwastewater treatment, air pollution, solid waste treatmentrecycling, and hazardous waste management. Environmental engineers administer pollution reduction, green engineering, and industrial ecology. Environmental engineers also compile information on environmental consequences of proposed actions.



Geotechnical engineering

Geotechnical engineering studies rock and soil supporting civil engineering systems. Knowledge from the field of soil science, materials science, mechanics, and hydraulics is applied to safely and economically design foundationsretaining walls, and other structures. Environmental efforts to protect groundwater and safely maintain landfills have spawned a new area of research called geoenvironmental engineering.

Identification of soil properties presents challenges to geotechnical engineers. Boundary conditions are often well defined in other branches of civil engineering, but unlike steel or concrete, the material properties and the behaviour of soil are difficult to predict due to its variability and limitation on the investigation. Furthermore, soil exhibits nonlinear (stress-dependent) strength, stiffness, and dilatancy (volume change associated with the application of shear stress), making studying soil mechanics all the more difficult.  Geotechnical engineers frequently work with professional geologists and soil scientists.


Structural engineering

Structural engineering is concerned with the structural design and structural analysis of buildings, bridges, towersflyovers (overpasses), tunnels, offshore 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 fulfil 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.



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 planningtraffic engineering, some aspects of urban engineeringqueueing theorypavement engineeringIntelligent Transportation System (ITS), and infrastructure management.


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 elements of hydrology, environmental science, meteorologyconservation, 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 analyse and model very small to very large areas of the earth to predict the amount and content of water as it flows into, though, 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 pipelineswater supply network, drainage facilities (including bridges, dams, channelsculvertsleveesstorm sewers), and canals. Hydraulic engineers design these facilities using the concepts of fluid pressurefluid staticsfluid dynamics, and hydraulics, among others.



Municipal or urban engineering

Municipal engineering is concerned with municipal infrastructure. This involves specifying, designing, constructing, and maintaining streets, sidewalkswater supply networks, sewers, street lightingmunicipal solid waste management and disposal, storage depots for various bulk materials used for maintenance and public works (salt, sand, etc.), public parks and cycling infrastructure. 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 specialities, 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. Municipal engineers may also design the site civil works for large buildings, industrial plants or campuses (i.e. access roads, parking lots, potable water supply, treatment or pre-treatment of wastewater, site drainage, etc.)



Material engineering

Materials science and engineering influence our lives each time we buy or use a new device, machine, or structure. The definition of the academic field of Materials Science & Engineering stems from a realization concerning every application of materials: it is the properties of the material that give it value. Material may be chosen for its strength, its electrical properties, resistance to heat or corrosion, or a host of other reasons; but they all relate to properties.







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  1. Sir ye sab ko notebooks me likhna hai kya pure attachment ko

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