Introduction to Civil Engineering

MODULE - 1
CIVIL ENGINEERING DISCIPLINES AND BUILDING SCIENCE
Engineering:
Engineering can be defined as the role of directing natural resources
to the use and convenience of man.
OR
It 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:
• It is the oldest branch of professional engineering, where the civil
engineers are concerned with projects for the public or civilians.
• Civil Engineering involves surveying, planning, designing, construction
and maintenance for any construction project including supervision for
expected quality of materials of construction as well as efficient
construction management techniques.
• Civil Engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with
the analysis, design, construction and maintenance of infrastructural
facilities.
• Its relation to the fulfilment of human needs is direct whereas other
branches are complimentary to the work of civil engineering.
• It is also called as general engineering because it uses the principles and
information provided by other branches while construction civil
structures.
• Providing shelter to people in the form of low cost houses to high rise
apartments.
• Laying ordinary village roads to express highways.
• Constructing irrigation tanks, multipurpose dams & canals for supplying
water to agricultural fields.
• Supplying safe and potable water for public & industrial uses.
• Protecting our environment by adopting sewage treatment & solid waste
disposal techniques.
• Constructing hydro-electric & thermal-power plants for generating
electricity.
• Providing other means of transportation such as railways, harbour &
airports.
• Constructing bridges across streams, rivers and also across seas.
• Tunneling across mountains & also under water to connect places easily
& reduce distance.

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• Advance instruments such as Total station, GPS, GIS and remote sensing
for least error and fast work.

Introduction to Civil Engineering

Scope of Different fields of Civil Engineering

1. Surveying
i. Surveying is the most fundamental civil engineering subject deals with
measurements and plotting of maps.
ii. Surveying is the art of determining relative positions of points on the
surface of the earth by means of distances, directions and elevations.
iii. Before the construction of any structure, surveying of the land, on which
the construction is to come up, is always done.

Classification of surveying
• Plane surveying:
• In this type of surveying, the effect of the shape or curvature of earth
is not taken into account.
• The surface of earth is taken to be a plane surface.
• It is adapted for small areas.
• Accuracy is relatively low.
• Geodetic surveying:
• In this type of surveying, the effect of the shape or curvature of earth
is taken into account.
• This survey is carried out for long distances and larger areas
• Accuracy is very high.

Classification of surveying based on purpose:

• Topographic surveying: These surveys are carried out to locate the
natural and artificial features on the surface of earth such as rivers,
hills, lakes, roads, railways
• Cadastral surveying: These surveys are required for determining the
boundaries of fields and other proportions to a larger scale.
• City surveying: These survey are carried out for laying out the
boundaries of plots for the location of water supply and sewer lines.

Scope of Surveying
• To prepare the plan or map
• To establish boundaries of land
• To measure the area and volume of land
• To select suitable site for an engineering project
• Advent of electronic devices has simplified the method of surveying.

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Applications
• Determining correct distance between objects or stations.
• Determination of relative position of objects and preparing
topographical maps.
• Alignment of tunnels, dams, canals, roads, railway lines, water-supply
lines, sewer lines etc
• Determinations of elevations of stations
• Town planning with the help of GIS, Remote sensing, Aerial
photography
• Calculation of earthwork involved in a construction project.
• Preparing cadastral map showing boundaries of the fields, houses etc

2. Structural Engineering
▪ Structural engineering deals with analysis and design of structures.
▪ Assessing the internal stresses and internal forces in the component
of structures is known as structural analysis.
▪ Finding suitable size of structural component known as design of
structure.
▪ Load acting on a structure is ultimately transferred to the ground.
▪ Matrix method and finite element of analysis have helped in the
analysis of multi-storied structure.
▪ With the advance of computers, the analysis and design of structures
are easy and becoming popular.
▪ Frequent earthquakes in the recent years have brought importance of
analysis of structures for earthquake forces.
▪ Design of new structures
▪ Upgrading existing structures
▪ Intelligent use of new technologies and materials to control structural
behavior
▪ Structures include buildings, bridges, offshore platforms,
transmission towers, and other specialized facilities
Scope of structural engineering
▪ Planning, designing and building the structure.
▪ Responsibility about the safety and serviceability of the structure for
its life time.
▪ Involved in analyse and design, which is a vital force in improving the
structures of tomorrow.
▪ Prepared to accept the natural calamities
▪ Analysis, design and drawing softwares.

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3. Geo- technical Engineering

▪ It is also called as Soil mechanics.
▪ In this branch of Civil engineering, the study of soil and behaviour on
the application of load and its use as engineering material is studied.
▪ Soil property changes from place to place. Even in the same place it
may not be uniform at various depth.
▪ Soil property may vary from season to season due to variation in
moisture content.
▪ All structures are founded on ground. Load from structure is to be
safely transferred to soil. For this, Safe bearing capacity of soil is to be
properly assessed.
▪ Proper knowledge of geotechnical engineering is necessary for safety
and stability of structures.
▪ Includes various types of foundation like shallow foundation, deep
foundation , pile foundation, well foundation.
▪ Involves study foundation of
 Dams, bridge, road pavement, harbours
 Earth dams
 Tunnels, underground structures
▪ Geotechnical engineers:
 Investigate Sub-soil explorations i.e., studying the properties of
the soil underneath.
 Design and construction of foundations for all the structures.
 Assess risks posed by site conditions.
 Estimation of Safe bearing capacity and improving the bearing
capacity.
 Design of retaining walls and earthen dams/embankments.
 Estimation of the depth of water table, groundwater, and
seismic activities at different depths below ground level.

4. Environmental Engineering
• It involves the protection and enhancement of the quality of
environment.
• This is an important branch of civil engineering which covers both
water supply and sanitary engineering.
• It deals with subject of tapping water from different sources, testing its
quality, purification process and distribution of water to consumers.
• Proper distributions of water to rural areas, towns, cities and disposal
of waste water and solid waste is an important phenomenon of
environmental engineering.
• The importance of clean environment was felt with the rapid growth of
population and the growth in urbanization and industries.

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• It encompasses the treatment of waste water from different sources

and removal of harmful substances in these wastes by different
process.
• Industrialization, rapid growth of population and increase in vehicular
traffic are creating air pollution problems.
• The central and state government have made laws for the protection of
environment needed for the safe living of human beings.
• Research and development for recycling/reusing the mass or energy
from wastes.
• Conservation and preservation of natural resources and environment.
• Monitoring control and prevention of different types of pollution.
• Treatment of drinking water
• Aeration
• Coagulation
• Sedimentation
• Filtration
• Disinfection

5. Construction Technology and management

• It is the major activity of civil engineering which is continuously
improving.
• As land cost is going up there is a demand of tall structures in urban
areas while in rural areas need is for low cost construction.
• Deals with planning, scheduling and execution of construction activity
related to a project.
• Organization of men, material, machine and money which is the back
bone of construction management.
• Construction technology comprised of different techniques of
construction for different materials under different site conditions.
• It is the discipline that deals with different types of construction with
requisite economy, efficiency and factor of safety.
• Alternative building technology, low cost construction. Ex Nirmithi
Kendras
• It covers the planning of different building units to provide a suitable
environment for the activities designed for building.
• It also covers the maintenance and repairs of the building.
• Provide Quality control and systematically completion of the
construction work
• Use of modern and effective methods/techniques and construction
machines.

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6. Water Resource Engineering

• People in every village, town & city need potable water. Human beings,
animals and plants require water for their survival.
• Water resource engineering can be defined as the science dealing with
tapping water from the surface or subsurface sources.
• The water available (surface water & groundwater) may not be fit for
direct consumption. In such cases, the water should be purified and
then supplied to the public. For water purification, sedimentation
tanks, filter beds, etc. should be designed.
• If the treatment plants are far away from the town or city, suitable
pipelines for conveying water & distributing it should also be
designed.
• Surface water is easy and economical however its availability cannot
be relied upon continuously since it varies with the season.
• Subsurface water is obtainable all round and its use along with the
surface water.
• In a town or city, a part of the water supplied returns as sewage. This
sewage should be systematically collected and then disposed into the
natural environment after providing suitable treatment.
• It facilitates to control utilize water to serve wide variety of purposes.
• Applications
o Estimating quantity of water available at given places
o Water supply schemes for cropping, drinking and other
purposes.
o Calculating reservoir capacity and catchment area.
o Design and construction of dams and canals
o Flood control arrangements
o Recommending effective techniques such as drip irrigation
and sprinkler irrigation.

7. Transportation Engineering
• Transportation is an important infrastructure for the development of
any country.
• This subject deals with the transport of men and materials through
different communication routes such as land, water and Air.
• The transport system includes roadways, railways, air & waterways.
Here the role of civil engineers is to construct facilities related to each
one. Providing good economical roads is the duty of civil engineers.
• Sometimes crucial sections of railways & roads should be improved.
Roads to remote places should be developed.
• Ports & harbours should be designed to accommodate, all sizes of
vehicles.

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• For an airport, the runway & other facilities such as taxiways,

terminal buildings, control towers etc. should be properly designed.
• The knowledge of surveying and levelling is very useful before deciding
the alignments of roads, railways and tunnels.
• For proper planning of these transportation facility, traffic survey is to
be carried out.
• Carrying out traffic survey, design, construction and maintenance of
roads, bridges, railways, airports and harbours is known as
Transportation Engineering.
• Design and construction of different types of roads.
• Traffic management and parking facilities.
• Avoid heavy traffic through cities/villages by providing bye-
pass/diversion roads, expressway.
• Help the economic growth of regions and countries through a fast
transportation system.

8. Hydraulics
• It is the branch of science in which deals with study of fluids at rest
and in motion.
• Water is an important need for all living beings. Study of mechanics of
water and its flow characteristics is known as Hydraulics.
• When water is drawn off from a reservoir and conveyed through open
channels the knowledge of the behaviour of liquids in motion is
studied.
• Certain machines that work on the water are used for electricity
generation and are termed as hydraulic machines.
• The concept of fluid pressure, fluid static, flow pattern helps engineers
to design the structures like dams, reservoirs, bridges, sewage system
etc.

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