BASIC CIVIL ENGINEERING

UNIT-I
1. What a civil engineering? Explain the various contributions of civil engineers to the welfare
of the society?
Civil Engineering is the field of engineering concerned with planning, design and construction for
environmental control, development of natural resources, buildings, transportation facilities and other
structures required for health, welfare, safety, employment and pleasure of mankind.
The main scope of civil engineering or the task of civil engineering is planning, designing, estimating,
supervising construction, execution, and maintenance of structures like building, roads, bridges, dams,
etc.
Contributions of civil engineers to the welfare of the society:
1. Civil engineer will work on planning, design, construction and maintenance of projects such as roads,
buildings, dams, bridges, sewages and water supply systems.
2. Civil engineering is about community service, development, and improvement.
3. Civil engineers often use theory and models to predict how a design will perform.
4. Civil engineers test their ideas on field without endangering life.
5. Civil engineers develop infrastructure for the society which is the backbone of the society.
6. Civil engineers increase the health and quality of life by developing better water supply, sewage
systems, and waste water plants, to protect from natural hazards and provide health care.
7. Civil engineers improve agriculture through water management systems and distribution projects.
8. Civil engineers provide solution for the rapid and dramatic changes of transportation.
9. Structural engineers deals with connections design, analysis and construction of components to resist
loads from internal and external forces.
10. As a structural engineer, you will face the challenge of analyzing and designing structures to ensure
that they safely perform their purpose.
11. They must support their own weight and resist dynamic environmental loads such as hurricanes,
earthquakes, blizzards, and floods.
12. Stadiums, arenas, skyscrapers, offshore oil structures, space platforms, amusement park rides, bridges,
office buildings, and homes are a few of the many types of projects in which structural engineers are
involved
13. Structural engineers develop new materials other than steel and cements which with stand more loads
& have high strength by weight ratio which includes FRP, polymers, etc,.
14. Geotechnical engineers apply the knowledge about the behavior of soils and its composition for
design of Foundations, retaining walls, earth dams, clay liners and geo synthetics for waste condiments.
15. Examples of facilities in the earth are tunnels, deep foundations, and pipelines. Highway pavements
and many buildings are supported on the earth.
16. Certain important goals of geotechnical engineering include
1. Design of foundation 2.design temporary/permanent excavations 3.landfill disposal of waste. 4.
Ground water contamination
17. Transportation plays and essential role in the development of the society by providing trade routes
and harbors air routes etc,.
18. Civil engineers plan, design, built, operate and maintain these of transport.
19. Civil engineers provide safe, efficient and convenient movement of people and goods
20. Civil engineers consider the forces and movements, weight and stress of the vehicles in motion and
centrifugal forces at curves while the design the transportation.
21. The collection, storage, treatment, transmission and distribution of water played a significant role in
urbanization, population growth and commercial agriculture and land use.
22. Clean, potable water piped from a far led to the development of such large cities as Las Vegas, and
the suburban areas around Chicago and Los Angeles.
23. During the 20th century, water supply and distribution systems have led to an increase in life
expectancy, reduction in infant mortality and morbidity, and improvements in environmental quality in
developed countries.
2. ROLE OF CIVIL ENGINEERS
A civil engineer has to conceive, plan, estimate, get approval, create and maintain all civil engineering
activities. Civil engineer has very important role in the development of the following infrastructure:
1. Measure and map the earth’s surface.
2. Plan new townships and extension of existing towns.
3. Build the suitable structures for the rural and urban areas for various utilities.
4. Build tanks and dams to exploit water resources.
5. Build river navigation and flood control projects.
6. Build canals and distributaries to take water to agricultural fields.
7. Purify and supply water to the needy areas like houses, schools, offices etc.
8. Provide and maintain communication systems like roads, railways, harbors and airports.
9. Devise systems for control and efficient flow of traffic.
10. Provide and maintain solid and waste water disposal system.
11. Monitor land, water and air pollution and take measures to control them.Fast growing industrialization
has put heavy responsibilities on civil engineers to preserve and protect environment.
12. They use scientific and engineering principles for solutions of different engineering problems.
13. Also they adopt implement management techniques for better management of man, material,
machines and money.
3. Briefly explain sub divisions of civil engineering and their scope.
Civil engineering may be divided into the following fields:
 Building materials
 Building construction
 Structural engineering
 Geotechnical engineering
 Hydraulics, water resources and irrigation engineering
 Water supply and sanitary engineering
 Environmental engineering
 Transportation engineering
 Town planning and architecture
 Surveying
 Drawing
 Estimation and specification
 Management techniques
Structural Engineering:
Before building a structure, it should be analysed and designed to decide about its size to resist the
possible forces coming on it.
The structure should be safe and at the same time its components should be as small as possible.
Need of tall structures and improvements in computers gave rise to matrix method and finite element
method of analysis
Disasters due to earthquakes have made civil engineers to study earthquake forces and build earthquake
resistant structures.
It needs the knowledge of structural dynamics.
A civil engineer has to not only give a safe structure but he has to give an economical structure also.
Hence, there is need for studying mathematical optimisation techniques.
All these aspects of analysis and design fall under structural engineering field.
The role of structural engineers is as follows:
 Structural engineers are trained to understand, predict, and calculate the stability, strength and
rigidity of built structures for buildings and non building structures.
 Develop designs and integrate their design with that of other designers, and supervise construction
of projects on site.
 A structural engineer has to not only give a safe structure but he has to give an economical
structure also. Hence, there is need for studying mathematical optimization techniques.
 Structural engineers are responsible for making creative and efficient use of funds, structural
elements and materials to achieve these goals.
 Disasters due to earthquakes have made civil engineers to study earthquake forces and build
earthquake resistant structures. It needs the knowledge of structural dynamics.
Geotechnical Engineering:
All structures have to finally transfer the load acting on them to soil safely.
Soil property changes from place to place. Even in the same place it may not be uniform at different depth
and in different seasons.
Hence, a civil engineer has to properly investigate soil and decide about the safe load that can be spread
on the soil. This branch of study in civil engineering is known as geotechnical engineering.
Apart from finding safe bearing capacity for foundation of buildings, geotechnical engineering involves
various studies required for the design of pavements, tunnels, earthen dam, canals and earth retaining
structures.
It involves study of ground improvement techniques also.
Hydraulics, Water Resources and Irrigation Engineering:
Water is an important need for all living beings. Study of mechanics of water and its flow characteristics
is another important field in civil engineering and it is known as hydraulics.
Requirement of water in cities for domestic purpose and for industries is continuously increasing. Rural
areas need water for agricultural field also. Hence civil engineers have to look for new water resources
and for storing them. This branch of civil engineering is known as water resources engineering.
Water stored in reservoirs by building bunds and dams should be brought to agricultural fields through
canals and distributories. Study connected with this aspect is known as irrigation engineering.
Water Supply and Sanitary Engineering:
When water is required for drinking purpose it should be purified and made potable. Purification of water
and the technology involved in taking it to the houses is known as water supply engineering.
Waste waster and solid waste should be treated and disposed so that they do not create health hazard. This
branch of civil engineering is known as sanitary engineering.
Environmental Engineering:
Apart from tackling solid and waste water disposal civil engineers have to tackle air pollution problem
also.
Due to industrialization air pollution is becoming a major problem.
It is estimated that for every ton of cement produced one ton of CO2 is released to environment.
Vehicles also produce lot of CO2.
During the last one century, the environmental pollution has resulted in global warming by 4°C.
An environmental disaster will be unavoidable if China, India and other developing countries start
consuming as much energy and materials as the West did it in its march to industrialization.
Hence environmental engineering is emerging as an important field of study in civil engineering.

Transportation Engineering:
Transportation facility is another important need. Providing good and economical road links is an
important duty of civil engineers.
It involves design and construction of base courses, suitable, surface finishes, cross drainage works,
intersections, culverts, bridges and tunnels etc.
Railways is another important long-way transport facility.
Design, construction and maintenance of railway lines are parts of transportation engineering.
Globalization has resulted into requirement of airports and harbors.
For proper planning of these transport facilities, traffic survey is to be carried out.
Carrying out traffic survey and then planning, designing, construction and maintenance of roads, railways,
bridges, tunnels, airports and harbors is known as transportation engineering.
Town Planning and Architecture:
With the growth of population and industries new towns are coming up and existing ones are growing.
Proper town planning is to be made by civil engineers. Structures should be aesthetically good also.
Architecture covers this area. This field of civil engineering has grown up so much that it has become a
separate branch of engineering.
Surveying:
For planning all developmental activities, proper maps are required. The science of map making is known
as surveying.
Survey maps provide the relative positions of various objects of the area in the horizontal as well as
vertical directions.
Earlier conventional instruments like chain, tape, compasses, theodolites and levels were used for various
measurements in surveying.
In this electronic era the modern equipments like electronic distance meters and total stations are used for
measurements.
Modern technology like remote sensing has made surveying vast area in a short period possible.
5. Write short note on impact of infrastructure development on the economy of the country.
Civil engineering activities in the infrastructural development are:
(i) Good planning of towns and extension areas in the cities. Each extension area should be self sufficient
in accommodating offices, educational institutions, markets, hospitals, recreational facilities and
residential accommodation.
(ii) Assured water supply.
(iii) A good drainage system.
(iv) Pollution free environmental conditions.
(v) A well planned and built network of roads and road crossings.
(vi) Railways connections to all important cities and towns.
(vii) Airports and harbours of national and international standards.
Infrastructure also involves electricity supply, without assured electric supply no city town can develop.
Internet and telephones are also desirable features.
Educational facility also forms part of infrastructure. Proximity of good primary and secondary schools to
residential areas is desirable. Collegiate and professional education also form part of infrastructure of a
city.
Good health care facility is a necessity. Primary health centres, specialised hospitals and doctors add to
the desirable infrastructure facility.
Effect of infrastructure facilities are:
1. Connecting producing centres to marketing places minimise exploitation of producers by middlemen.
Imports and exports became easy and as a result of which whole world becomes a village.
2. Improved irrigation facility enhances agricultural products and hence producers as well as consumers
are benefitted.
3. Infrastructural facility develops scope for a number of industries and it creates job opportunities.
4. Improved education and health care give rise to skilled and healthy work force. Quality of life of the
people is improved.
5. Utilisation of manpower for the benefit of mankind brings down antisocial activities.
6. In case of natural calamities assistance can be easily extended to the affected areas and misery of
affected people minimised.
7. Infrastructural facility imporves defence system and peace exists in the country.
8. Improved economical power of the country brings a respectable status in the world.
The world has realised that a government should not involve itself in production and distribution but
should develop infrastructure to create an atmosphere for economical development.