What is Civil Engineering? History of Civil Engineering. What are the branches of Civil Engineering?

What is Civil Engineering?  History of Civil Engineering. What are the branches of Civil Engineering? 

Civil engineering is a branch of engineering that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally created environment, such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage systems, pipelines, building structural components, and railways.

Traditionally, Civil Engineering has been divided into several sub-disciplines. It is defined to distinguish non-military engineering from military engineering, and it is regarded the second-oldest engineering discipline after military engineering. Civil engineering can be found in the public sector, ranging from municipal public works departments to federal government agencies, as well as in the private sector, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations.

History of Civil Engineering. 

1.  Civil Engineering as Discipline. 

Civil engineering is the application of physical and scientific concepts to solve societal problems, and its history is inextricably related to breakthroughs in physics and mathematics throughout history. Because civil engineering is such a large field with so many sub-disciplines, its history is intertwined with knowledge of structures, materials science, geography, geology, soils, hydrology, environmental science, mechanics, project management, and other disciplines.

Throughout ancient and mediaeval history, craftspeople such as stonemasons and carpenters performed the majority of architectural design and building, rising to the position of master builder. Guilds kept their knowledge and innovations were rarely used to replace it. Existing structures, roads, and infrastructure were all the same, and scale additions were small.

The work of Archimedes in the 3rd century BC, which includes the Archimedes Principle, which underpins our understanding of buoyancy, and practical solutions such as Archimedes' screw, is one of the earliest examples of a scientific approach to physical and mathematical problems applicable to civil engineering. In the 7th century AD, Brahmagupta, an Indian mathematician, employed arithmetic based on Hindu-Arabic numerals for excavation (volume) computations. 

2.  Civil Engineering as Profession. 

Engineering has always been a part of life, dating back to the dawn of time. Civil engineering may have begun in ancient Egypt, the Indus Valley Civilization, and Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) between 4000 and 2000 BC, when humans began to abandon their nomadic lifestyles, necessitating the construction of shelter. Transportation became increasingly vital throughout this period, resulting in the development of the wheel and sails.

There was no apparent separation between civil engineering and architecture until modern times, and the terms engineer and architect were mostly regional variants referring to the same occupation, and they were frequently used interchangeably. Pyramid construction in Egypt (approximately 2700–2500 BC) was one of the earliest examples of large-scale structure construction.

The Qanat water management system is another ancient historic civil engineering structure (the oldest is older than 3000 years and longer than 71 km) The Parthenon, built by Iktinos in Ancient Greece (447–438 BC), the Appian Way, built by Roman engineers (c. 312 BC), the Great Wall of China, built by General Meng T'ien on orders from Ch'in Emperor Shih Huang Ti (c. 220 BC) and the stupas built in ancient Sri Lanka, such as the Jetavanaramaya and the extensive irrigation works in Anuradhapura Aqueducts, insulae, harbours, bridges, dams, and highways were among the civil buildings built by the Romans across their empire.

Civil engineering, as opposed to military engineering, was coined in the 18th century to encompass all things civilian. The École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, France's first institution for educating civil engineering, was founded in 1747, and other European countries, such as Spain, soon followed. John Smeaton, who built the Eddystone Lighthouse, was the first self-proclaimed civil engineer. In 1771, Smeaton and a few of his colleagues founded the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers, an informal gathering of industry executives who convened over dinner. Though there were occasional technical meetings, it was primarily a social organisation.

The Institution of Civil Engineers was created in London in 1818, and Thomas Telford, an accomplished engineer, was elected as its first president in 1820. In 1828, the college was granted a Royal Charter, establishing civil engineering as a profession.

3.  Civil Engineering as Education. 

Norwich University, founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge, was the first private college in the United States to provide civil engineering courses. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute conferred the first civil engineering degree in the United States in 1835. Nora Stanton Blatch received the first such degree from Cornell University in 1905.

The division between civil engineering and military engineering (served by the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich) in the UK during the early 19th century, combined with the demands of the Industrial Revolution, spawned new engineering education initiatives: the Class of Civil Engineering and Mining was founded at King's College London in 1838, primarily in response to the growth of the railway system and the need for more qualified engineers, and the private College for Civil & Military Engineering was founded in 1839.

About Civil Engineering Course

Civil engineers usually have a civil engineering degree from a university. The programme lasts three to five years, and the end result is a bachelor of technology or bachelor of engineering degree. Physics, mathematics, project management, design, and particular courses in civil engineering are all part of the curriculum. They continue on to high level specialisation in one or more sub-disciplines of civil engineering after studying fundamental courses in most sub-disciplines. While an undergraduate degree (BEng/BSc) usually gives successful students with an industry-accredited accreditation, certain academic institutions also offer post-graduate degrees (MEng/MSc), which allow students to specialise even more in their chosen field.

Branches Of Civil Engineering. 

Within the broad area of civil engineering, there are several sub-disciplines. Grading, drainage, pavement, water supply, sewer service, dams, electric and communications supplies are all designed by general civil engineers in collaboration with surveyors and specialised civil engineers. Site engineering, a field of civil engineering that largely focuses on changing a tract of land from one use to another, is also known as general civil engineering. Site engineers tour project sites, consult with stakeholders, and draught construction plans. Civil engineers use the principles of geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, environmental engineering, transportation engineering, and construction engineering to projects of all sizes and levels of development, including residential, commercial, industrial, and public works.

Construction Engineering. 

Planning and execution, material transportation, and site development based on hydraulic, environmental, structural, and geotechnical engineering are all aspects of construction engineering. Construction engineers frequently engage in more business-like transactions, such as drafting and analysing contracts, evaluating logistical operations, and monitoring supply costs, due to the fact that construction firms have a higher commercial risk than other types of civil engineering organisations.

Coastal Engineering. 

Coastal engineering deals with the management of coastal environments. The phrases sea defence and coastal protection are used interchangeably in some countries to refer to flood defence and erosion defence, respectively. Coastal defence is the more traditional phrase, but since the discipline has extended to include measures that allow erosion to claim territory, coastal management has become increasingly prevalent.

Earthquake Engineering. 

Earthquake engineering is the process of creating structures that can resist dangerous earthquakes. Earthquake engineering is a branch of structural engineering that deals with earthquakes. Understanding the interaction of structures on shaky ground; foreseeing the implications of probable earthquakes; and designing, constructing, and maintaining structures to perform at earthquake in compliance with building codes are the basic aims of earthquake engineering.

Environmental Engineering. 

Environmental engineering is the modern term for sanitary engineering, which traditionally did not contain much of the hazardous waste management and environmental remediation work that environmental engineering does. Other phrases used are public health engineering and environmental health engineering.

Treatment of chemical, biological, or thermal wastes, purification of water and air, and restoration of contaminated sites following waste disposal or accidental contamination are all covered by environmental engineering. Pollutant transport, water purification, waste water treatment, air pollution, solid waste treatment, recycling, and hazardous waste management are all topics covered by environmental engineering. Pollution control, green engineering, and industrial ecology are all handled by environmental engineers. Environmental engineers also generate data on the effects of planned activities on the environment.

Geotechnical Engineering. 

Geotechnical engineering is concerned with the study of the rock and soil that underpin civil engineering systems. Soil science, materials science, mechanics, and hydraulics are all used to build foundations, retaining walls, and other structures in a safe and cost-effective manner. Environmental initiatives to safeguard groundwater and keep landfills in good working order have produced a new field of study known as geo-environmental engineering. 

Geotechnical engineers face difficulties in determining soil qualities. Other fields of civil engineering have well-defined boundary conditions, but unlike steel or concrete, the material qualities and behaviour of soil are difficult to anticipate because to its variability and investigative limitations. Furthermore, soil has nonlinear (stress-dependent) strength, stiffness, and dilatancy (volume change associated with application of shear stress), all of which complicate soil mechanics research. Engineers that specialise in geotechnical issues are called Geotechnical Engineers.

Materials Science And Engineering. 

Civil engineering and materials science are intimately linked. It deals with ceramics like concrete and mix asphalt concrete, strong metals like aluminium and steel, and thermosetting polymers like polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and carbon fibres, among other things.

Protection and prevention are key components of materials engineering (paints and finishes). Alloying is the process of combining two metals to create a new metal with specific qualities. It combines physics and chemistry to create a unique product. Materials engineering has been at the forefront of academic research due to current media interest on nanoscience and nanotechnology. In forensic engineering and failure analysis, it is also crucial.

Structural Engineering. 

The structural design and analysis of buildings, bridges, towers, flyovers (overpasses), tunnels, off-shore constructions such as oil and gas fields in the sea, aerostructure, and other structures are all covered by structural engineering. This entails recognising the loads that act on a structure, as well as the forces and stresses that these loads cause within the structure, and then designing the structure to successfully sustain and resist those loads. The loads can be the structures' own weight, other dead loads, live loads, moving (wheel) loads, wind loads, earthquake loads, temperature change loads, and so on. The structural engineer must build structures that are both safe for their users and capable of performing the function for which they were created (to be serviceable).

The strength, stiffness, and stability of the structure when subjected to loads that 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, will all be considered during the design process. Cost, constructibility, safety, aesthetics, and sustainability are among the other factors to consider.

Surveying. 

Surveying is the technique of measuring particular dimensions that occur on or near the Earth's surface by a surveyor. For accurate measurement of angular deviation, horizontal, vertical, and slope distances, surveying equipment such as levels and theodolites are utilised. Electronic distance measurement (EDM), total stations, GPS surveying, and laser scanning have largely replaced traditional instruments as a result of computerization. Survey measurement data is transformed into a map, which is a graphical representation of the Earth's surface. Civil engineers, contractors, and realtors then use this information to plan, build, and trade, respectively. A structure's elements must be scaled and positioned in respect to one another, as well as to site boundaries and neighbouring structures.

Despite the fact that surveying is a different profession with its own set of qualifications and licencing requirements, civil engineers are taught the fundamentals of surveying, mapping, and geographic information systems. Before construction, surveyors map out the courses of railways, tramways, highways, roads, pipelines, and streets, as well as other infrastructure such as harbours.

Transportation Engineering. 

Transportation engineering is concerned with moving people and commodities in a cost-effective, safe, and community-friendly manner. This comprises speculating, designing, building, and maintaining transportation infrastructure such as streets, canals, highways, train systems, airports, ports, and public transportation. Transportation design, planning, traffic engineering, various parts of urban engineering, queueing theory, pavement engineering, Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), and infrastructure management are all covered.

Municipal  And Urban Engineering. 

Municipal engineering is concerned with the infrastructure of municipalities. Specification, design, construction, and maintenance of 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 cycling infrastructure are all part of this. It may also include the civil portion (conduits and access chambers) of local distribution networks of electrical and telecommunications services in the case of underground utility networks. It can also incorporate waste collection and transit service network optimization. Although some of these disciplines overlap with other civil engineering specialisations, municipal engineering concentrates on the coordination of various infrastructure networks and services, which are frequently created at the same time and controlled by the same municipal body.

Water Resource Engineering. 

The collection and management of water is the focus of water resources engineering (as a natural resource). It incorporates elements of hydrology, environmental science, meteorology, conservation, and resource management as a discipline. The quality and amount of water in both underground (aquifers) and above ground (lakes, rivers, and streams) resources are predicted and managed in this area of civil engineering. To estimate the amount and composition of water as it flows into, through, or out of a facility, water resource engineers examine and model very tiny to very vast portions of the planet. Although the facility's actual design may be left to other engineers.

The flow and conveyance of fluids, primarily water, is the subject of hydraulic engineering. Pipelines, water supply networks, drainage infrastructure (including bridges, dams, channels, culverts, levees, storm sewers), and canals are all part of this field of civil engineering. Fluid pressure, fluid statics, fluid dynamics, and hydraulics, among other ideas, are used by hydraulic engineers to construct these facilities.