NOTES SOCIETY CEM585 – CHAPTER 3a

SUB DISCIPLINES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

1. Introduction of The Civil Engineering

 Dictionary meaning of the word ‘civil’ is itself ‘about the citizens.’
 Thus all activities and basic areas of civil engineering aim at the betterment, safety and
convenience of people. i.e. society
 Civil engineering has been an aspect of life since the beginning of human existence.
 A civil engineer may be described as a person having responsibility for the design, construction
and maintenance of a nation’s infrastructure.

2. History Of Civil Engineering

 Civil engineering can be define as an engineering discipline that deals with the design,
construction and maintenance of the built structures such as buildings, bridges, roads, railways,
canals, dams, reservoirs and spillways.
 The oldest discipline after military engineering and also the starting point of Engineering
branches.
 This oldest branch of engineering had begun to commence between 4000 and 2000 BC in
ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia when human started to abandon a nomadic existence which
cause a need for the construction of shelter.

3. Specializations In Civil Engineering Discipline

 At present Civil Engineering has following specialization or sub discipline
i. Structural Engineering
ii. Environmental Engineering
iii. Geotechnical Engineering
iv. Construction Engineering
v. Transportation Engineering
vi. Earthquake Engineering
vii. Water Resources Engineering
viii. Surveying Engineering
ix. Material Engineering
x. Costal Engineering
xi. Urban engineering
i. Structural Engineering
 Concerned with the design, construction and analysis of all kinds of structures like buildings,
bridges, towers, flyovers, tunnels, roads, railways, dams, airfields and off shore structure.
 Involves estimating the dead loads, live loads, moving loads, earthquake load that may act on
the structures.
 The Structures are designed and analyzed calculating the stresses due to those loads.
 Determine the combination of appropriate building materials that include steel, concrete, wood
and other materials.

ii. Geotechnical Engineering

 Concerned mainly with soil mechanics and foundation of structures.
 The discipline of civil engineering in which study of soil, its behavior on application of load, its
application as an engineering materials in the construction earth dams, embankments, retaining
walls, slope, etc, are done
 The stability of slope of soil, testing of soil for its bearing capacity, pile and other types of
foundation and footing construction and design are also studied in this discipline.
 The role of structure and geotechnical engineers is a necessity for the design of foundation of tall
building

iii. Environmental Engineering

 Deals with the treatment of purification of drinking water chemical, biological and purification of
waste, the purification air in the environment, and the remedial measures of contaminated sites
due to prior waste disposal or contamination.
 The topics covered by environmental engineering are pollutant transport, water purification,
waste water treatment, air pollution, solid waste management and treatment, and hazardous
waste management
 Environmental engineers are required to be involved with industrial ecology, green engineering
and pollution reduction

iv. Construction Engineering

 Very mush related to environmental and structure engineering.
 A suitable environment is built by construction of building and other structure.
 Codes of building-bye-laws ensure good and sound construction.
 Construction engineering thus consists of different techniques of construction for different
materials under different site condition.
 Construction machineries, management of labour, material method of construction adopted
relating to site, fund available, all are under the purview of this discipline.
v. Transportation engineering
 Concerned with moving people, vehicles and goods efficiently and safely without consuming any
extra time with the help of different ways of transportation.
 This involves specifying, designing, constructing, and maintaining transportation infrastructure
which includes roads, traffic islands, highways, railways, canals, airports, ports, and mass transit.
 It includes areas such as transportation design, transportation planning, traffic engineering,
some aspects of urban engineering, queuing theory, pavement engineering, Intelligent Transport
System (ITS), and infrastructure management.

vi. Earthquake engineering

 Covers ability of various structures to withstand the forces induced to different structures at the
site of construction.
 It is actually a sub-discipline of structural engineering
 Main objectives are:
o Force and acceleration on building due to earthquake, i.e., to understand the interaction
of structure with the shaky ground.
o Building response characteristics of different shaped structures
o Drift of the building and other high structures under the action of earthquake lateral
force.
o Design, construction, maintenance of building and other structures to resist fully the
hazardous earthquake force
 Due to the damage of weak structures, tall building, failure of dams etc. in different parts of
world in earthquake prone areas, this type of engineering has gained importance for further
study and research.

vii. Water resources engineering

 Concerned with the collection, management and exploitation of this natural water resource from
the river, stream, lake, reservoirs and from the underground.
 Its combines open channel, floe, hydraulics, hydrology, irrigation and water power engineering,
flood control and erosion, meteorology, geology, soil conservation, and resource management.
 This area of civil engineering relates to the prediction and management of both the quality and
the quantity of water available in both underground and surface sources.
viii. Surveying engineering
 Defined as the art of determination of relative position of points above or below the surface of
earth by means of linear and angular measurement, distance, elevation and direction.
 Surveying further may be defined as the technique and science of accurately determining the
terrestrial or three dimensional space position of points and the distances and angles between
them.
 The maps of the different points of an area drawn in plan or in a vertical section with different
scales which are essential for different engineering project like roads, highways, railroad, water
supply, irrigation, transmission lines, bridges, building, dams and reservoirs.
 It is required for location of different geological structures.

ix. Materials engineering

 Deals with ceramics such as concrete, mix asphalt concrete, metals, cement, sands, lime, bricks,
stones, ferrous and non ferrous materials, timber, paints, plastics,
 Focus around increased strength, metals such as aluminum, steel, glass, alloys, gypsum, tiles,
plaster of Paris and carbon fibers.
 Most of the materials of this sub branch are building materials.

x. Coastal engineering
 Concerned with managing coastal areas
 In some jurisdictions the terms sea management and coastal protection are used to mean,
respectively, defense against flooding and erosion.

xi. Urban and municipal engineering

 Concerned with municipal infrastructure
 Involves specifying, design, 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, public parks and
bicycle paths.
 It can also include the optimizing of garbage collection and bus service networks.
 Some of these discipline overlap with other civil engineering dub branches, 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.