Earthquake engineering
Earthquake engineering covers ability of various structures to withstand hazardous earthquake exposures at the sites of their particular location.
E
arthquake-proof
and massive pyramid El
Castillo, Chichen Itza
Earthquake engineering is a sub discipline of the broader category of Structural
. The main objectives of earthquake engineering are:
Snapshot from shake-table video [2] of testing base-isolated (right) and regular (left) building model
Understand interaction of structures with the shaky ground.
Foresee the consequences of possible earthquakes.
Design, construct and maintain structures to perform at earthquake exposure up to the expectations and in compliance with building codes.
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TEXT 15. Read and translate the text
Environmental engineering
A
filter bed, a part of sewage
treatment
Environmental engineering deals with the treatment of chemical, biological, and/or thermal waste, the purification of water and air, and the remediation of contaminated sites, due to prior waste disposal or accidental contamination. Among the topics covered by environmental engineering are pollutant transport, water purification,waste water treatment, air pollution, solid waste treatment and hazardous waste management. Environmental engineers can be involved with pollution reduction, green engineering, and industrial ecology. Environmental engineering also deals with the gathering of information on the environmental consequences of proposed actions and the assessment of effects of proposed actions for the purpose of assisting society and policy makers in the decision making process.
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 the term environmental engineering. Some other terms in use are public health engineering and environmental health engineering.
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Geotechnical engineering
C
onstruction
of an Embankment Dam in Navarra, Spain
Geotechnical engineering is an area of civil engineering concerned with the rock and soil that civil engineering systems are supported by. Knowledge from the fields of geology, material science and testing, mechanics, and hydraulics are applied by geotechnical engineers to safely and economically design foundations, retaining walls, and similar structures. Environmental concerns in relation to groundwater and waste disposal have spawned a new area of study called geoenvironmental engineering where biology and chemistry are important.
Some of the unique difficulties of geotechnical engineering are the result of the variability and properties of soil. Boundary conditions are often well defined in other branches of civil engineering, but with soil, clearly defining these conditions can be impossible. The material properties and behavior of soil are also difficult to predict due to the variability of soil and limited investigation. This contrasts with the relatively well defined material properties of steel and concrete used in other areas of civil engineering. Soil mechanics, which describes the behavior of soil, is also complicated because soils exhibit nonlinear (stress-dependent) strength, stiffness, and dilatancy (volume change associated with application of shear stress).
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What is Geotechnical engineering?
What is geoenvironmental engineering?
What fre some of the unique difficulties of geotechnical engineering?
What are the material properties and behavior of soil?
Where are they used?
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Water resources engineering
H
oover
dam
Water resources engineering is concerned with the collection and management of water (as anatural resource). As a discipline it therefore combines hydrology, environmental science,meteorology, geology, conservation, 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 analyze and model very small to very large areas of the earth to predict the amount and content of water as it flows into, through, 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 pipelines, water supply network, drainage facilities (including bridges, dams, channels,culverts, levees, storm sewers), and canals. Hydraulic engineers design these facilities using the concepts of fluid pressure, fluid statics, fluid dynamics, and hydraulics, among others.
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