Civil Engineering Basics

Civil Engineering: It is the oldest branch of engineering which deals with planning, designing, construction and maintenance of structures.


Branches in civil engineering
1. Surveying
2. Structural Engineering
3. Geotechnical Engineering
4. Transportation Engineering
5. Environmental Engineering
6. Water resource Engineering

1. Surveying: It is the technique of determining the position of some point with respect to the reference points directly or indirectly.


Types of surveying:
1 Plane surveying
2. Geodetic surveying


Plane Surveying: It is that type of surveying in which the mean surface of the earth is considered as a plane and the spheroidal shape is neglected. All triangles formed by survey lines are considered as plane triangles. The level line is considered as straight and plumb lines are considered parallel. In other words, when small areas are to be surveyed, the curvature of the earth’s surface is ignored and such a surveying is called plane surveying.


Geodetic Surveying: It is that type of surveying in which the curved shape of the earth is taken in to account. The object of geodetic survey is to determine the precise position on the surface of the earth, of a system of widely distant points, which form control stations in which surveys of less precision may be referred.


2. Structural Engineering: It is the branch of civil engineering, which deals with
a) Planning
b) Designing
c) Construction of infrastructure
d) Analysis of structure for different combination of loads
e) Analysis of serviceability of the structure


3. Geotechnical Engineering: It is the branch of civil engineering, which deals with
a) Property of soil in the site to be constructed.
b) Bearing capacity of soil from the building.
c) Selecting type of foundation required for the particular structure.
d) Study of soil structure interaction.
e) Study the effect on soil during mining, earthquake, landslides etc…


4. Transportation Engineering: It is the branch of civil engineering, which deals with
a) Planning, designing and construction of runways, railways and highways.
b) Study the accident zones for safe and comfort transport system.
c) Promoting public transport and mass transport system.
d) Traffic studies in the particular mode and designing to reduce the volume of traffic.