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Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.

6/27/2017 Civil Engineering in College?


By Eng. Hamid El-Darwich

Hamid El Darwich
YOUTUBE.COM/CIVIL ENGINEERING PHILOSOPHY
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.

Contents
Hmm, why did I create this course: .............................................................................................................. 2
Who should take this course: ........................................................................................................................ 2
About the instructor: ..................................................................................................................................... 2
Tell me what is Civil Engineering Briefly: ................................................................................................... 3
What are the branches of Civil Engineering: ................................................................................................ 3
What are the branches of Civil Engineering: ................................................................................................ 3
A) Structural Analysis & Design: .......................................................................................................... 5
B) Transportation: .................................................................................................................................. 7
C) Geotechnical: ........................................................................................................................................ 9
D) Management:...................................................................................................................................... 11
E) Water & Environmental: ..................................................................................................................... 13
Civil Engineering Software:........................................................................................................................ 14
My Opinion on Branches: ........................................................................................................................... 15
References and Website: ............................................................................................................................ 16
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.

Hmm, why did I create this course:


When I was first year in college, nobody told me what Civil Engineering is about; you
know people just say its designing buildings (but nothing specific !!), so I started asking myself:
then what is the difference between civil engineering and archictural. Therefore, I had no idea
about what I was going to learn in college and I had no idea whether I will like it or not.
I think colleges should give their students an overview about what they expect to learn
from Civil Engineering. To solve this issue, I decided to create this course to help prospective
students decide whether or not they really like civil engineering based on facts that I am going to
state.
In addition, if you are a high school student or a student from other major considering
transfer, then you should take this course because the information here might convince you to
become a Civil Engineer.

Who should take this course:


The course targets the following audience:
- Highschool Students
- College students who are considering the transfer to Civil Engineering
- Civil Engineering Students (1st and 2nd year) who still do not have full knowledge about
the major.

About the instructor:


I am Hamid El Darwich, a senior Civil Engineering Student (with Minor in Mathematics)
at the Lebanese American University. So, I teach mostly the American System. I have been placing
on High Distinction List in School of Engineering since 2013. I am applying for my PhD in
Mechanics, Materials, and Structures in the United States.
I host an educational YouTube Channel called Civil Engineering Philosophy where I teach
engineering topics like Concrete Structure, Highway Engineering, Statics and other topics like
Critical Thinking, Discrete Structure, and Basic Calculus.
Check my Instructor Biography here to know more about me.
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.

Tell me what is Civil Engineering Briefly:


The definition of Civil Engineering as I see it- is a profession that deals with civilization
development. Civil Engineering is the distant cousin of Military Engineering. The first is deals
with cities and development, and the latter deals with defending the same city.

What are the branches of Civil Engineering:


Well, Civil Engineering is not just a profession of single focus; it includes several areas.
Imagine Civil Engineering as the trunk of a tree, and this tree has a lot of branches which have
been developing overtime.
When in college, you will encounter the following areas in Civil Engineering:
- Structural Analysis & Design
- Water & Environmental
- Transportation
- Geotechnical
I will elaborate on each of the above-mentioned areas according to my college LAU system
which is a typical American System. The names of courses in each area might differ a bit, but
overall structure of the curriculum is the same in all colleges.

What are the branches of Civil Engineering:

1. Major Courses: these are the required courses that you need to pass ALL of them to graduate.
There is no substitute for these courses meaning none of them can be replaced by another course.
I will be talking about the major courses in the lectures. **

2. Technical Electives: after you finish all (or some) of the required branches, you are required to
take around 18 credit hours of technical electives. You are free to choose from whatever branch
of civil engineering given that the courses are available at your college. Make sure you take
courses from the branch(es) you are interested in.

3. Electives: these are the LAC (liberal art curriculum) requirements. They include studying history,
culture study, etc. Usually you have the several courses to choose from. For example, you can
take Psychology instead of culture studies.

**In addition to these courses, you will be required to satisfy Math & Science requirements and
Language requirement. Hence, you will take Calculus, Differential Equations, etc. In addition, you
will take English courses as well depending on your level.
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.

A) Structural Analysis & Design:


This area is the one related with designing buildings, towers, bridges, and other structures. If you
focus more on this field and get a license in it, you will become what we call a Structural Engineer.
The first major course in college is usually Statics which is under the structural analysis
and design branch. This course will review the Vectors and their operations, forces on a
certain body, equilibrium of particles and rigid bodies. Then we go to beams, trusses, and
frames to reach the most important concept which is Internal Forces. Internal forces
include producing Shear and Moments diagrams for beams.

The second course is usually Mechanics of Materials. In this course, we introduce the
stress-strain concept; axial, shear, torsion, and bending deformations; and deflection of
beams using certain methods. In addition, the shear and moment diagrams will always be
present in this branch.

The third course is usually Structural Analysis course. In this course, you will be able to
go deeper into calculating the internal forces, deflections, and reactions acting on a certain
structural element using more advanced methods than what you have seen in the earlier
courses; the most important method is the Matrix Algebra method.

The fourth course is usually Construction Materials course. If you are a fan of Geology,
then you will like the course. This course introduces geological origins of constructions
materials like the cement and aggregates. At the end of the course, you will be able to
design a concrete mix and get more information about types of rocks and their hardness
and structures.

Now you have the tools to analyze any given structure, so the next step is to design a
structure. Therefore, the next course is the Reinforced Concrete Structure; in this course,
you will design RC elements like beams, columns, and slabs. The idea of the design is to
find the dimensions of these elements under given loads, and then to determine the amount
of steel needed. Click HERE if you want to check my Reinforced Concrete Structure
introductory course:

Now you know how to design RC elements, the next step is to design elements that are
made of Steel only and not concrete. Therefore, the next course is the Steel Structure
course. In this course, you will be asked to design steel beams, columns, and beam-
columns. The difference from RC design is that in steel, you should choose sections from
what is available from the steel mill. Hence, you will be given a Steel Construction Manual
containing the available shapes that you are asked to select from.

o This course might have a pre-requisite like in my college, the pre-requisite of this
course is Stress Analysis which talks about cracks in structures and their
development, and talks more about failure criteria, i.e. when to say this element
has failed.
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.

B) Transportation:
This branch is related to design and management of operations on highways, on rails, in the
oceans, in the air etc. This branch is broad and the students have several options in this field. Even in the
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), there are six divisions related to this field: Aerospace, Air
Transportation, Highway, Pipeline, Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean, and Urban Transportation. So, you
can see that this field is very broad. In college, we just get a glimpse of transportation field; colleges focus
on highway design and operations because it is the most common mean of transportation.

As an undergraduate student, you will take the following courses in this field, with minor changes
from college to another:

- Surveying: as you know, surveying is a major itself. In civil engineering, a surveying course helps
you understand the fundamentals of this field for two reasons: you will interact a lot with
surveyors; and there are some skills from surveying that engineers use. In this course, you will be
introduced to the following concepts:
o Basics of measuring distances, angles, etc.
o Theory of leveling and measurements
o Construction surveying, quantity take-off and methods
o And most importantly: stationing and road surveying. This lesson helps you understand
how we determine the borders and centerline of roads during construction.

- Highway Engineering: this course focuses on geometric design of highways. This includes
horizontal and vertical curves, traffic flow modeling, analysis, and safety (for example, when the
vehicle will stop if the driver brakes at a deceleration rate of x m/s2). In addition, this course
presents pavement design concepts (finding thickness of pavement based on number of cars that
pass over the road per specified period). Colleges usually offer technical elective in pavement
design like at LAU, so if you are willing to know more about pavement, you can take the other
courses.
- Transportation Engineering: this course focuses on traffic flow analysis especially on highways;
there are many different variables involved: flow, density, speed, etc. In addition, you will perform
queuing analysis using two different methodologies: probabilistic, and deterministic. Also, you
will be introduced to traffic control and analysis of intersections (the signals and how many
seconds we should distribute to each approach). Finally, there is a lesson where you get an idea
about in interchanges and their types and operations (some colleges put this lesson in Highway
Engineering Course).

Note: these courses are the required major courses. In addition to these courses, you can take - as
technical electives - pavement design, mass transit (public transportation, buses, rails, and basic
operations), airport management, and/or urban planning.
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.

C) Geotechnical:
Simply, Geo- means earth, so it is the study of earth sub-strata. In this field, we study and assess
the soil (sands, rocks, etc.) properties for the adequacy of a certain project. Examples:

1) As geotechnical engineer, you may be asked to assess the strength of soil on site and decide
whether it can carry the building or not. The assessment involves visiting the site, sampling,
performing experiments, and/or using computer programs.
2) The geotechnical engineer also recommends how to improve strength of the soil (by
compaction for example) for highway projects or even for buildings projects.
3) Geotechnical engineers recommend the type of foundations and their dimensions.
4) Geotechnical engineers are also involved in earthquakes, landslides (and other phenomenon)
assessments. They suggest solutions for designs under such difficulties.

In this branch, you will understand the basics of geotechnical engineering. In most American Colleges, we
have two major courses that are required under geotechnical field:

- Soil Mechanics: types of soils and their classification, permeability, and seepage analysis (flow of
water through soil), stresses in soil, strength of soil, failure criteria, and most importantly
consolidation analysis.

- Foundation Engineering: site investigation (types of on-site testing), design of shallow


foundations, settlement calculations, analysis of retaining structures, and introduction to deep
foundations.

Once again, this branch has sets of technical electives if you are interested in it; example: advanced
foundation engineering, earthquake related courses, etc.
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.

D) Management:
This branch prepares students to manage engineering projects. Managements of projects
include scheduling the activities; knowing the responsibilities of different parties involved; assigning
employees and workers tasks; knowing the hierarchy and departments in construction companies;
learning leadership skills; budgeting and construction accounting.

I will give an example to clarify the role of this branch in Civil Engineering: let us say an owner X
wants to build a residential building in a certain region. How shall Owner X proceed?

Offcourse the construction process is not random; the Owner should go to a design company
(we call it A/E) asking this party to produce a certain design. Then the produced drawing shall be
taken to a construction company to start the construction, right!?

As you can see, we have different contracts involved in this project. The administration of these
contracts and the duties of each party should be clarified and that is where the Management Branch
comes into play. Following are the main courses under this branch:

1. Engineering Economy: interest calculations, depreciation, present and future worth, money
transactions, etc. *

2. Management Fundamentals (general): this course is wide and is extremely important; it


shows you the big picture of how contracts work in projects: types of contracts; types of
organizations; leadership principles; government regulations and responsibilities of different
parties involved in public projects; phases of construction; bonds; insurances; disputes and
resolutions, etc.

3. Construction Planning & Scheduling: this course is specific to management of construction


projects; it covers quantity take off and price estimating; scheduling methods and networks;
controlling the construction using several tools; resource allocation; time-cost tradeoff;
budgeting; and cost control and update.

*Engineering economy is usually listed as listed as Industrial Engineering Courses.

Once again, this branch has sets of technical electives if you are interested in it:
contracting documents course, engineering estimation, etc.
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.

E) Water & Environmental:


This branch deals with wastewater collection and treatment, and water treatment and distribution. In
this branch, you will start with the basic fluid mechanics and then go to more civil engineering focused
courses. The following tasks can be done by Civil & Environmental Engineer:
1. Design size of water collection tanks
2. Design sewer or/and water networks
3. Studying water contamination by Chemical or Biological waste
4. Issue reports based on the analyzes of water, examples:
a. Report on the quality of water regarding swimming (limits on chlorine, biological
contaminants).
b. Report on potable water (limits on metals such as sodium or iron etc.)
The following are the Courses covered under this branch:
1. Fluid Mechanics: properties of fluids, basic equations, and conversation laws: mass, energy,
momentum. Types of flows. Dimensional analysis. Flow measurements.
a. Note: most of these concepts are new to you; thats why students find fluid mechanics
challenging. However, new does not mean difficult. This is the only course under this
branch which needs a lot of calculations.

2. Hydraulics: it is about fluid mechanics with the focus on water (Hydro-). Flow in pies. Design of
water supply and distribution systems. And there is a new topic about water flowing over a certain
slope then the slope changes so you study the different scenarios. There are other topics about water
flow and other computations.

3. Water Distribution and Treatment: physical, chemical, and biological water quality parameters
and standards. Water treatment techniques (how to treat water) based on what purpose you want
(swimming, potable, irrigation, etc.). Treatment tank design. Climate change effect on water
supply.

4. Wastewater Collection & Treatment: design sewer and storm sewer (pipe diameter, slope, etc.)
Mass balances (mass in = mass out), reaction order and rates, analysis of experimental data,
processes of wastewater treatment. Basically, we let bacteria feed on waster in the water, so when
they become fat, they settle to the bottom of the tank and we remove them; that is the concept, but
we will get into the design of the processes in details.

Technical electives include environmental risks and assessment, hydrology studies, and
other related topics.
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.

Civil Engineering Software:


We are in the era of technology; most of the colleges include co-requisite (a course you should
take alongside with the other course) for major courses; these co-requisites are usually software or lab
based courses, so you will either go to the Laboratory and perform experiments and get results; or, you
will go to the computer labs and learn on some software.
Below are some important softwares that you might learn in college:
1. AutoCAD: engineering drawings.
2. SAP200 Structural Analysis: analysis of structures.
3. Robot Structural Analysis: analysis and reinforcement (like ETabs and SAFE).
4. AutoDesk AutoCAD Civil 3D: Highway design.
5. Primavera P6: management software for projects.
6. Plaxis 2D: geotechnical software for analysis of soil profiles.
7. H2O Water: design and analysis of water network.
8. GPS X: treatment plan analysis, parameters, etc.
9. Capdet Works: pricing of treatment plans.
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.

My Opinion on Branches:
Please note that this section is purely subjective. If I say that I love this course, then does not mean
that this course is perfect or awesome; it just means that Hamid loves it. I created this section just because
many of the students like to hear from older students; so, here we go:
1. I do not like water branch because it starts with fluid mechanics which is pure calculation
course- and then it moves to environmental courses. Hence, you will start seeing more
empirical formulas and less theory and calculations; and I am not a fan of empirical equations.

2. In geotechnical engineering, I like soil mechanics because it is based on theory and needs lots
of thinking. However, I hate foundation engineering based the equations there are based on
experiments and rarely on theory.

3. Management branch is nice; you will love the classroom interaction because everyone can say
his/her opinion in the sessions. Sometimes the exams are challenging, but overall the branch is
nice. However, I hate some topics in management; I am not a fan of managing human resources
and these topics; I do not like to work with stuff that is so subjective in the decisions you make.

4. Transportation Branch is nice concerning highway design where you can still do lots of
geometry and algebra. In addition, the transportation course is good because you will see the
social extent of probability; for example, you will study the probability of vehicles arrival and
stuff like that.

5. Structural Design and Analysis: this is my favorite branch regarding the theory of it; most of
the equations and formulas are based on theory and some clear assumptions; I do not
particularly like to design residential buildings, but I like to do research based experiments on
concrete, steel, and other materials. That is why my PhD is about Mechanics, Materials, &
Structures.
Prepared by Hamid El Darwich, Civil Eng.

References and Websites:


YouTube Channel: www.YouTube.com/CivilEngineeringPhilosophy
My Official Website: https://hamiddarwishh.wixsite.com/cepchannel
My LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamid-e-47296189
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/civilengineeringphilosophy/

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