Expected Subjects While Studying Civil Engineering

Congratulations to those whom chosen to pursue his or her dreams of becoming a civil engineer. Before we dig further, how long it will take for you to finish this course? Couple of years back it took about 3 years for completion, nowadays increased to 4 years by hitting the University books with loads of theoretical plus practical approach. Within the period of acquiring knowledge, divided into 8 semesters (2 semesters per year) and in common cases with 4 subjects per semester in your academical degree.

So what kind of subjects are you going to expect during your journey as an oath to be Engineer? For junior this could be most puzzling moment where often you knew the subjects title but didn’t have any indication about it or the other way round. In terms of references, it could be limited or not enough for everybody, and not that all-in-one type which could occupy enough information or content in any subject.

Note: The subject’s possibly dissimilar in terms of title among colleges and universities syllabus. Nevertheless the subjects listed below may perhaps give you some idea or brief guideline (common subjects);

Engineering Geology
In this subject, the student will:
- Study about our Earth’s tectonic plates – crush, mantle and core,
- Study about 3 categories of rock – igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary,
- Understand the importance of geology in civil engineering,
- Distinguish between the different types of rocks and minerals,
- Understand the relationship between the physical and engineering properties of rocks, as well as how geological processes influence engineering performance.

Soil Engineering
In this subject, the student will:
- Study about soil description and classification for engineering purposes, IS classification system, phase relationships,
- Learn the effective stress concepts in solids; Stress distribution in soil media; Use of influence charts; Components of Settlement; Immediate and consolidation settlement; Terzaghi’s one dimensional consolidation theory,
- Also look into shear strength of cohesive and cohesionless soils; Mohr – Coulomb failure theory; saturated soil mass; measurement of shear strength and direct shear.

Geotechnical Engineering
In this subject, the student will:
- Know site characterization and investigation, and in-situ testing methods,
- Learn about deep and shallow foundation, as well as design and loads,
- Learn excavations, lateral pressure and slope stability by calculation,
- Know types of pile foundation, pile capacity, pile load test, etc.
- Know field instrumentation and ground improvement for Civil engineering purposes.

Fluid Mechanics
In this subject, the student will:
- Learn types of flow – Reynolds Number fluid flow can be either laminar or turbulent,
- Governing equations Laminar fluid flow is described by the Navier-Strokes equations,
- Learn the Bernoulli equation, plus head loss, and Buoyancy,
- See elements of Boundary layer theory, drag and lift, elements of aero-foil theory.

Engineering Hydrology -or- Water Resources Engineering
In this subject, the student will:
- Emphasizes engineering applications of hydrologic science, Rainfall-runoff analysis, lumped and distributed flow routing, reservoir and river flood routing,
- Learn stream flow measurement and hydrograph representation, estimation of runoff from rain fall by empirical formulae, rational & infiltration method, unit hydrograph method and S-curve method,
- Learn Bayesian decision analysis, design storms and flows, plus reservoir design,
- Know Aquifers, ground water availability and yield, groundwater withdrawals, infiltration wells and galleries, artesian, open and tubewells.

Hydraulics
In this subject, the student will:
- Learn Steady state open channel flow, uniform flow, critical flow, analysis of rapidly varied flow, hydraulic jump, channel transitions,
- Learn Hydraulic turbines: types, selection, impulse and reaction turbines, governing of turbines, turbine characteristics,
- Learn gradually varied flow; method of integration of varied flow equation.

Water and Wastewater Engineering
In this subject, the student will:
- Determine water and wastewater quantity estimation – Population forecast; Water demand for various purposes; Estimation of wastewater quantity; Variation in quantity of water and wastewater,
- See Chemical Unit Processes – Coagulation-Flocculation; Filtration; Disinfections; Aeration and Gas transfer; Precipitation; Softening; Adsorption and Ion exchange; Membrane processes,
- See Biological Unit Processes – Activated sludge process and its modifications, Tricking filters and Rotating biological contactors, etc.,
- See Sludge Treatment – Thickening, Digestion, Dewatering Sludge drying, Composting.

Environmental Engineering
In this subject, the student will:
- Learn about environmental pollution – its origin, sources of water – surface, ground and others,
- Learn about ground water engineering – basic aquifer parameters and hydraulics, well system, ground water pollution and control,
- Learn about Water quality parameters – their role and standards. Water demand for various purposes.

Strength of Materials -or- Solid Mechanics
In this subject, the student will:
- Learn about Stresses and strains, stress-strain diagrams, relation between elastic constants, composite bars in tension and compression, temperature stresses, factor of safety, principal stresses and strains, Mohr’s circle,
- Calculate and sketch bending moment and shear force diagrams for beams,
- Learn slope and deflection of beams by integration, area, moment and conjugate beam methods,
- Also learn torsion of circular shafts.

Mechanics of Structures
In this subject, the student will:
- Learn forces and equilibrium – for 2D and 3D,
- Learn structural analysis of trusses and design of simple connections,
- Learn internal loadings – Shear Force and Bending Moment Diagrams,
- Learn section properties of structural members – location of Centroids, Moments of Inertia,
- Learn shear and bending stresses – Flexural Formula and Bending, Shear Formula and Shear Stresses.

Structural Analysis
In this subject, the student will:
- Learn structural system and modelling, Definition of kinematics and statics,
- Learn linearity of the structural system,
- Learn matrix force and matrix displacement method,
- Learn methods of structural analysis and deduction of Euler-Bernoulli Beams from Solid,
- Look into reduction of 3D constitutive equations for 2D plane problems.

Reinforced Concrete Design
In this subject, the student will:
- Learn design method – loading, shear, moment, deflection, cracking,
- Design of Beams – Simple and Continuous,
- Design of One-Way Slabs and Two-Way Slabs,
- Design of Columns and Footings, plus Staircase, Roofing and Retaining Wall,
- Learn to utilize the technical standard into design application, i.e., BS1881.

Road and Highway Engineering
In this subject, the student will:
- Learn about driver, pedestrian, and vehicle,
- Know traffic characteristics and loadings,
- Learn geometric design of highways, intersections, and interchanges,
- Design flexible pavement and roadside design, in addition high-type bituminous pavements,
- Evaluate bases, sub-bases and low-cost surfaces, also Earthwork operations and equipment.

Engineering Materials
In this subject, the student will:
- Study the properties and behaviour of widely used materials for civil engineering applications, such as Portland cement concrete, bituminous concrete, brick, steel, timber, and polymer,
- Expose standard specifications and methods of test for inspection and control of these materials,
- Design the Portland cement concrete and bituminous mixes,
- Study the causes of failure and prevention for these materials.

Engineering Surveying
In this subject, the student will:
- Learn computerization, electronic distance measurement (EDM), total stations, GPS surveying and laser scanning,
- Use surveying equipment, such as levels and theodolites, used for accurate measurement of angular deviation, horizontal, vertical and slope distances,
- Convert the data into a graphical representation of the Earth’s surface, in the form of a map.
- Able to set elements of a building or structure must be correctly sized and positioned in relation to each other and to site boundaries and adjacent structures.

Engineering Mathematics
In this subject, the student will:
- Learn Differential Equations – Ordinary and partial differential equations,
- Learn Numerical Methods – formula of Gauss, Bessel, Everett; Newton-Raphson Method, etc.,
- Also learn Statistics and Probability.

Engineering Contract and Estimation
In this subject, the student will:
- Learn preparation of bids, tendering process, tender evaluation, contract award and contract Laws,
- Work on planning & the development of crews and production rates,
- Able to evaluate time & cost control during project execution and ongoing activities,
- Learn measurement of quantities, cost estimation,
- Learn other supporting cost engineering techniques.

Building Services -or- Electrical & Mechanical Services
In this subject, the student will:
- Learn aircond, lift and escalator, fire extinguisher, solar energy, intro AC and DC,
- Learn the basic principle of Electrical & Mechanical related to Civil engineering works.

For further clarification, few of the subjects above would be dividing into 2 subjects, for instance Water and Wastewater Engineering. Another would be separating one subject into 2 sub-subjects such as Geotechnical Engineering (into I and II). And again, the lists above maybe differ from each other (civil engineering schools). Kindly add some more via comment…

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