Civil Engineering BEng (Hons)

You will learn about some of the issues which will underpin your learning and practice as a civil/construction engineer. You will learn about the mechanics of materials, material qualities, material properties at a micro level and at a macro level.Through practical and other class work you will consider and explore a range of the most commonly used materials in the industry. Materials studied will include rocks and soils, steel, concrete and timber. In addition, you will examine alternative material use to achieve enhanced sustainability, including the use of recycled materials, and you will develop skills in designing concrete structural members through your understanding of material properties and capacities.

Surveying refers to the determination, representation, and analysis of the positions of key features in both the natural and built environment. It is a fundamental skill, based on accuracy and precision, that underpins all engineering and construction projects. You will learn this through our introduction to the principles of surveying. In lectures, we will explain the theory and concepts of surveying, and help you to develop practical and mathematical surveying skills. We will help you to understand how engineering surveying can contribute to the successful design and completion of engineering projects through discussion in class. Your surveying skills will be developed through practical work. You will start by using automatic levels, learning about booking procedures, error check, and calculations. You will then progress by using total stations, collecting angular surveys for key engineering applications and checking, assessing, and correcting your work to optimise the survey quality. Finally, we will introduce you to a range of cutting edge, high precision surveying instrumentation such as terrestrial laser scanners, and differential GPS. We will take you from data collection, through processing and analysis to interpretation of results.

You will learn about the basic fundamentals of mechanics and structures, which are essential for your developing a career in civil/construction engineering.

You will learn about a range of relevant topics including the consideration of forces and solving problems related to forces within systems. You will learn about principles of stress and strain and consider related factors when solving problems of this nature. You will learn about some of the techniques used to consider the impact of loads on various beans and sections. There will also be an opportunity to learn about associated theories linking to energy methods of structural analysis.

In fluid mechanics you will learn about the fundamentals of fluid behaviour, density, pressure, viscosity, laminar and turbulent flow, hydrostatics, floating structures, the interaction of fluids with solid bodies and fluid flow in pipes. In soil mechanics you will learn about the composition of soils, their strength, stress-strain behaviour and modes of failure and the compression and consolidation of soils under short and long term loading. You will also learn about liquid flows through soils and its link to soil strength and behaviour.

In this module you will learn about the principles and considerations of structural design and the communication of design work. You will be encouraged to develop your hand sketching in recognition that this is an important skill required to communicate early design ideas as well as to aid self-reflection and design development. You will learn how to use CAD software to communicate your design ideas. Your technical drawing skills will be developed, and you will gain experience of producing Civil Engineering drawings. You will gain knowledge and skills through generic design considerations to engender a holistic appreciation of the design process prior to addressing calculation work for simple structural elements in steel, concrete, timber, or masonry.

Academic skills when studying away from your home country can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Presenting your ideas
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Speed reading techniques.
• Developing self-reflection skills.

Basic algebra and trigonometry
Transposition, simplification, quadratic equations, simultaneous equations, functions and identities.

Basic calculus
Derivative as slope and rate of change, standard derivatives; product, quotient and function of a function rules; integration
as reverse of differentiation, standard integrals, area under a curve; solution of simple differential equations by direct integration.

Complex numbers
Addition, subtraction, multiplication, complex conjugate and division in algebraic form. The Argand diagram. Polar form and
exponential form, with multiplication and division. De Moivre's theorem (powers and roots). Locus problems.

Calculus
Implicit, parametric and logarithmic differentiation. Maxima and minima. MacLaurin's series. Partial differentiation, first order change, analysis of errors, method of least squares. Integration techniques (substitution, partial fractions, by parts) and simple applications of integration.

Matrices and Determinants
Second and third order determinants, evaluation, properties, Cramer's Rule for solution of simultaneous equations; matrices, addition, subtraction, multiplication, transpose, inverse (via adjoint), solution of simultaneous linear equations by matrix inversion.

Vectors
Sum, difference, magnitude, components, Cartesian representation in three dimensions; scalar and vector products, angle between vectors, application to simple geometrical and physical problems.

Differential Equations
Solution of first order by separation of variables and integrating factor; second order with constant coefficients, auxiliary
equation, complementary function, particular integral by substitution.