Civil engineering

Austin Belknap (July 18, 1819 – December 9, 1902) was a Massachusetts businessman and politician who served as a member, and last Chairman, of the Board of Selectmen of Somerville, Massachusetts, and as the third Mayor, of Somerville.

The Civil Engineering Database (CEDB) was created in 1994, and is maintained by American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). It is a free bibliographic database, containing 270,000-entries, for all ASCE publications including journals, conference proceedings, books, standards, manuals, magazines, and newspapers on all the disciplines of civil engineering. The coverage dates back to 1872.

ASCE Library is an online full-text civil engineering database providing the contents of peer-reviewed journals, proceedings, e-books, and standards published by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The Library offers free access to abstracts of Academic journal articles, proceedings papers, e-books, and standards as well as many e-book chapters. Access to the content is available either by subscription or pay-per-view for individual articles or chapters. E-books and standards can be purchased and downloaded in their entirety. Most references cited by journal articles and proceedings papers in the library are linked to original sources using CrossRef. Linking provides researchers with the ability to link from reference citations to the bibliographic records of other scientific and technical publishers’ articles. ASCE also offers librarians usage statistics which are compliant with the COUNTER Code of Practice for Journals and Databases. All articles are in PDF (Portable Document Format) and many journal articles are also available in HTML format.

California Odha Zertuche Díaz (1923–1991) was a Mexican civil engineer and is credited as the primary developer of the drinking water and sewerage system in Ensenada, Mexico.

An airlock is a device which permits the passage of people and objects between a pressure vessel and its surroundings while minimizing the change of pressure in the vessel and loss of air from it. The lock consists of a small chamber with two airtight doors in series which do not open simultaneously.

Structural loads or actions are forces, deformations, or accelerations applied to structure components. Loads cause stresses, deformations, and displacements in structures. Assessment of their effects is carried out by the methods of structural analysis. Excess load or overloading may cause structural failure, and hence such possibility should be either considered in the design or strictly controlled. Mechanical structures, such as aircraft, satellites, rockets, space stations, ships, and submarines, have their own particular structural loads and actions. Engineers often evaluate structural loads based upon published regulations, contracts, or specifications. Accepted technical standards are used for acceptance testing and inspection.

Drilling and blasting is the controlled use of explosives and other methods such as gas pressure blasting pyrotechnics, to break rock for excavation. It is practiced most often in mining, quarrying and civil engineering such as dam, tunnel or road construction. The result of rock blasting is often known as a rock cut.

Geotechnical engineering is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. Geotechnical engineering is important in civil engineering, but also has applications in military, mining, petroleum and other engineering disciplines that are concerned with construction occurring on the surface or within the ground. Geotechnical engineering uses principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics to investigate subsurface conditions and materials; determine the relevant physical/mechanical and chemical properties of these materials; evaluate stability of natural slopes and man-made soil deposits; assess risks posed by site conditions; design earthworks and structure foundations; and monitor site conditions, earthwork and foundation construction.

Engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contracts are the most common form of contract used to undertake construction works by the private sector on large-scale and complex infrastructure projects. Under an EPCC contract a contractor is obliged to deliver a complete facility to a developer who need only turn a key to start operating the facility, hence EPCC contracts are sometimes called turnkey construction contracts. In addition to delivering a complete facility, the contractor must deliver that facility for a guaranteed price by a guaranteed date and it must perform to the specified level. Failure to comply with any requirements will usually result in the contractor incurring monetary liabilities. The EPCC contractor coordinates all design, procurement and construction work and ensures that the whole project is completed as required and in time. He also may or may not undertake actual site work. Various abbreviations used for this type of contract are LSTK for lump sum turn key, EPIC for engineering, procurement, installation & commissioning and EPCC for engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning. Use of EPIC is common e.g. by FIDIC and most Persian Gulf countries. Use of LSTK is common in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Use of EPCC is common in Qatar and some other countries.