Objective

Information

Content

Syllabus

Texts

Recommended Reading

Grading

Handouts

CE 180/290E: Construction, Maintenance and Design of Civil & Environmental Engineered Systems

Objective

The primary objective of this course are to teach students how to use and integrate the results of their education to design and reassess engineered systems considering their construction, inspection, maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, operation, and decommissioning. This course is designed for upper division and graduate civil and environmental engineering students. Teamwork and communication skills are emphasized.

This course is designed for upper division and graduate civil and environmental engineering students. Students from other engineering and graduate programs are encouraged to take this course.

This course is designed for students that have a wide diversity of talents and interests including structural engineering, engineering mechanics and materials, geotechnical engineering, environmental engineering, wa-ter resources engineering, transportation engineering, construction engineering and management, ocean engineering, and management of technology. This course addresses equipment, procedures, and considerations as-sociated with the construction, maintenance - rehabilitation, and design of structures and foundations that comprise Civil & Environmental Engineered Systems (CEES). Different types of marine structures are throughout the course to illustrate the primary principles. These structures are used because they form the instructor's primary base of hands-on experience in construction, maintenance, re-habilitation, and design.

Information

• Spring semester
• 4 units
• Two one and a half hour lectures per week
• One hour team project reviews and discussions
• Professor Robert Bea

Content

Students form into teams and undertake a semester project involving an engineered system of their choice. The teams are responsible for choosing a panel of consultants (from industry, government, faculty), developing a formal engineering report that summarizes their work, building a physical scale model of their engineered system or an important part of their system,
and making a formal presentation of their project and model. Winning and runner-up projects are chosen. The winning projects receive cash prizes and write-ups of their projects in the Engineering News.

Course lectures include:

• construction of steel and concrete structures, construction of deep and shallow foundations,
• inspection, maintenance, and repair - rehabilitation of existing engineered systems, and
• design of engineered systems including definition and evaluation of constraints (time, money, manpower, technology, political, environmental, etc.), appropriate use of analyses, and consideration of risks and reliability.

This course is intended to provide engineering students with:

• practical and realistic experiences in the design, construction, and maintenance - rehabilitation of CEES
• the opportunity to learn how to use and apply what students have learned in solving real engineering problems (intelligent application and integration of their civil and environmental engineering backgrounds)
• an understanding of the basics of how engineers can develop safe, serviceable, durable, economic, and environmentally compatible systems
• an exposure to the arts and technology of engineering management: developing CEES that are on time, on budget, and produce happy customers
• an opportunity to further develop oral, visual, and written communication skills and abilities
• an opportunity to work in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams with ex-perienced engineers (project consultants) to learn how to produce CEES that incorporate a wide variety of talents, capabilities, backgrounds, and insights, and
• an exposure to real engineers to learn how engineers think and solve problems and how you might help improve on these processes.

In the past, the students in this course have made some remarkable developments. Several of the course projects and teams have received national and international recognition. Several students graduated from this course into companies and proj-ects that were direct extensions of their course work (including the Peace Corps). Several students that were on the verge of abandoning their engineering careers, discovered new dimensions and opportunities in engineering that they could match with their unique interests and talents. These students have gone on to successful careers in engineering, management, construction, and business. Several under-graduate students even decided to go on to graduate school (there was a reason for all of the pain).

Syllabus

INTRODUCTION

• week 1 - Course Introduction

CONSTRUCTION

• weeks 2 & 3 - steel structures
• weeks 4 & 5 - concrete structures
• weeks 6 & 7 - foundations

INSPECTIONS, MAINTENANCE & REPAIRS

• week 8 - inspections
• week 9 - maintenance (corrosion)
• week 10 - repairs / rehabilitation

DESIGN

• week 11 - approaches
• week 12 - methods and analyses
• weeks 13 & 14 - risk & reliability aspects

PROJECTS

• week 15 - class project presentations

Texts

Construction, Maintenance, and Design of Engineered Systems, by R. G. Bea, Euclid Street Copy Central Publishers.

Recommended Reading

All those texts that students have used in their previous courses including physics, mathematics, statistics, statics, chemistry, dynamics, business, economics, communications, English, management, materials, mechanics, structures, geology, soil mechanics and foundations, construction, transportation, environmental considerations, water resources and hydraulics, biology, human behavior, art, and history.

Course Grading

The grading of the course will be based on

1. Class participation (20 %)
2. Mid-term and Final examinations (take home) (40 %)
3. Course team project, (report, model, project presentation) (40 %)

Course Handouts

Team Project Description (Microsoft Word)

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