Civil Engineering

Water, snow, ice, mud, and wind are just some of the elements that affect buildings. Not all countries and states have the same climate, many have different natural disasters happening. Some of these natural disasters are strong and tear down tall buildings killing thousands and causing millions, if not billions of dollars in damages.Because of this possibility is imperative that buildings are constructed to withstand very high and strong natural disasters and winds. In Japan in 2011, Tsunami Tohoku hit, causing major destruction. It caused 18,890 deaths with 2,590 missing. (Walpole, B, â€Å"Meeting the driving force behind ASCE-7-16 tsunami loads chapter†). If these buildings were built with stronger materials and were made to withstand Tsunami’s like Tsunami Tohoku, then those missing people might not have deceased. ASCE sent a group of engineers to investigate all the destruction that occurred, which buildings were damaged the most and what materials were used to cr eate those structures. They have been going to different areas around the world where strong tsunamis have occurred to develop a tsunami design provisions and figure out a way to design, construct and build structures that can withstand strong tsunamis. By civil engineers looking at weather patterns in the areas they are planning to build in, they can figure out a way to build buildings for their clients, that stand strong to powerful natural disasters. By doing that, it can save a lot of money in the future and the lives of millions. Due to strong weather conditions around the world, civil engineers should understand and use all appropriate materials to be used to withstand different elements, in order to create safe, secure structures that can stand the test of any abnormal weather condition. Wood, cement, bricks, glass, stone, these are just some of the different types of material that buildings are made out of, and each type is good for something. There is not one type of ma terial that is strong enough to keep a buildings standing forever in all different types of natural disasters, along with the different types of temperatures. In Impact of environmental factors on building project performance in Delta State, Nigeria. it says that, The environment interferes with the original planned process of construction. Failure and success depend on what kind of material the architects decide to use to withstand the strongest weather currents, storms, and climate that certain areas receive each year the most frequently.   Different materials have different levels of embodied energy(GJ). In an Australian study Steel contains 140 GJ,   Glass is right about 50, maybe 48 GJ stone 25 GJ. Embodied energy is the energy consumed by all of the processes associated with the production of a building. Different measures of GJ help to design long life, durable, and adaptable buildings(Milne). This information shows that civil engineers should check weather patterns befor e building because they eliminate the material should use and it helps save time and money, while also saving lives. Climates that have   a certain type of heating and cooling requirement are where embodied energy in the thermal mass can offset the energy used for heating.   When going about the different types of embodied levels you should never use more than you need. It will save energy and time. It is also best to pick the best combination of embodied energy based on climate, transport distances, and viability amount of materials and budget.   In different areas, buildings are constructed differently and made with different materials. According to Kesik, â€Å"Understanding the building as a system and how it impacts energy, durability, comfort, and indoor air quality is essential to make high-performance buildings. To achieve the level of performance the buildings must be appropriately integrated† (Kesik, Ted J., â€Å"Building Science Concepts†). Detail s are important for the building’s designed how it stands is the factor of how the area is.   In Laurel Maryland, most of the buildings are built with red bricks. see a rare amount of glass buildings in Maryland. In new york city, in Time square, you see a lot of tall and glass buildings. Constructing buildings are in a field of physics, chemistry, engineering; it all comes together to create a good building that will stand strong for hopefully a lot of years to come. The system approach in the building is thinking about all the events that will eventually happen around it, so they try to find the problems of what's to come, and see how civil engineers can fix the problems ahead. The buildings approach a well-performing building is to recognized the large number of materials, components, equipment and weather, that is to come. Then try to find a way to harmonize it. Observing weather patterns in areas that you plan to build in is a great way to save money and time. A ma jor factor of property loss is natural disasters. Hurricanes, floods, snow storms, hails, etc. are all different types of natural disasters that can cause a lot of damage and and also cost people their homes and their lives as well. According to David Lapp, property loss has grown since the 1950s, and 85% of that growth is because of weather (â€Å"Engineers and climate change: what you need to know, David, Lapp). In an ASCE article in 2011, Mr. Gary Chock led   a group of civil engineers to Japan to look at all the damage that tsunami Tohoku had caused, and to study all the different types of buildings that had the worst damage and to see what material they were made out of to see if they could figure out a method that could be used to keep buildings strong. According to Chock, â€Å"We had the objective of doing more than what would normally be done in reconnaissance because we were trying to explicitly find structures that we could use as case studies for validating the tsuna mi provisions†(Walpole, B). Climate change is important to engineers because according to an article at Engineers Canada they said that the main reason why climate change is important to them is because with global warming and natural disasters things tend to change, and so the people must be informed of what's going on and if it is going to be a problem to buildings . Civil engineers   are trying to develop a risk management approach in partnership with natural resources Canada. Engineers Canada works with public infrastructure environmental vulnerability committee in regard to climate change because they are trying to look at future climate risks through assessments of existing public instructors and to try and create a valid way to keep buildings from falling down due to natural disasters and keep people from getting hurt from falling buildings. They are involved in addressing impacts that the climate takes in Canada and look for ways to improve their buildings.    One significant   factor in determining if a building is constructed properly   is that there has to be a lot of workers working on the project or it takes a lot longer than it needs to. According to an article from Civil construction,   â€Å"When it comes to designing the building, the architects are on the job, but when it comes to the building part, the engineers are the ones that get it done.† (Civil Construction). Architects are the ones who draw out the plans; the civil engineers are the ones that make it come to life. It is known that civil engineers are one of the oldest of engineering professions. Without civil engineers, there would be no one to construct and develop buildings, roads, etc. the perfect and right way that civil engineers construct them. In constructing a building there are a lot of different factors that go into a good building. The looks of the building are not the only factors, there is air purity, space, etc. Without civil engineers here to people would be living on the streets, have no where to work, civil engineers are the people who make sure, adults have places to work, and that children and family members have a place to sleep. Each worker who is assigned to work on a building is an expert in his/her own field, and so working on one part of the building that a work is specialized in gets it done fast and right at the same time. Having a worker who is not specialized in a certain job will may not get that part of the building done, and it will take up a lot of time that may have been useful for some other part of the building. Civil engineers spend four years in college learning everything they need to know about what it takes to construct an amazing building. Four years to learn about how their role is played, and the role of other engineers as well. In the view of â€Å"The role of the Civil Engineer in society; Engineering ethics and major projects† it views that, â€Å"Civil engineers use computer model s to design a model of what might the buildings look like.†(The role of civil engineering)      Civil engineers were taught how to use certain machines like cranes to destroy old builds to make way for new ones, tippers, to pour the concrete mix on the ground, dumpers to drop material on the ground or transport heavy objects, or 3D printed papers   that will help them to imagine how the final product would look like when the civil engineers finish the project. We need civil engineers, if we did not have them, then the buildings that we live in, work in, store amazing artifacts in will not be in good condition, and might not even last long. If we give the job of a civil engineer to a video game designer then there is a major possibility of the building project not ending up well in the end for the video gamer designer. Also, right when day one of the project starts its being timed. The building owner wants their building to open up at a certain time, and in order to m ake sure everything's in order when the time comes, they need to make sure that the civil engineers get it done on time. So, the building owners set up a date with the head architect, and then they pick a sizeable group of engineers so they meet that deadline. The more civil engineers involved in the project the faster and more probably that the buildings will be done on time, without any issues. Time management is another big factor in the building process; it takes a very long time to construct buildings. According to Na Zhao, â€Å"...around 7 months, which usually includes around 25 days from authorization to start and another 6 months to finish the construction.† That's for a single- family home. In that time, civil engineers are planning how they are going to construct the building to the owner's liking, and then how many workers are they going to need for each part of the building. From the words of Antonella Artuso, â€Å"Poor planning and coordination, labour is sues and the complex nature of many projects, particularly public ones.† (Artuso). According to Artuso, when someone does not take the time they are given to plan out everything to their complete best ability then they do not do their very best and it then affects the outcome of the build. With everything that you do in life you must take your time, if you wait until the last moment, things will never get done the way you want them to. With constructing builds, civil engineers must spread out their time, rushing and trying to do different jobs all at once, will turn into chaos. President Obama’s quote from the Wall Street Journal said that,   â€Å"Fix it first, initiative, calling for public appropriation to shore up America's infrastructure. The main reason crumbling roads, decrepit bridges, antiquated power lines, leaky water mains and muddy harbors don’t get fixed is interminable regulatory review.† (Howard, Philip K.). Constructing a building takes a lot of time if civil engineers want it done right the first time, and do not want any problems with the customer, and so civil engineers need a long amount of time to make sure everything is built correctly and is built to withstand hopefully a powerfully force of winds, snow, ice, rain, etc . Weather can be a very big drawback during a big project. Rain storms, snow, rising and falling temperatures can all affect the construction hours. So to make up for lost time they need to work longer hours as well has push back the finish date. If civil engineers were still to have the original finish date still set, even after say a powerful rainstorm hit causing a lot of damage,   not only will that cause lost of stress, but it will cause works to rush their work and not take the time to see if they are doing it correctly or not.    â€Å"Engineering problems are under-defined, there are many solutions, good, bad and indifferent. The art is to arrive at a good solution. This is a creative activity, involving imagination, intuition and deliberate choice†(Ove Arup). It is important to understand what Ove Arup is stating here because engineers can build a structure   that looks strong and beautiful, but is not designed and constructed   to demonstrate that strength and beauty. When severe weather storms and natural disasters hit buildings, they must be ready for it,and will have minimum damage because civil engineers looked at weather patterns and picked material that can stand up to natural disasters.   Ã‚   Work Cited Walpole, B. (2016) Meet the driving force behind ASCE 7-16 tsunami loads   In this article a man named Gary Chock took a team of ASCE 7 work members to Japan   in 2011 to gather data regarding the earthquake and tsunami Tohoku. Their job was to look at all the buildings   that had major damage done, and to see what kind of material they used and what could be a better option of material when they rebuild the buildings . Chock and fellow researchers were putting together tsunami design provisions in 2009, 2010. And so Chock asked ASCE to create a tsunami subcommittee, where they can go to different areas in the world where natural disasters occur and they collect data. That group was authorized a month before Tohoku occurred in Japan and it was very good that it happened then. This article was very useful to me because my research is talking about how civil engineers construct really good buildings that can maintain strong natural conditions for a long periods of time. And my though was that some groups went to different locations and study the patterns that go on there and the material that they used there, and in this article is talks about how a group of people such as the ASCE go and do that so they can get the best results for future buildings. This article was very helpful to me because it tells me that civil engineers take pride in their work and that they want to make what they create stan d for as long as it possibly can. And to do so they need to research, and find data that will lead them that way. This relates to my topic because I am also trying to find data and articles like this one that talks about how they come up with ideas to build good, strong buildings that can withstand natural disasters, and Chock is doing something similar, by traveling to Japan to look at a tsunami that had occurred and what material was used on the buildings. 2). Milne, Geoff, and Chris Reardon . â€Å"Embodied energy.† Embodied energy, 28 July 2013, Accessed 10 May 2017. In this article it explained to me all the different types of energy that is within all the different types of material, cement, wood, plastic, they all have a certain type of energy within them, and with that energy it is strong against different types of weathers and temperatures as well. 3). Zhao, Na. â€Å"How Long Does It Take to Build a Single-Family Home?† Eye On Housing, 18 Aug. 2015. Ac cessed 13 May 2017. In this article it explains why building take a single family home takes about over 7 months to build. It shows all the requirements of what it takes to be perfect for the family and why time is so important to civil engineers David, Lapp. â€Å"ENGINEERS AND CLIMATE CHANGE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - PEO.† Engineers and Climate Change: What You Need to Know, With climate change, property loss has grown since the 1950s, and 85% are weather related. And when property is loss, civil engineers can not build buildings when there's no property for buildings. Most of the engineering problems will be caused by climate change. With that being said civil engineers will have to learn to interpret new standards and regulations for property. When change occurs last minute during the building process, engineers will have to adapt to the changes fast and try to come up with a solution fast.    4). "Impact of Environmental Factors on Building Project ..." Impact of E nvironmental Factors on Building Project Performance in Delta State, Nigeria. N.p., Apr. 2015. Web. 20 Oct. 2016. I chose this website because it talks about the problems that building projects face with the environment. According to the article, the environment interferes with the planned process of construction projects. Failure and success depends on the factors of the environment. Project managers look at the weather before hand and then try to find ways to work around the problems that lie head in the future for them. By natural disasters occurring, the buildings process starts to become more expensive. Ground conditions and weather patterns are the most common example of physical influences. It stops machines and construction for at least a day or more depending on the condition everything is on when it's over. 5).   â€Å"Climateandweather - Climate And Weather - Climate and ...† Climate and Weather , 2014, This article is helpful for me in my research because i' m researching how civil engineers design and build functional and aesthetic while focusing on safety issues plus weather conditions. So reading some of the types of weathers such as tornadoes, which happen to be the most violent storms on Earth. According to the article tornadoes are most common in states like Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, and more. So, when it comes to building buildings there has to be a focus on the material and what shape the building is going to form. In order to take account for that, there need to be people who look at the different types of weather patterns in the area that they are building a structure in. Tornadoes is a very powerful storm, that cause major damage to an area. On a fujita scale, they are ranked a between F2 to F5, depending on the strength of the tornadoes. So far in my annotations they have discussed mostly about the material they should use in buildings in certain areas, but in this one it is talking about weather. So when it comes to the pa rt of putting all the information together for my research paper, I have information on everything and articles on weather are going to put things into more detail, because in order to follow safety rules, the structures must have the durability to hold itself nice and strong when something big and strong hits it. 6).   â€Å"Climateandweather- Climate And Weather - Climate and ...† Climate and Weather , 2014. This article is helpful for me in my research because i'm researching how civil engineers design and build functional and aesthetic while focusing on safety issues plus weather conditions. So reading some of the types of weathers such as tornadoes, which happen to be the most violent storms on Earth. According to the article tornadoes are most common in states like Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, and more. So, when it comes to building buildings there has to be a focus on the material and what shape the building is going to form. In order to take account for that, there need to be people who look at the different types of weather patterns in the area that they are building a structure in. Tornadoes is a very powerful storm, that cause major damage to an area. On a fujita scale, they are ranked a between F2 to F5, depending on the strength of the tornadoes. So far in my annotations they have discussed mostly about the material they should use in buildings in certain areas, but in this one it is talking about weather. So when it comes to the part of putting all the information together for my research paper, I have information on everything and articles on weather are going to put things into more detail, because in order to follow safety rules, the structures must have the durability to hold itself nice and strong when something big and strong hits it. 7). State, By. "Concrete Construction." Concrete Construction. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2016. During the construction process of a building, most people use concrete, and when using concrete there ar e a few things that need to be done to make sure everything is right. Cold weather affects everything in a way, so in order to avoid problems make sure that the concrete is protected at all times. It must be protected until it has reached a minimum compressive strength of 500 psi.Which is most likely in the first 24 hours. Within the first 24 hours, three steps must be taken to make there are no problems. One, initial concrete temperature as delivered. Two, protection while concrete is placed, consolidated, and finished. Three, curing temperatures to produce quality concrete. 8).   "The Role of the Civil Engineer in Society: Engineering Ethics and Major Projects - Engineering Nature's Way." Engineering Nature's Way RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2016. Civil engineers work is to define boundaries. To visualize a plan to create a perfect building that will fit the community perfectly. They need to create a plan that will fit the vision of the client. They use computer models to desi gn a model of what might the building look like. And if the client does not like it, then they could make changes to them. Even if how we want to build the building in the design that we want to is better than the client's vision, we go with the clients because they are always right and we want to represent them in the best way we can. Engineers should contribute a building that is sustainable to society, takes on a leadership role, uses resources wisely. We have to try and build a building and stay in a budget that they can afford and still do a nice job.