Triumph of the Nerds!

If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a non-working cat. Life is a level of complexity that almost lies outside our vision; it is so far beyond anything we have any means of understanding that we just think of it as a different class of object, a different class of matter; 'life', something that had a mysterious essence about it, was God given, and that's the only explanation we had. The bombshell comes in 1859 when Darwin publishes 'On the Origin of Species'. It takes a long time before we really get to grips with this and begin to understand it, because not only does it seem incredible and thoroughly demeaning to us, but it's yet another shock to our system to discover that not only are we not the centre of the Universe and we're not made by anything, but we started out as some kind of slime and got to where we are via being a monkey. It just doesn't read well.

--Douglas Noel Adams

The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025

I have read "The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025" as a report on that enlightening summit held in June of 2006 by ASCE(American Society of Civil Engineers) and found out what I am actually supposed to become as a civil engineer according to that global perspective: "someone who is entrusted by society to identify global needs and act as master planners, designers, constructors, and operators for the built environment".

Although the idea is completely well defined and ideal, unfortunately the great distinction of report concepts with the ones exist in my country is something and my enthusiasm in having a better education and profession based on standards- which are articulated in the report- is another thing and dealing with all the comparisons I do every day, all of the paradoxes and shortages and narrow-mindedness I face with, and the opportunities I'm losing every second are subjects which bring about questions for me.

Unfortunately there is vast difference between Civil Engineering community in a third world country and a developed one. It is hard to perceive an engineering education without research and practice but this is the reality which is frustrating but deliberative. Consider that universities act as organisms within body of society which their function is to release degreed students in engineering, science and so on. No matter if they are not efficiently trained to meet the challenges of the future because the population of educated people is of primary importance to be a developing nation! Consequently engineers are not entrusted by society as master builders and leaders in shaping the public policy. They are just known as individuals who

costruct to make money and usually do not behave ethically.

If the vision- as it is claimed in the report- is global, and if "Leaders of civil engineering organizations around the globe should move the civil engineering community toward that vision"- the vision which should be shared as a common goal for civil engineering community-, I want to know what are the available opportunities and probable duties for students who live in a country like the one I live in? Is there any effectively concluded procedure to extend the vision over the world? If so I eagerly want to know what they are. And since I'm still a student, the educational plans would be definitely more important for me. I am ready to follow any procedures, to help the community so that we could globalize the vision more rapidly.

Below, you can download The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025

http://www.asce.org/Vision2025.pdf

Environmental Engineering

Environmental engineering is a rapidly growing, multi-disciplinary branch of engineering, concerned with planning, implementing and managing solutions to restore, protect and improve environmental resources; Significantly air, water and land resources. In other words, environmental engineering is an essential simultaneous application of science and technology to make a sustainable development possible; a development in order to avoiding depletion and/or pollution of natural resources.

Environmental engineering involves a wide range of common issues in an urban developing project. Such as water and air pollution control, resources recycling, waste disposal and public health. It also includes studies on environmental impact of proposed construction projects to adjust them with environmental laws. Thus thisDiscipline employs a wide range of engineering knowledge and skills, not in isolation but in consultation with other professionals and community. Environmental engineering is a synthesis of various disciplines, incorporating science and technology for convenience of human and other organisms. Frequent elements of environmental engineering include:
- Civil Engineering (including all sub-branches)
- Chemical Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
- Biology
- Ecology
- Chemistry

- Geology

important divisions of the field of environmental engineering

- Environmental impact assessment and mitigation
- Water supply and treatment
- Wastewater conveyance and treatment
- Air quality management

Engineering Mechanics: Statics by By J. L. Meriam, L. G. Kraige

I'm so greatful to hear that this book will be thought in HU. Click on the below links to download the whole book. I try to find it's solution manual as soon as I got rid of my lessons! Enjoy...

http://rapidshare.com/files/23745061/Engineering_Mechanics_STATICS.part1.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/23768554/Engineering_Mechanics_STATICS.part2.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/23768555/Engineering_Mechanics_STATICS.part3.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/23782707/Engineering_Mechanics_STATICS.part4.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/23782708/Engineering_Mechanics_STATICS.part5.rar

Password: marwansinan and waseemthaer

Book Description

This concise and authoritative book emphasizes basic principles and problem formulation. It illustrates both the cohesiveness of the relatively few fundamental ideas in this area and the great variety of problems these ideas solve. All of the problems address principles and procedures inherent in the design and analysis of engineering structures and mechanical systems, with many of the problems referring explicitly to design considerations.
Engineering mechanics by Meriam and Kraige provides an excellent treatment of the subject matter, providing that one has all the necessary tools to handle this course. This means to have your geometry, algebra, trig., physics, and calculus internally wired. If not, one has to do the deep reviews, spending time and energy at grasping the basic concepts.
Also, if the discussion of the theory seems thin and problem sets seem unrepresentative, might I suggest another statics book by Riley and Sturges, 2nd ed. The exposition is expanded and provides clarity, the problem sets are a bit on the bland side, but the example sets provide reasonable representation to the problems in the book.
But, of all the problem sets of all statics books I have seen, Meriam and Kraige has the most realistic graphics and real world stuff. If you can internalize this book, your other mechanics courses like mech. of materials, dynamics, and fluids will move much more smoothly.
And, if a problem in the text appears impossible, it is always because of a misunderstanding of simpler concepts. It doesn’t hurt being creative when problem solving. That is, to make additional sketches, draw diagrams, to QUESTION each and every part of the problem. To break apart or separate the problem into components and then mentally observing the parts under a “magnifying glass.”
This book is very challenging, and it definitely helps if you have an instructor who has energy to be able to MAKE CLEAR any concepts whether in class, through paper handouts, in person, or even through email. If your instructor is lazy, you know where most of the energy of effort will have to come from.
Finally, if you has the drive, you can succeed. If your tank is low on gas, head for your next review station. Don’t let any misunderstandings linger in your mind, siphoning your confidence, time, and energy. Sometimes, you gotta hike a mountain, going from review to review. You can do it.

By J. L. Meriam, L. G. Kraige, Publisher: Wiley Number Of Pages: 512 Publication Date: 2001-08-28 Sales Rank: 453776 ISBN / ASIN: 0471406465 Binding: Hardcover Manufacturer: Wiley Studio: Wiley

Cable-stayed bridge

A cable-stayed bridge is a bridge that consists of one or more columns (normally referred to as towers or pylons), with cables supporting the bridge deck. There are two major classes of cable-stayed bridges, differentiated by how the cables are connected to the tower(s). In a harp design, the cables are made nearly parallel by attaching cables to various points on the tower so that the height of attachment of each on the tower is similar to the distance from the tower along the roadway to its lower attachment. In a fan design, the cables all connect to or pass over the top of the tower. The cable-stay design occupies a sweet spot of length between cantilever bridges and suspension bridges. Within this sweet spot a suspension bridge would require a great deal more cable, while a full cantilever bridge would require considerably more material and be substantially heavier.

History of development
Cable-stayed bridges can be dated back to the 1784 design of a timber bridge by German carpenter C.T. Loescher. Many early suspension bridges were of hybrid suspension and cable-stayed bridge, including the 1817 footbridge at Dryburgh Abbey, and the later Albert Bridge (1872) and Brooklyn Bridge (1883). Their designers found that the combination of technologies created a stiffer bridge, and John A. Roebling took particular advantage of this to limit deformations due to railway loads in the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge.
In the twentieth century, early examples of cable-stayed bridges included A. Gisclard's unusual Cassagnes bridge (1899), where the horizontal part of the cable forces is balanced by a separate horizontal tie cable, preventing significant compression in the deck, and G. Leinekugel le Coq's bridge at Lezardrieux (1925). However, the first widely recognised modern cable-stayed bridge was designed at Strömsund by Franz Dischinger (1955). Other key pioneers included Riccardo Morandi and Fritz Leonhardt. Early bridges from this period used very few stay cables, as in the Theodor-Heuss-Rhine River Bridge (1958). However, this involves substantial erection costs, and more modern structures tend to use many more cables to ensure greater economy.


Comparison with suspension bridge
A multiple-tower cable-stayed bridge may appear similar to a suspension bridge, but in fact is very different in principle and in the method of construction. In the suspension bridge, a large cable is made up by "spinning" small diameter wires between two towers, and at each end to anchorages into the ground or to a massive structure. These cables form the primary load-bearing structure for the bridge deck. Before the deck is installed, the cables are under tension from only their own weight. Smaller cables or rods are then suspended from the main cable, and used to support the load of the bridge deck, which is lifted in sections and attached to the suspender cables. As this is done the tension in the cables increases, as it does with the live load of vehicles or persons crossing the bridge. The tension on the cables must be transferred to the earth by the anchorages, which are sometimes difficult to construct due to poor soil conditions.

In the cable-stayed bridge, the towers form the primary load-bearing structure. A cantilever approach is often used for support of the bridge deck near the towers, but areas further from them are supported by cables running directly to the towers. This has the disadvantage, compared to the suspension bridge, that the cables pull to the sides as opposed to directly up, requiring the bridge deck to be stronger to resist the resulting horizontal compression loads; but has the advantage of not requiring firm anchorages to resist a horizontal pull as in the suspension bridge. All static horizontal forces are balanced so that the supporting tower does not tend to tilt or slide, needing only to resist such forces from the live" loads.
Key advantages of the cable-stayed form are as follows:

-much greater stiffness than the suspension bridge, so that deformations of the deck under live loads are reduced.
-can be constructed by cantilevering out from the tower - the cables act both as temporary and permanent supports to the bridge deck.
-for a symmetrical bridge (i.e. spans on either side of the tower are the same), the horizontal forces balance and large ground anchorages are not required.


A further advantage of the cable-stayed bridge is that any number of towers may be used. This bridge form can be as easily built with a single tower, as with a pair of towers.


Variations
A side-spar cable-stayed bridge uses a central tower supported on only one side. The example shown in that article is not significantly different in structure from a conventional cable-stayed bridge, although this concept could allow the construction of a curved bridge. Far more radical in its structure, the Redding, California Sundial Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that uses a single cantilever spar on one side of the span, with cables on one side only to support the bridge deck. Unlike the other cable stayed types shown this bridge exerts considerable overturning force upon its foundation and the spar must resist the bending caused by the cables, as the cable forces are not balanced by opposing cables. The spar of this particular bridge forms the gnomon of a large garden sundial. Related bridges by the archictect Santiago Calatrava include the Puente del Alamillo and Puente de la Mujer.

Millau Viaduct

The 'Millau Viaduct' (French: le Viaduc de Millau) is a cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the River Tarn near Millau in southern France. Designed by French bridge engineer Michel Virlogeux in collaboration with British architect Norman Foster, it is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, with one pier's summit at 343 metres (1,125 ft)—slightly taller than the Eiffel Tower and only 38 m (125 ft) shorter than the Empire State Building. It was formally dedicated on 14 December 2004 and opened to traffic two days later.

Location
Millau Viaduct's coordinates are 44.077165° N 3.022887° E. Before the bridge was constructed, traffic had to descend into the Tarn River valley and pass along the route nationale N9 near the town of Millau, causing heavy congestion at the beginning and end of the July and August vacation season. The bridge now traverses the Tarn valley above its lowest point, linking the causse du Larzac to the causse rouge, and is inside the perimeter of the Grands Causses regional natural park.
The bridge forms the last link of the A75 autoroute, (la Méridienne) from Clermont-Ferrand to Pézenas (to be extended to Béziers by 2010). The A75, with the A10 and A71, provides a continuous high-speed route south from Paris through Clermont-Ferrand to the Languedoc region and through to Spain, considerably increasing the speed and reducing the cost of vehicle traffic travelling along this route. Many tourists heading to southern France and Spain follow this route because it is direct and without tolls for the 340 km between Clermont-Ferrand to Pézenas, except for the bridge itself.
The Eiffage group operates the viaduct as a toll bridge, with the toll currently (Nov 2006) set at €5.10 for light automobiles (€6.80 during the peak months of July and August). The bridge was constructed by the Eiffage group, which also built the Eiffel Tower, under a government contract which allows the company to collect tolls for up to 75 years

Description
The Millau Viaduct consists of an eight-span steel roadway supported by seven concrete piers. The roadway weighs 36,000 tons and is 2,460 m long, measuring 32 m wide by 4.2 m deep. The six central spans each measure 342 m with the two outer spans measuring 204 m. The roadway has a slope of 3% descending from south to north, and curves in plan section on a 20 km radius to give drivers better visibility. It carries two lanes of traffic in each direction.
The piers range in height from 77–246 m, and taper in their longitudinal section from 24.5 m at the base to 11 m at the deck. Each pier is composed of 16 framework sections, each weighing 2,230 tons. These sections were assembled on site from pieces of 60 tons, 4 m wide and 17 m long, made in factories in Lauterbourg and Fos-sur-Mer by Eiffage. The piers each support 97 m tall pylons. The piers were assembled first, together with some temporary supports, before the decks were slid out across the piers by satellite-guided hydraulic rams that moved the deck 600 mm every 4 minutes.
The viaduct is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, nearly twice as tall as the previous tallest vehicular bridge in Europe, the Europabrücke in Austria.
The Millau Viaduct is the second highest vehicular bridge measured from the roadway elevation. Its deck, at approximately 270 m above the Tarn, is slightly higher than the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia in the United States, which is 267 m above the New River. The Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado, United States has a deck considerably higher than either, at 321 m above the Arkansas River.

Construction
Construction began on 10 October 2001 and was intended to take three years, but weather conditions put work on the bridge behind schedule. A revised schedule aimed for the bridge to be opened in January 2005. The viaduct was officially inaugurated by President Chirac on 1 December 2004 to open for traffic on 16 December, several weeks ahead of the revised schedule. The construction of the bridge is depicted in a documentary of the Discovery Channel 'Megastructures' series.

Implementation
The bridge deck was constructed on land at the ends of the viaduct and rolled lengthwise from one tower to the next, with seven temporary added towers also in place. The movement was accomplished by a computer-controlled system of pairs of wedges under the deck; the upper and lower wedges of each pair pointed in opposite directions. These were hydraulically operated, and moved repeatedly in the following sequence:
Lower wedge slides under the upper wedge, raising it to the roadway above and then forcing the upper wedge still higher to lift the roadway.
Both wedges move together, advancing the roadway a short distance.
Lower wedge retracts from under the upper wedge, lowering the roadway and then allowing the upper wedge to drop away from the roadway.
Upper wedge moves backward, placing it into position farther (back) along the roadway, ready to repeat the cycle and advance the roadway again.

Costs and resources
The bridge's construction cost up to €394 million, with a toll plaza 6 km north of the viaduct costing an additional €20 million. The builders, Eiffage, financed the construction in return for a concession to collect the tolls for 75 years, until 2080. However, if the concession is very profitable, the French government can assume control of the bridge in 2044.
The project required about 127,000 m³ of concrete, 19,000 metric tons of steel for the reinforced concrete, and 5,000 metric tons of pre-stressed steel for the cables and shrouds. The builder claims that the bridge's lifetime will be at least 120 years.

Statistics
2,460 m: total length of the roadway
7: number of piers
77 m: height of Pier 7, the shortest
343 m: height of Pier 2, the tallest (245 m at the roadway's level)
87 m: height of a pylon
154: number of shrouds
270 m: average height of the roadway
4.20 m: thickness of the roadway
32.05 m: width of the roadway
85,000 m³: total volume of concrete used
290,000 tonnes: total weight of the bridge
10,000–25,000 vehicles: estimated daily traffic
€4.90–6.50: typical automobile toll, as of 2005
20 km: horizontal radius of curvature of the road deck

Falkirk Wheel

The Falkirk Wheel, named after the nearby town of Falkirk in central Scotland, is a rotating boat lift connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal, which at this point differ by 24 metres, roughly equivalent to the height of an eight storey building. The structure is located in the village of Tamfourhill.On 24 May 2002, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Falkirk Wheel as part of her Golden Jubilee celebrations. The opening had been delayed by a month due to flooding caused by vandals who forced open the Wheel's gates.

Design of the Falkirk Wheel
The wheel, which has an overall diameter of 35 metres, consists of two opposing arms which extend 15 metres beyond the central axle, and which take the shape of a Celtic-inspired, double-headed axe. Two sets of these axe-shaped arms are attached about 25 metres apart to a 3.5 metre diameter axle. Two diametrically opposed water-filled caissons, each with a capacity of 80,000 gallons (302 tons), are fitted between the ends of the arms.
These caissons always weigh the same whether or not they are carrying their combined capacity of 600 tonnes of floating canal barges as, according to Archimedes' principle, floating objects displace their own weight in water, so when the boat enters, the amount of water leaving the caisson weighs exactly the same as the boat. This keeps the wheel balanced and so, despite its enormous mass, it rotates through 180° in less than four minutes while using very little power. It takes just 22.5 kilowatts (kW) to power the electric motors, which consume just 1.5 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy in four minutes, roughly the same as boiling eight kettles of water.The wheel is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world, and is regarded as an engineering landmark for Scotland. The United Kingdom has one other boat lift: the Anderton Boat Lift in Cheshire. The Falkirk Wheel is an improvement on the Anderton Boat Lift and makes use of the same original principle: two balanced tanks, one going up and the other going down.

How the wheel rotates




The wheel rotates together with the axle which is supported by the 4 metre diameter slewing bearings which are fitted to the ends of the axle and have their outer rings mounted on the plinths which in turn are constructed on top of piled foundations.
The slewing bearing at the machine-room end of the axle has an inner ring gear which in this configuration acts as a rotating annulus. The rotating annulus is driven by ten hydraulic motors which are assembled on a stationary bearing and motor assembly known as the planet carrier which in turn is also mounted onto a plinth similar to the one at the other end of the axle. The driveshafts of the motors have pinion gears which act as stationary planetary gears in this train of gears and engage the rotating annulus ring gear. Electric motors drive a hydraulic pump which is connected to the hydraulic motor by means of hoses and drive the wheel at 1/8 revolution per minute.

Construction of the wheel
The wheel was constructed by Butterley Engineering at Ripley in Derbyshire under Millennium Plans to reconnect the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal, mainly for recreational use. The two canals were previously connected by a series of 11 locks, but by the 1930s these had fallen into disuse, were filled in and the land built upon.
The Millennium Commission decided to regenerate the canals of central Scotland to connect Glasgow with Edinburgh once more. Designs were submitted for a lock to link the canals, with the Falkirk Wheel design winning. As with many Millennium Commission projects the site includes a visitors' centre containing a shop, café and exhibition centre.

How the caissons are kept level



The caissons need to rotate at the same speed as the wheel but in the opposite direction to keep them level and to ensure that the load of boats and water does not drop out when the wheel turns.
The end of each of the caissons is supported on small wheels which run on the inside face of the eight metre diameter holes at the end of the arms, enabling the caissons to rotate freely.
The rotation is achieved by means of a train of gears comprising three eight metre diameter ring gears with external teeth and another two small jockey gears. One of the large gears acts as a stationary sun gear and is fitted loosely over the axle at the machine-room end of the axle and fixed to a plinth to prevent it from rotating. The two small jockey gears, the outer rings of bearings, are fixed to each of the arms of the wheel at the machine-room end of the wheel and act as planet gears. When the motors rotate the wheel the arms swing and planet gears engage the sun gear which results in the planet gears rotating at a higher speed than the wheel but in the same direction as the wheel. The planet gears engage the large ring gears at the end of the caissons causing them to rotate at the same speed as the wheel but in an opposite direction. This keeps the caissons stable and perfectly level.

The dry well
The dry well is a drydock-like port which is isolated from the lower canal basin and kept dry by means of water pumps. If it were not for inclusion of the docking-pit the caissons and extremities of the arms of the wheel would be immersed in the lower canal basin each time the wheel rotates. This would result in a number of undesirable situations developing, such as providing buoyancy to the bottom caisson and the viscosity of the water causing an increase in the required power.

How the canal was routed through the wheel
The route chosen to take the Union Canal to the site of the wheel involved building a completely new section of canal, leading from the original terminus at Port Maxwell to link up with a new basin to the south of the wheel. The water level in this basin is the same as the top section of the wheel, the two being joined by a 150 metre long tunnel with elliptical cross section. There are two locks to drop the canal level from that of the Union Canal to this basin. The tunnel was required because the canal had to pass underneath the route of the Antonine Wall without disturbing its archeological remains. Just at this point the canal also passes below a road and the main Edinburgh to Glasgow railway line.

Costs and prices
The Falkirk Wheel cost £17.5 million, and the restoration project as a whole cost £84.5 million (of which £32 million came from National Lottery funds). As of 2006, a ride on the Wheel costs £8 for adults and £4.25 for children aged 3-15 (free for children under 3), OAP concession £6.50, student/UB40 concession £6.50 and family price of £21.50 (2 adults and 2 children) with a discount of 10% for a group of 20 or more.