Civil Engineering

Students are introduced to the field of Civil Engineering by having them present about a well known structure, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, Eiffel Tower, or the Statue of Liberty. In Week 2, students are introduced to materials terms and the lab requires students to measure different materials stiffness with the resulting graph providing the modulus of elasticity. Week 3 is dedicated to building the manila file folder bridge. Week 4 starts with the students simulating a bridge design on a PC and the students can have a class competition for the lowest construction costs. The rest of this week has some team members completing the bridge while others characterize the strengths of the bridge members. The students then load test their bridges with the specified 5kg load. After they see their bridge's performance, week 5 and week 6 are dedicated to the static analysis of the forces on each of the bridge members.

Week 1 Summary: This week introduces students to Civil Engineering. Monday is a video with student worksheet. Tuesday is a PowerPoint presentation describing civil engineering and formation of teams for the Great Civil Structures research project. Wednesday is dedicated to research the chosen structure and creating the PowerPoint presentation, with Thursday and Friday dedicated to the student presentations.


Week 2 Summary: This week starts with a guest speaker from a nearby college or civil engineering firm. The Tuesday PowerPoint presentation defines the terminology to describe materials and their properties. The Wed. / Thu. lab actually measures material stiffness of different materials and orientations. On Fri., students present their data and Modulus of Elasticity calculations and compare their results with published literature. Acknowledgement to Eric E. Matsumoto et.al., California State University, Sacramento, for this lab idea and most of the procedures. Check the links to read their paper as it gives detailed background.


Week 3 Summary: This week focuses on bridge construction from manila file folders. It is highly recommended for the instructor and all students to read and frequently refer to Learning Activity #1 from the book by Colonel Stephen J. Ressler, P.E., Ph.D., Designing and Building File Folder Bridges.


Week 4 Summary: As an attention grabber, Monday will have the students simulate a bridge design using a PC based program. Have a class competition to design the least expensive bridge. The rest of the week will be for completion of their bridge construction and do a final weight stress test. Students will use a characterization tool to quantify both the relationships between tube length vs. compression induced buckling and strip width vs. tension induced shearing. These characterization results will be used to determine the actual strength limits of the paper bridge and allow Factor of Safety calculations (week 6). It is highly recommended for the instructor and all students to read and frequently refer to Learning Activity #1 and Learning Activity #2 from the book by Colonel Stephen J. Ressler, P.E., Ph.D., Designing and Building File Folder Bridges.


Week 5 Summary: This week focuses on the mathematics required to analyze a truss structure. Structural Analysis I covers the mathematical concepts of Pythagoreon Theorem, sin, cos, vector components, equilibrium, and reactions. An excellent reference is Learning Activity #3 from the book by Colonel Stephen J. Ressler, P.E., Ph.D., Designing and Building File Folder Bridges.


Week 6 Summary: Students will complete the mathematical static analysis of a truss bridge structure. There is a lot of math involved and many examples might be a good idea. Students may also need copies of the PowerPoint solutions as an example. Students wil then use their calculations and characterization data to calculate the bridge Factor of Safety. An excellent reference is Learning Activity #3 from the book by Colonel Stephen J. Ressler, P.E., Ph.D., Designing and Building File Folder Bridges.