Construction Technology

This module is designed for students pursuing Advanced Diploma courses in Construction Technology. It describes the skills, knowledge and attitudes required to analyze Construction materials.

This module provides a basic understanding of Chemistry that is relevant to Civil Engineering Students, especially those from construction technology. It covers fundamentals of Inorganic Chemistry such as: atomic structure, periodic table of elements, chemical and physical properties of elements, acids and bases and oxido-reduction reactions (corrosion and its prevention). The course covers an introduction to Organic Chemistry: polymerization reactions.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Knowledge and Understandings

Having successfully completed the module, students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understandings in:

a.      Atoms and Molecules

b.      Properties of metals

c.       Molecules, Moles and Chemical Equations

d.      The Periodic Table and Atomic Structure

e.       Chemical bonding and Molecular Structure

f.        Acid-base reactions

g.      Causes of corrosion and prevention

h.      Polymers

Cognitive/Intellectual Skills/ Application of Knowledge

Having successfully completed the module, students should be able to:

a.      Describe the Atomic structure and molecular structure of simple molecules

b.      Outline the types of chemical bonds in inorganic compounds

c.       Describe Basic Chemical Laws and Reactions

d.      Describe causes, effects and prevention of corrosion of materials

e.       Give the Nomenclature of inorganic compounds

f.        Understand the  General importance of polymers in construction engineering

Background

The prerequisites for this course include general chemistry and organic chemistry

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This module provides a basic understanding of Chemistry that is relevant to Civil Engineering Students, especially those from construction technology. It covers fundamentals of Inorganic Chemistry such as: atomic structure, periodic table of elements, chemical and physical properties of elements, acids and bases and oxido-reduction reactions (corrosion and its prevention). The course covers an introduction to Organic Chemistry: polymerization reactions.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Knowledge and Understandings

Having successfully completed the module, students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understandings in:

a.      Atoms and Molecules

b.      Properties of metals

c.       Molecules, Moles and Chemical Equations

d.      The Periodic Table and Atomic Structure

e.       Chemical bonding and Molecular Structure

f.        Acid-base reactions

g.      Causes of corrosion and prevention

h.      Polymers

Cognitive/Intellectual Skills/ Application of Knowledge

Having successfully completed the module, students should be able to:

a.      Describe the Atomic structure and molecular structure of simple molecules

b.      Outline the types of chemical bonds in inorganic compounds

c.       Describe Basic Chemical Laws and Reactions

d.      Describe causes, effects and prevention of corrosion of materials

e.       Give the Nomenclature of inorganic compounds

f.        Understand the  General importance of polymers in construction engineering

Background

The prerequisites for this course include general chemistry and organic chemistry

The course aims at imparting students with the necessary skill though practicing and apply it in drawing different types of buildings, steel detailing and cross and longitudinal sections of the road.

This module is designed for students who have taken General English module in the first semester of the academic year one. It focuses on helping students to go deep in structural construction and grammatical rules of English. Similarly, it aimed at improving students’ competence both in writing and speaking.

The present module intends to equip students with the integrated skills competences i.e speaking, writing, reading and listening focusing on their specific field of Civil engineering. The content includes among others text reading comprehension and vocabulary related to their field, topic discussion and class presentation activities, and writing tasks focusing on civil engineering activities. Furthermore, students will get the insight in some advanced points of grammar to enhance the competence in English language structure.

Strength of materials is a branch of applied mechanics that deals with the behavior of solid bodies

subjected to various types of loading. This field of study is known by several names, including

"Strength of materials" and "mechanics of deformable bodies."  The solid bodies considered in this

course include axially loaded members, shafts in torsion, beams, and columns, as well as structures that

are assemblies of these components. Usually the objectives of our analysis will be the determination of

the stresses, strains, bending and shear force, forces generated in truss members created by the loads.

If these quantities can be found for all values of load up to the failure load, then we will have a

complete picture of the mechanical behavior of the body.

A thorough understanding of mechanical behavior is essential for the safe design of all structures,

whether buildings and bridges, machines and motors, submarines and ships, or airplanes and antennas.

Hence, strength of materials is a basic subject in many engineering fields. Of course, statics and

dynamics are also essential, but they deal primarily with the forces and motions associated with

particles and rigid bodies. In this course, we will go one step further by examining the stresses and

strains that occur inside real bodies that deform under loads. We use the physical properties of the

materials as well as numerous theoretical laws and concepts, which will be explained as we

develop this course.

The historical development of strength of materials is a fascinating blend of both theory and

experiment; experiments have pointed the way to useful results in some instances, and theory has

done so in others. Such famous men as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and Galileo Galilei (15641642)

performed

experiments

to

determine

the strength of wires, bars, and beams, although they did

not develop any adequate theories (by today's standards) to explain their test results. Such theories

came much later. By contrast, the famous mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) developed the

mathematical theory of columns and calculated the theoretical  critical  load  of  a  column  in  1744, 

long  before  any  experimental evidence existed to show the significance of his results. Thus, for want

of appropriate tests, Euler's results remained unused for many years; although today they form the basis

of column theory. 

When studying strength of materials from this course, you will find that your efforts are divided

naturally into two parts: first, understanding the logical development of the concepts, and second,

applying those concepts to practical situations. The former is accomplished by studying the

derivations, discussions, and examples, and the latter by solving problems. Some of the examples and

problems are numerical in character, and others are algebraic or symbolic). An advantage  of 

numerical  problems  is  that  the  magnitudes  of  all  quantities  are evident at every stage of the

calculations. Sometimes these values are needed to ensure that practical limits (such as allowable

stresses) are not exceeded. Algebraic solutions have certain advantages, too. Because they lead to

formulas, algebraic solutions make clear the variables that affect the final result. For instance, a certain

quantity may actually cancel out of the solution, a fact that would not be evident from a numerical

problem.

Numerical problems require that you work with specific units of measurements and the only

accepted standard of measurement is the International System of Units (SI). 

The aim of this module is to equip the student with the ability to communicate information by graphical means, using also CAD software packages. The student is also given the required technical drawing skills to enable him to draw civil engineering building structural components.