CIVIL ENGINEERING.
This course is devoted to the development of subjects of peculiar
importance for the civil engineer, which have not been adequately
treated in the earlier sections of his studies. These are the statical
analysis of structures, especially of the more intricate types, the
design of structural details, and the problems of river engineering.
1. Roofs and Bridges.
The work of the first term is devoted to the statical analysis of
structures. The principles of analysis, already developed in the
course of General Mechanics and applied to the simpler forms of
roofs and bridges, are restated and extended. The continuous girder,
the cantilever, the swing bridge, the braced arch, and the suspension
bridge are studied and their straining actions are determined. Complete
analyses of strain for a number of typical forms are worked out
in the class, examples being selected by preference from the current
practice of engineers. The collateral questions growing out of the
location of bridges are also examined and the principles involved in
determining the strength of the foundation, the stability of the
stream bed, the amplitude of the water way, and discharge of the
flood waters are reviewed.
2. Structural Details.
The second term of the course is directed to the design of structural
details in the constructions analyzed in the earlier division of
the work. Riveted connections, pin joints, column sections, stiffened
tension members, standard types of portal and sway bracing, plain
and expansion pedestals, and all the usual details of roof and bridgework
in timber and steel are critically studied. Complete bills of
material are prepared for a number of structures, and each student
is required to develop independently an entire design and to offer
as part of his graduating work a descriptive memoir, giving all the
requisite calculations and accompanied by the usual general and
detailed drawings. In the preparation of such details a standard
practice of our best American designers is carefully observed, and
the student is familiarized with their established conventions.
3. River Engineering.
During the third term the attention of the class is directed to the
great problems of river engineering and its modern developments.
The methods of gauging the flow of streams and determining the
normal and flood discharges are first discussed. The problems of
flood control, levee construction and maintenance, rectification of the
stream bed and protection of the banks are next considered. The
subject of canalization of rivers is then taken up, and the design and
construction of locks and their appurtenances, of movable dams and
navigation passes, and of fixed weirs, are expounded in the light of
rational theory and standard practice. The location and construction
of artificial canals and river diversions are treated in this connection
and illustrated from the great enterprises of recent engineering history.
The methods for the improvement of the mouths of tidal and
tideless rivers are next explained and the relative utilities of training
walls, jetties and dredging operations are defined. Finally the subjects
of the reclamation of swamps and the irrigation of arid lands
are taken up and treated with as much completeness as the limitations
of time permit.
