The purchase of equipment represents a capital investment by the construction contractor. The contractor has to recover enough money to pay the ownership cost and operating costs of the equipment during its useful life. Together, he must make a profit on the investment. Therefore, any estimate must include the cost of equipment used on the…
Category: Civil Engineering
Quality of mixing water for Concrete
Cement and aggregates are the main ingredients in making concrete. Water is the third. The quantity of water in the concrete mix strongly influences the strength of the resulting concrete. Undoubtedly, water is necessary to make the concrete mix adequately workable. There is another important thing. Water is necessary to hydrate the cement in the…
LIME – as a construction material
Lime was used throughout the world by ancient civilizations as a binding agent for brick and stone. The concept was brought to Britain in the first century AD by the Romans
Glass – as construction material
The term glass refers to materials, usually blends of metallic oxides, mainly silica, which do not crystallize when cooled from the liquid to the solid state. It is the non-crystalline or amorphous structure of glass that gives rise to its transparency
Techniques used to control groundwater
For keeping the area of excavation in dry condition, the water table should be maintained at least 0.5 m below the bottom of the excavation.
Singly Reinforced Beams – BS 8110:1:1997 – Example 1
A simply supported rectangular concrete beam of 7 m span carries a characteristic dead load (Gk), including self-weight of the beam, and imposed load (Qk) of 7 kNm and 5 kNm respectively.
Doubly Reinforced Beams – BS 8110:1:1997 – Example 1
A reinforced concrete beam has a rectangular section of breadth b = 225 mm and effective depth d = 450 mm. It has to carry a design moment of 300.0 kNm.
The Radius of Gyration (r)
The radius of gyration gives the stiffness of a section. It is based on the shape of the cross-section. Normally, we use this for compression members such as a column.
The nature of forces acting on buildings
Examples of vertically applied forces on building elements are the dead loads of the building structure and some live loads. These loads tend to move the structure in a downward direction
Building Engineering – Forces exerted on and by Buildings
When we apply an external force to a building element, it tends to deform. This deformation is opposed by stresses or internal forces created within the fibers of the element.