Importance of Involving Civil Engineers in National Sustainable Agendas

According to Wee et al. (2017), the youth plays a major role in the sustainable development and for the decision-making process. The civil and structural engineering plays an important role in the development of a sustainable future. The implementation of sustainability are the most important elements for the long-term success of the nationally sustainable agendas. The advancement of the youth is essential for the development of the sustainable future. Every year the young civil engineers are bringing the innovative changes, which leads towards the sustainable development. Thus, the engineers should be involved in the national sustainable agendas related to the environmental protection along with this the promotion of the economic as well as the social development is essential for the sustainable future. This study looks forward in determining the attitude and the level of awareness among the young civil engineering student in the context of the sustainable environment. This study therefore conducted the survey in 2015 and there were 295 respondents involved in the survey process. The respondents are usually selected from the state of Penang. This study also reflects the awareness of the respondents regarding the concept of the improvement that can be brought by the civil and the structural engineers in the field of the sustainable development. This study contribute the background information that will suggest the importance of the civil engineering reflecting on the national development strategies.

Effects of the UV and the water spraying on the mechanical properties of the flax fabric polymer composites used in the application of the civil engineering field

In accordance with Yan, Chouw and Jayaraman (2015), this study mainly looks after the effects of the UV weathering degraded the mechanical properties of the flax or the epoxy composites that are used in the civil engineering application. This study also highlights the SEM confirmed degradation in the fibre or the matrix interfacial bonding. This study also contribute information related to the concept of the effect of the UV weathering that is it causes the discolouration, microcracking and matrix erosion. This study investigates the combined effect of the UV radiation and the water spraying on the mechanical properties of the flax fabric reinforced  epoxy composites for accessing the durability performance of the composite, that are used for the civil engineering applications. The hand lay-up process that were exposed in the accelerated weathering chamber for the 1500 h fabricates the Specimens. This study researches by the tensile and three-point bonding tests that were performed for evaluating the mechanical properties. The Scanning electron microscope (SEM) are used to examine the microstructures of the composites. In addition to this, the durability performance of the epoxy composites that are compared with the synthetic and the hybrid fibre reinforced composites. The tensile results showed that the tensile strength of the weathered composites rea decreased by the 29.9% and 34.9% respectively. The flexural strengths are reduced by 10.0% and 10.2% respectively and the SEM study confirmed the degradations in the fibre interfacial bonding after the exposure. The comparisons with the other composites also implies that the flax fabric composites has the potentials of being used for the applications of the civil engineering field while taking the structural and the durability performance into the account. This study find out that the proper treatments are required for ensuring its durability performance that makes it more comparable to the synthetic fibre reinforced composites as the building materials for the construction purpose.

Innovative Changes Brought by Young Civil Engineers for Sustainable Development

According to Uddin (2013), this study focuses on the composite material by combining two or more components like the matrix resins, the fibre reinforcements and the binder resins. To acquire the material, the combinations are premeditated for achieving the desired performance, objectives and the properties. The load-bearing component of the composites is provided by the fibre networks whereas the resins contribute towards the convey of the loads to the fibre systems for maintaining the fibre operations. The resins help to control the developing process and also helps in processing the variables that protect the fabric from the environmental factors like the dampness, high temperature and the chemical attack. This study mainly focuses on the important research work of the FRP composite materials development and the new applications of the composite materials. The FRP composites are considered and promoted like the 21^st-century equipment for the greater resistance to the corrosion, excellent thermomechanical and the superior strength ratio. These composites are considered greener than the conventional materials such as steel and concrete based on the embodied energy. The uses of the FRP composites both in the military and the civil infrastructures that creates the innovations and the FRP also enhances the performances and produced the longer service lives that reduced the life cycle cost.

According to Antucheviciene et al. (2015), the uncertain parameters of rhe model depends upon the specification of the model limits and this is also essential for subdividing into the uncertain model parameters and the input variables. In addition to this, the tensile strength is regarded as the external one to the model with respect to the material model then it will become the uncertain input variable. This study also involves the model, which is difficult to account for and this is also considered as the separate concept. This study also involves the mathematical expressions for the real objects and the relationship of dfferent degrees in the mathematical complexity that can be described as the form of that model and this explanation is essential in the civil engineering field. The models, which can be comprised in the civil engineering field, are the structural, numerical, geometrical, physicals and the error-estimation part of the models. Apart from the phenomenon of the data uncertainty, the phenomenon of the uncertainty will be also be present in the civil engineering and the structural engineering field.

Hwang and Ng (2013), showed in this study that the green materials in the construction industry are becoming famous in the Civil engineering field and this is the currently used materials in the construction industry and this is the better replacement of the timber, steels and fired clay used for the construction purpose. This study focuses on the innovative use of the natural resources for the construction purposes and this will help to develop the sustainable future. The construction industry is accountable for using the most of the produced material and the industry also tries to found out the innovative methods of using up the materials that is required for the production process without creating any harm to the environment. This paper also helps to understand the important landmarks of the sustainable development process and the effective materials and also the assessment of the ecological impact of the products in the construction field. The innovative methods should be attempted for the material efficiency and also describes the effective methods of handling the materials used for the construction purpose. This is only possible by the advise and the suggestions of the civil engineers in the construction industries and since the last few decades the concern has been raising because of the effectiveness of the resources and the ecological impact of the material use.

Effects of UV Weathering on Mechanical Properties of Fibre Composites in Civil Engineering Applications

According to Barrias, Casas and Villalba (2016), In the civil engineering structures, the application of the structural health monitoring systems are one of the most important topic that has allowed for the better understandings of the structure conditions. This increasingly lead to the more cost effective management process of these infrastructures. In the civil engineering field, the use of the fibre optic sensors has been properly discussed, studied and practiced with the encouraging results. This study shows the possibility of the understandings, this monitors the behavior of the extensive strenches of the critical structures and their enormous advantages, and it distributed fiber optics sensing for providing to the SHM systems. From the past decades, it has been seen that the several R & D studies have been performed by the goal of improving the knowledge. Developing the new techniques that are associated by the implication of the Distributed Optical Fibre Sensor (DOFS) in order to widen up the varieties of the applications of the sensor and also for obtaining more correct and the reliable data. This study also provides the brief description of the theoretical background of the DOFS and the latest developments are related to the improvements of the products that is presented in the wide variety of the laboratory experiments and as well as the extended view of the diverse application in the civil engineering structures.

According to Chandrasekaran (2013), the difficulties that have occurred in analyzing has appeared to be challenging in last twenty years ago have been largely disappeared by the finest elements method that is the increasing introduction of the microcomputers. The engineer today found out more time to construct and found out the new forms of construction and also found out the innovative designs for improving the existing designs. Most of the new expertise has been used to improve the design of ships, aircrafts, offshore platforms, high-rise tower, subway systems and other. This microcomputer provides those analyses with the greater convenience and the economy. The engineer today found out more time to construct and found out the new forms of construction and also found out the innovative designs for improving the existing designs. This paper involves the internationalism in the engineering sector too along with the designing method and the more standardized codes and the large computers also provide the technical and the patent information from all over the world. Most of the new expertise has been used to improve the design of ships, aircrafts, offshore platforms, high-rise tower, subway systems and other. The motive of the authors in this study is to recognize the gap between the literatures involving the innovative theories based on the structural engineering and the structural mechanics. The earlier construction depends on the rules-of-thumb and the simple code practice.

Development and New Applications of FRP Composite Materials

According to Ahn et al. (2014), the derivation of the fundamental theory is involved with the discussion how the theories can be applied in the design. The fabricated plate grinder is normally used to support the vertical loads over the long spans where the high shearing forces and the bending moments that developed, those exceeds the capacity of the available hot-rolled universal beam sections. The longitudinally and the transversely stiffened webs are considered continued with the attention being paid on the design of the stiffeners themselves and also for the overall collapse behavior of the grinder. This paper is based on the stability and strength of the plate girder, this study mainly focuses in maximizing the strength and weight ratio of the plate girder, and the benefit should be taken for post-buckling capacity. For providing the efficient and the economical girder design, the benefit should be in use for post-buckling capacity of the girder that is the ability to carry the loads considerably in excess for which the web buckles. The most important function of both the bottom and top flange plates is resisting axial tensile and the compression forces raising both from the bending action against web plate resisting the shear forces. This paper is based on the stability and strength of the plate girder, this study mainly focuses in maximizing the strength and weight ratio of the plate girder, and the advantage must be taken for the post-buckling capacity.

According to Antucheviciene (2015), in the field of the Civil engineering, this study provides the recent developments regarding the decision making (DM). This field is the vast one that plays the major role in the life of the modern society and the various number of decisions must be made in the life cycle of the constructed objects. The decisions are required in the timespan starting from the conceptualization of the objects and the covering designs, occupations and the decommissioning. The decision making method scan facilitate the making of decisions in the formal and the partial initiative ways. This study mainly focuses on the information for making the constructions related to the decision made by the methods which do not reflects the formal way of decision making process in the civil engineering field. In  recent decades the formal ways of the decision making methods are developed by the application of these formal decision making methods in the various engineering field. There are various methods of the multiple criteria decision making  and this article will include the ways of applying the MCDM methods like the AHP, ANP and TOPOSIS in making the decision, those are related to the construction industry and are partially applied to the transportation sectors. There are several useful methods for this issue that are reviewed in this study and the problems of the decision making process cannot be solved by the means of the MCDM methods, which are developed outside of the field of the civil engineering applications. The intuition and the sound engineering judgment will be able to make as useful decisions as the formal mathematical methods.

Uncertainty Parameters in Civil Engineering Models

According to Umar, Kassim and Chiet (2016), Sustainability is becoming an important factor in the modern contemporary world. The generation of the harmful materials are adversely affecting the environment to such an extent that there is now an international compulsion to protect and conserve the environment. For this purpose, it has been made obligatory to the various States of the world to replace the harmful materials with sustainable materials that will help to protect the environment. One of the most important components of the environment is soil. For generations, various chemicals have been added to the soil cover in order to increase productivity of the soil. This was necessitated because of the rapid increase of the population of the world. However, the chemicals used in soil as fertilizers were later found to have adverse consequence on the soil and the produce. The chemicals reacted in a negative way with the human body, causing widespread damage to the brain and nervous system. As such, there is now an urgent demand to replace the toxic chemical fertilizers with the organic fertilizers or bio fertilizers. According to Umar, Kassim and Chiet (2016), in their article “Biological process of soil improvement in civil engineering: A review” soil can be improved with the help of biological processes and this process has been termed as bio-mediated soil improvement technique. This technique will not only help to protect and conserve the environment and the soil cover, but will also help to increase the performance of the soil in terms of higher agricultural productivity. The paper analyzes in detail how the soil microorganisms helps to increase the metabolism of the soil and makes the soil particles conducive for easy production. The concept of bio mineralization has also been discussed in the paper which is a revolutionizing concept of how mineralization is done with the help of biological factors rather than taking the help of harmful chemicals.

References 

Ahn, J.H., Kim, I.T., Kainuma, S. and Lee, M.J., 2013. Residual shear strength of steel plate girder due to web local corrosion. Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 89, pp.198-212.

Antucheviciene, J., Kala, Z., Marzouk, M. and Vaidogas, E.R., 2015. Solving civil engineering problems by means of fuzzy and stochastic MCDM methods: current state and future research. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2015.

Antucheviciene, J., Kala, Z., Marzouk, M. and Vaidogas, E.R., 2015. Decision making methods and applications in civil engineering. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2015.

Barrias, A., Casas, J.R. and Villalba, S., 2016. A review of distributed optical fiber sensors for civil engineering applications. Sensors, 16(5), p.748.

Chandrasekaran, S., Stojcevski, A., Littlefair, G. and Joordens, M., 2013. Project-oriented design-based learning: aligning students’ views with industry needs. International journal of engineering education, 29(5), pp.1109-1118.

Hwang, B.G. and Ng, W.J., 2013. Project management knowledge and skills for green construction: Overcoming challenges. International Journal of Project Management, 31(2), pp.272-284.

Uddin, N. ed., 2013. Developments in fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites for civil engineering. Elsevier.

Umar, M., Kassim, K.A. and Chiet, K.T.P., 2016. Biological process of soil improvement in civil engineering: A review. Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 8(5), pp.767-774.

Wee, M.I., Ariffin, F.N., Ng, T.F. and Shabudin, A.F.A., 2017. Awareness and Attitudes Towards Sustainable Development Amongst Higher Education Students in Penang, Malaysia. In Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development in Higher Education (pp. 49-64). Springer, Cham.

Yan, L., Chouw, N. and Jayaraman, K., 2015. Effect of UV and water spraying on the mechanical properties of flax fabric reinforced polymer composites used for civil engineering applications. Materials & Design, 71, pp.17-25.