Undergraduate Courses 2017-18

For Civil Engineering students only. This is one of a series of three courses designed to assist students in developing attributes necessary for professional growth. Discussions will be led by individual or small groups of students on topics ranging from civil engineering practice to student issues.

For Civil Engineering students only. Past and current practices of civil engineers in relation to their interaction with society, introduction to various subdisciplines of civil engineering, emphasis on ethics, responsibility and professionalism.

Plane surveying fundamentals including preliminaries and planning, leveling, triangulation, traversing, detail survey and plotting by AutoCAD, least squares adjustments setting out; followed by one-week surveying camp in the Winter Session. Final grades issued after completion of the surveying camp.

Properties of engineering materials and their relation to the internal structure of materials; includes physical properties of construction materials like portland cement concrete, asphalt, polymers, ferrous metals and non-ferrous metals.

Application of Newton's laws to engineering problems; includes force equilibrium, kinematics and kinetics of particles and rigid bodies.

Fluency in graphical communication skills using freehand sketching, draughting equipment and computer draughting. Drawing procedures and relevant civil engineering standards. Layout and development of multiple orthographic views, sectional views and dimensioning. Graded P or F.

An introduction of Newton's laws and its application in engineering problems; includes system of forces and moments, objects in equilibrium, energy methods and rigid body kinematics.

Introduction to fundamental structural concepts; Development and evolution of structural materials and structural forms; Creative expression in the Built Environment; Various kinds of monumental structures: temples and cathedrals, bridges, towers, stadiums, skyscrapers and other special buildings; Outlook for the future.

For students of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department only. Introduction to current environmental issues; providing the essential chemical principles required to understand the nature of the pollution problems; applying knowledge from science and engineering approaches to the solutions of environmental problems that affect our water, air and land resources. This course also covers basic concepts of environmental impact assessment of civil engineering projects.

Introduction to local and global environmental issues; providing the essential physical, chemical, and biological concepts required to understand the nature of the pollutants; applying engineering and management approaches to the solutions of environmental problems that affect our water, air, and land resources.

The course offers a fundamental understanding of properties of fluids, physical principles of fluid flows, and first- and second-laws of thermodynamics. It introduces various fluid flow processes in surface water, groundwater, the atmosphere, and engineering systems such as mixing, convection, turbulence, jets, plumes and thermals.

An introduction to the mechanics of fluids, including fluid statics, kinematics and fundamental equations of fluid flow, laminar and turbulent flow, boundary layers and applications in the design of hydraulic structures.

Fundamental principles involved in the provision of infrastructure to sustain modern society, including the planning, construction, and maintenance of these aspects: water supplies, highways and transportation, drainage and flood control, waste water treatment, environment protection, marine work, slope and foundation, new town planning, etc.

Overview of climate-change and related issues: the physical science basis, impacts, risk identification, mitigation and adaptation measures. Current energy systems and renewable energy resources. Green building and end-use energy efficiency. Local and regional vulnerabilities: extreme weather events, rise of sea levels, storm surge, coastal flooding and stress on water resources; associated adaptation and risk reduction measures.

Identification and modeling of non-deterministic problems in civil engineering, and the treatment thereof relative to engineering design and decision making. Development of stochastic concepts and simulation models, and their relevance to real design and decision problems in various areas of civil engineering.

For Civil Engineering students only. This is one of a series of three courses designed to assist students in developing attributes necessary for professional growth. Discussions will be led by individual or small groups of students on topics ranging from civil engineering practice to student issues.

Study of the construction industry, demand for project, initial and feasibility studies, impact assessment, local statutory ordinances, estimates, finance, resource allocation, bills of quantities.

This course covers the fundamental knowledge and skills of financial management in engineering. Main topics include: interactions between engineering, business and society; social and commercial values; the set of skills required for a manager; financial statements; financial and operational management; engineering investment analysis; valuation of engineering companies; management of engineering company; case studies.

Analysis of stress, strain and deformation; linear and non-linear material behavior; strain energy; bending of beams, deflection; stability and buckling of compression members; shear and torsional stresses.

Structural forms and modeling, statically determinate structures, statically indeterminate structures, force and displacement methods, deflections of structures, influence lines, approximate analysis, energy methods.

Ultimate limit state design of reinforced concrete beams, columns and slabs; serviceability limit states of deflection and cracking.

Introduction to basic concepts of water quality, fundamentals of water and wastewater treatment processes, analysis of treatment process flowsheets, analysis of water quality management alternatives.

Application of the principles of fluid mechanics to civil engineering systems; includes hydraulic machinery, pipe flow, pipe networks, open channel flow, channel networks, rapidly and gradually varied flow, quasi-steady flow.

Hydrological cycle, routing, mass curve, precipitation analysis, abstractions, infiltration and evaporation, runoff and streamflow, runoff simulation, stochastic hydrology, hydrologic design, subsurface flow and wells.

For students of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department only. Introduction to transportation systems; characteristics of transportation models; traffic flow fundamentals; geometric design of highways; travel demand analysis including trip generation, modal split and trip assignment.

Introduction to transportation systems; characteristics of transportation models; traffic flow fundamentals; transportation economics; traffic demand forecasting including trip generation, trip distribution, modal split and trip assignment.

Introduction to minerals, rocks, structural geology, engineering in geological materials. Introduction to basic soil mechanics for civil engineers.

State of stress, shear strength, flow and seepage problems, consolidation theory, and introduction to the concept of critical state.

For Civil Engineering students only. This is one of a series of three courses designed to assist students in developing attributes necessary for professional growth. Discussions will be led by individual or small groups of students on topics ranging from civil engineering practice to student issues.

Selected topics in Civil Engineering of current interest to the Department and not covered by existing courses.

This course provides an in-depth discussion of the principles, techniques, and models of project finance in delivering capital-intensive engineering projects: (1) privatization and international engineering markets for project finance; (2) the project company and public procurement procedures; (3) project agreement and ancillary contracts; (4) commercial risks; (5) political risks and their guarantee and insurance; (6) project bankability and working with lenders; (7) financial modeling and evaluation; (8) financial structuring and documentation; (9) case studies of BOT, PFI and PPP projects.

Continuation of CIVL 202. Contract strategy, tender documents, methods of invitation of tenders, contract management, site supervision, financial control, site safety, variation order.

This course introduces the basic methods, tools and techniques in managing and financing a project. Management subjects cover project planning, cost management, time management, materials management, change management, construction labor, safety management, and communication management. Financial subjects cover debt and equity finance, project risk analysis, cost and benefits of political risk insurance, project funding and cash flow, option pricing, and credit scoring of project finance debt. Programming issues and Monte Carlo simulation for project management and finance models will also be discussed.

This course provides students with the fundamental processes and skills required to initiate, manage and deliver engineering projects, including project lifecycle and stakeholders, preparing the bid package, construction contracts, legal structure of companies, value engineering, constructability, lean construction, budgeting and controlling costs, and project management software.

The course covers legal and contractual issues that may affect practicing engineers in their planning, design, construction and management of engineering projects. Topics include general principles of common and civil legal systems, the Hong Kong legal environment, contract laws, tort laws, company laws, laws on evidence and the building laws. The course also covers topics such as conflict of laws and international commercial arbitrations, engineers acting as expert witness in court and arbitral tribunals.

Constituents of concrete; failure mechanisms and mechanical properties; advanced cementitious composites: high strength, fiber, polymer, high performance; fibrous composite materials: composition, anisotrophic behavior, engineering constant, failure criteria; non-destructive evaluation: wave, scan, ultrasonic, acoustic emission, infrared thermography.

Historical development; methods of prestressing, elastic analysis and design; flexural and shear capacity; losses of prestress; anchorage zones; composite members; design procedures and applications.

Single degree of freedom systems, multi-degree of freedom systems, continuous systems, random vibrations, dynamic behavior under wind loads and earthquakes.

Limit state design of steel structures, stability analysis of thin-walled members, design of tension members, columns, beams, plate girders, beam-columns, structural connections, plastic analysis and design.

Structural systems for buildings, loads on structures, selection of structure schemes, preliminary analysis and design, computer-aided proportioning, special consideration in high-rise structures, composite design.

Matrix formulation of structural analysis using stiffness method, solution of linear equations, applications to civil engineering structures, modeling of large and complex structural systems.

Basic meteorology, structure of wind near the ground, wind induced vibrations, wind loading codes, wind tunnel test techniques.

An introduction to solid waste sorting, current and future waste treatment and management in Hong Kong such as waste reuse and recycling, incineration and landfilling will be covered. In addition, the operation and basic design concepts of incineration and a landfill system will be presented. Landfill technology is the key and final step of solid waste management, and thus it is the major component of this course.

This course describes relationship of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and environmental policy act; methods and procedures for environmental impact identification, prediction, evaluation and mitigation; contents in an EIA report.

Basic principles in the process design of environmental engineering facilities, such as water and wastewater treatment systems, pump station, as well as sanitary landfill disposal.

Historical and health impact studies related to air pollution. Atmospheric stability and its impact on the transport and dispersion of pollutants. Sources of major air pollutants. Comparison of urban, industrial and transport related air pollution issues, using Hong Kong and Pearl River Delta as examples. Control of stationary and mobile emission sources. Air quality management - framework, policy tools and comparison of different approaches.

Atmospheric structure and circulations. Monitoring and analysis of air quality data. Role of modeling in air quality management. Observational-based and emission-based modeling. Simple regulatory models. CMAS, an advanced emission-based air quality modeling system. Local and regional applications of air quality models, their use and limitations.

Planning, analysis and design of municipal water and wastewater systems and sewage outfalls; includes community planning, loading and demand forecasting, hydraulics, stormwater management, and drainage system design.

The course integrates the knowledge of hydrology, hydraulics, statistics, economics, and optimization in the dealing with municipal hydrosystems engineering and management. In particular, focuses will be given to quantity aspect of water supplies and water excesses. The hydrosystems to be covered include water distribution, urban sewage and stormwater drainage, reservoirs/detention facilities, pumps, etc.

The course discusses waves and their applications in water supply, sewers, channels, lakes, and oceans.

Transportation economics, land use and transportation system, queuing theory and traffic flow analysis, intersection control and design, urban transit operations and management.

Introduction to geotechnical analysis and design including slope stability analysis, bearing capacity of soils, lateral earth pressures, design of retaining wall, shallow and piled foundations, geotechnical centrifuge modeling and field monitoring.

Use of specific and general-purpose computer software to solve common geotechnical problems associated with empirical relationships, seepage, consolidation, pile applications, excavations, and general soil behavior. Brief introductions to and applications of finite difference, finite element and other numerical solution techniques are included.

This course introduces basic concepts of rock mechanics applied to geotechnical engineering; topics includes: index properties and classification of rocks, rock strength and failure criteria, initial stresses in rocks, rock mass properties, underground openings in rocks, rock slopes, rock foundations and stabilization of rock mass.

This course will provide students a general view of environmental geotechnics. In the first part, the fundamental of geotechnics will be introduced to students, including geotechnics and environment, physico-chemical soil behavior, and engineering considerations of geomaterials. The second part will focus on the engineering applications and considerations of environmental geotechnics, including ground rehabilitation and improvement, natural hazards due to earthquake, climate-changes induced slope instability issues, green slope technology, sustainable and environmental friendly underground infrastructures, and instrumentation, physical modeling, and advanced testing in environmental geotechnics.

Specialist courses where instruction is generally given on a one-to-one basis. Graded P or F.

Applications of civil engineering principles to the design, planning, experimental or analytical investigation of current engineering design and research problems. Students should have completed the second-year program. May be graded PP.

Continuation of CIVL 397.

A capstone project course emphasizing a team approach to integrate prior course work and design skills for the execution of a real-life civil engineering project. Topics may include project planning, feasibility studies; environmental impact assessments; site development; foundation design; structural design, water resources engineering, transportation engineering, cost estimating, contract document preparation, and construction project management. Students should have successfully completed the Fall Semester of the third year.

For students of the Civil Engineering Department only. Internship training provides students the opportunity to gain professional experience and to apply theories to real-life situations. Students are required to complete a minimum of six weeks on-the-job training in civil engineering consulting firms, contractors, developers or relevant government departments, or an equivalent of 5-week mock construction training under the supervision of professional practitioners.

For students of the Civil Engineering Department only. A practical training course for a total duration of five weeks covering building practice, scaffolding, formwork, brickwork, reinforced concrete practice, site formation, environmental monitoring and assessment, safety, and first aid.