Department Head A. da Silva
Chair of Undergraduate Studies Y. Filion
Undergraduate Assistant A. Brown
Office Ellis Hall, Room 241
Telephone (613) 533-2122
Email angela.brown@queensu.ca
Departmental Web Site https://engineering.queensu.ca/civil/undergraduate/civil-engineering.html
2nd Year Advisor F. Abdelaal
3rd Year Advisor J. Olsthoorn
4th Year Advisor J. Woods
Civil Engineering focuses on the analysis, design, and improvement of the human environment—both natural and constructed. Our students will learn how the world works and will provide improvements in the overall quality of life, make better use of limited resources, develop sustainable technologies, and create attractive and functional places to live and work.
Civil Engineering at Queen's University prepares students to identify emerging issues and develop innovative solutions to the numerous civil engineering, societal, and global challenges of the future.
The core undergraduate curriculum covers the key components of today's Civil Engineering professions. The study of environmental and sustainability issues is integrated throughout the academic plan to better reflect that the assessment of these concerns is integral to all civil engineering projects. The first three years of our plan provide broad-based training in: mathematics; science (physics, chemistry & geology); fluid, structural and soil mechanics; materials (water, concrete, steel, soil & plastics); and engineering problem solving & design. Students in their fourth year are able to either specialize in an area of interest, or further diversify their training. Specialization can be under the themes of buildings & structures, water & the environment, or geoengineering. This student choice arises in the selection of: technical electives, topics for realistic design projects, areas to conduct advanced research, and practical industrial internships.
Courses
K2.5(Lec: Yes, Lab: No, Tut: No)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Demonstrates effective oral presentation skills.
- Demonstrates ability to work effectively as a member in a team.
- Seek and integrate diverse and alternative viewpoints in decision-making.
- Write with conciseness, precision and clarity.
- Identify and define problems.
- Create figures, maps, tables and drawings to engineering report standards.
- Develop appropriate solutions and strategies to problem solve.
- Evaluate performance of a design, using criteria that incorporates specifications, limitations, assumptions, constraints, and other relevant factors.
- Adhere to appropriate workplace safety protocols in shop and field work environments.
- Intentionally incorporate principles of fairness, access and opportunity into decision making.
- Share ideas and information by eliciting, giving, and applying positive and effective feedback.
- Identify effective leadership traits.
(Lec: 0.5, Lab: 1, Tut: 1)
(Lec: 3, Lab: 1, Tut: 0.5)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Understand workplace safety protocols.
- Describe chemical concepts, parameters and processes in civil and environmental engineering, including those related to electrochemistry, precipitation, alkalinity, biological chemistry, and equilibrium partitioning.
- Analyze chemical data related to water quality and water treatment.
- Solve problems in civil and environmental engineering using chemical concepts.
- Design bench-scale proof-of-concept passive and active treatment systems to mitigate the effects of chemical constituents.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 1, Tut: 0.5)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Understand how material strength is assessed and how it is used in civil design.
- Understand how material stiffness is assessed.
- Design concrete mixtures using absolute volume method.
- Correlate the microstructure of metals to their mechanical properties.
- Understand the nature of soil material based on their origin, classification, and physical properties.
- Become familiar with polymers and their applications in Civil Engineering.
- Understand introductory geosynthetics and their applications in Civil engineering.
- Take initiative to plan, organize and complete tasks, as an individual and team member, in order to meet goals.
- Produce clear, concise, precise and well‐organized written communication with language appropriate for the audience.
- Adhere to laboratory safety protocols.
(Lec: 4, Lab: 0, Tut: 1)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the roles of numerical solution and analytical solution of mathematical problems.
- Understand how common numerical algorithms are derived.
- Select and appropriate method for numerical solution of specific mathematical problems such as optimization, solving a system of linear equations or ordinary differential equations, etc.
- Write computer code and employ library software (in MATLAB environment) to implement numerical algorithms.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0, Tut: 1.25)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Calculate the stress and deflections of axial members.
- Calculate the stress and deflections of a beam.
- Calculate the stress and rotations of a circular shaft under torsion.
- Calculate the buckling capacity of an elastic column.
- Calculate the plastic moment of a beam.
- Calculate deflection of a truss using the Principle of Virtual Work.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0.5, Tut: 1)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Employ free body diagrams as a tool to identify unknown forces.
- Calculate unknown forces using equations of equilibrium.
- Solve for deflections using the moment-area method.
- Solve statically indeterminate frames using the force method.
- Explain how thermal loading affects the loads, stresses, and deflections of a structure.
- Calculate deflections and rotations of beams and frames (determinate and indeterminate).
- Draw shear force and bending moment diagrams for statically indeterminate structures.
- Select the appropriate stress equation for the member being analyzed.
- Calculate the stress in a section made of a composite material.
- Given a combined loading scenario, calculate the maximum reaction forces and stresses on a structure.
- Given a set of stresses, calculate the critical stresses acting on a given cross section.
- Given a set of stresses, apply failure theories to determine if a structure made of a given material (concrete, steel, FRPs) is fit for purpose.
- Calculate the magnification factor associated with dynamic loads acting on a structure (impact loading).
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0, Tut: 1.5)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- CLOs coming soon; please refer to your course syllabus in the meantime.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0.5, Tut: 0.5)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Acquire an overall understanding of the scope of fluid mechanics in the context of civil engineering practice.
- Understand what constitutes a fluid and gain knowledge of fluid properties.
- Understand how pressure is distributed in a fluid and learn how to quantify forces caused by a static fluid on infrastructure.
- Gain knowledge about different types of fluid motion (flow classification) and learn how to visualize flow.
- Understand the basic laws governing fluid motion, including continuity equation, linear momentum equation, the angular momentum theorem and the energy equation.
- Develop an understanding of how to apply the laws governing fluid motion to the solution of practical problems in the practice of civil engineering (e.g., conduct water balances, quantify boundary shear stresses and forces caused by moving fluids, design simple pipeline systems and hydraulic circuits).
- Acquire familiarity with different methods of measuring pressure, velocity and flow rate.
K2.5(Lec: Yes, Lab: No, Tut: No)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Demonstrate the ability to work effectively as a member of the team.
- Write with conciseness, precision, and clarity.
- Identify and explain the roles and responsibilities of a professional engineer.
- Assess how stakeholder impact might alter/constrain an engineering activity.
- Identify and evaluate an ethical dilemma following a Professional Engineer’s Code of Ethics.
- Give and respond to clear instructions.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0.5, Tut: 0.5)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Analyse structures using the load combinations specified by the National Building Code of Canada.
- Analyse structures using the matrix method.
- Determine stability and analyse structures using the force method.
- Analyse indeterminate structures using displacement methods (slope-deflection equations).
- Analyse structures using a commercial software package.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0, Tut: 1)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Design axially loaded (tension and compression) members.
- Design bolted connections for tension members.
- Design welded connections in steel tension members.
- Design slender steel columns considering buckling.
- Design laterally supported and unsupported beams.
- Analyze beam-columns for cross-sectional, overall, and torsional buckling strength.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0.5, Tut: 0.5)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Identify soil type and likely engineering behaviour from index properties.
- Explain the effects of soil type, water content and energy on soil compaction.
- Calculate effective stress.
- Infer pressure heads for layered systems.
- Understand drained and undrained shear strength.
- Calculate settlement for change in effective stress.
- Calculate rate of settlement.
- Obtain geotechnical parameters from laboratory tests.
- Observe and explain soil behaviour through hands on physical observations.
- Adhere to laboratory safety protocols.
- Design solution to open-ended geotechnical problem.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0.5, Tut: 0.5)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Knowledge of the appropriate use of sampling methods and in-situ tests to perform site characterization and obtain geotechnical design parameters.
- Familiarity with typical deep and shallow foundation system options.
- Ability to conduct geotechnical stability and settlement analyses for shallow & deep foundations under drained and undrained conditions.
- Ability to explain the various contributory causes of landslides and to identify the relevance of drained or undrained analyses to the analysis of the proximate cause.
- An understanding of limit equilibrium slope analyses methods evidenced through the ability to derive infinite slope stability equations, and the ability to conduct 2D seepage analyses in combination with effective stress analysis of slopes.
- Knowledge of the concept of active and passive earth pressure and the relevance of each to design of retaining walls.
- Calculate the stability of gravity and flexible retaining walls.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0.5, Tut: 0.5)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Simulate flow in open channels using HEC-RAS model.
- Apply conservation of energy and momentum concepts to analyze and design rapidly varied flow transitions in open channels.
- Calculate and sketch gradually varied flow profiles in open channels.
- Apply advection, diffusion and dispersion concepts to calculate mixing and transport of scalar variables in rivers.
- Apply hydrology concepts to compute the flow rate in open channels
K4(Lec: Yes, Lab: No, Tut: Yes)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Applies appropriate creative and/or innovative approaches to the design.
- Generates a traceable and defensible record of a technical project using an appropriate project records system.
- Addresses risk, standards, codes of practice, legal, regulatory, compliance, environmental and social factors.
- Demonstrates conciseness, precision and clarity of language in technical writing.
- Uses graphics to explain, interpret and assess information.
- Demonstrate ability to work effectively as a member in a team.
- Applies and communicates the appropriate methods throughout the design process.
- Explicitly defines the problem and applies constraints to guide the process toward an optimal solution.
- Follows appropriate iterative engineering design process to resolve problem.
- Develops the detailed criteria to measure performance and ensure compliance subject to constraints, assumptions and other factors relevant to all stakeholders.
- Identify, compare and contrast multiple strategies for solving a problem.
- Share ideas and information by eliciting, giving and applying positive and effective feedback.
- Independently acquire new knowledge and skills for ongoing personal and professional development.
- Recognize that engineering is a regulated profession dedicated to serve and protect the public interest.
- Mindfully incorporate principles of fairness, access and opportunity into decision making.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0.5, Tut: 0.5)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Assess 2D groundwater flow using graphical flow nets, experiments, and simulations.
- Calculate distributions of hydraulic head in homogeneous and layered porous media.
- Calculate groundwater flux, velocity, and flow direction in 1D and 2D.
- Adhere to field and laboratory safety protocols.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 1, Tut: 0)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Asses multiple environmental systems.
- Apply concepts to both engineered and natural systems in environmental engineering.
- Calculate and integrate spatial and temporal elements of a system.
- Evaluate the key components of a systems in order to make recommendations (design, regulatory, policy).
K2.5(Lec: Yes, Lab: No, Tut: No)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Write with conciseness, precision, and clarity.
- Identify effective leadership traits.
- Identify and explain the primary roles of a professional engineer.
- Consider and respond to perceived stakeholder impact to alter/constrain an engineering activity.
- Evaluate and resolve an ethical dilemma following the Professional Engineer’s Code of Ethics.
- Reflect on own education to-date and identify new knowledge and skills required to resolve complex technical issues.
- Give and respond to clear instructions.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0.5, Tut: 0.5)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Calculate the ultimate moment capacity of a reinforced concrete beam.
- Design of a reinforced concrete beam in flexure using CSA A23.3.
- Design of a reinforced concrete beam in shear using CSA A23.3.
- Construct interaction diagrams to design and analyze short and slender columns.
- Analyze continuous concrete beams and one-way slabs using moment and shear coefficients from the Concrete Design Handbook.
- Design isolated footings using reinforce concrete considering failure modes.
- Calculate deflection of cracked RC beams using effective moment of inertia.
- Design, construct, and test to failure concrete beams with varying reinforcement ratios.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0.5, Tut: 0.5)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Describe the need for infrastructure rehabilitation in Canada
- Identify alternatives for rehabilitating buried infrastructure
- Design micropiles to support structures.
- Describe deterioration mechanisms that lead to reductions in strength.
- Evaluate, repair, and test to failure deteriorated and rehabilitated beams with varying rehabilitation strategies.
- Calculate reduced moment capacity due to corroded steel.
- Explain the three roles of a building envelope and what each element does.
- Synthesize an infrastructure rehabilitation topic and report on it.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0, Tut: 1)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Calculate the camber and/or deflection of prestressed concrete beam.
- Design a prestressed beam based on serviceability requirement.
- Calculate ultimate moment capacity of a prestressed concrete beam.
- Calculate the primary and secondary moment in continuous prestressed beam.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0, Tut: 1)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Select appropriate geotechnical model and parameters.
- Assess groundwater conditions and incorporate into geotechnical stability assessment.
- Construct geologic site model by designing a site investigation and interpreting results.
- Design geotechnical elements and systems that satisfy required limit states.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 1, Tut: 0)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Apply Provincial regulations for new municipal solid waste landfills.
- Construct geologic site model by designing a site investigation and interpreting results.
- Assess local and regional groundwater conditions and incorporate into contaminant impact assessment.
- Calculate one-dimensional advective flow through natural and engineered layered systems.
- Identify dominant contaminant transport mechanism(s) through fine and coarse-grained soils, and geosynthetic liners.
- Identify the critical contaminant(s) of potential waste stream.
- Calculate contaminant impact on receptor aquifer from waste containment facility.
- Design a barrier system for a waste containment facility that meets Provincial environmental regulations and satisfies current and anticipated needs of a hypothetical municipality.
- Incorporate service life implications of engineered components on barrier system performance.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0, Tut: 1)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Use industry-standard model to analyze hydraulic conditions in storm water sewers, sanitary sewers, and water distribution pipes.
- Design site services (sanitary, storm water and water system) for residential sub-division.
- Perform a cost analysis of proposed sanitary, storm water, and water systems for residential sub-division.
- Write an effective site servicing report that summarizes a proposed design for sanitary, storm water, and water servicing of a sub-division.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0.5, Tut: 0.5)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Apply numerical models to understand surface wave transformation.
- Correctly apply computational engineering models to simulate lake circulation and water quality.
- Understand effects of climate, density stratification and the Coriolis force on mixing and circulation in lakes and reservoirs.
- Understand how coupling between hydrodynamics and nutrients affects water quality.
- Design coastal structures including rubble mound breakwaters.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0.5, Tut: 0.5)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Gain knowledge of a river as an object with a movable boundary and a conveyor of a two-phase flow (water = liquid phase; sediment = solid phase).
- Gain knowledge about the mechanical properties of flow, including shear stress and velocity distributions, and the physical properties of sediment and sediment mixtures.
- Understand the mechanics of sediment transport, and learn to quantify bed-load and suspended-load sediment transport rates.
- Gain knowledge of river morphological features (ripples, dunes, bars, meandering and braiding), their dynamics and implications of their occurrence.
- Gain knowledge about common river engineering problems and solutions, including prevention of undesirable bed and/or bank erosion and deposition, prevention of stream incision, techniques for stabilization of river course, techniques for modification of river course, and principles of stream restoration and renaturalization.
- Gain knowledge about mathematical models commonly used in river engineering practice for the simulation and prediction of river flows and their physical and environmental impacts.
K6(Lec: Yes, Lab: No, Tut: Yes)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Applies appropriate creative and/or innovative approaches to the design.
- Generates a traceable and defensible record of a technical project using an appropriate project records system.
- Addresses risk, standards, codes of practice, legal, regulatory, compliance, environmental and social factors.
- Demonstrates conciseness, precision and clarity of language in technical writing.
- Demonstrates effective oral presentation skills.
- Uses graphics to explain, interpret and assess information.
- Demonstrate ability to lead a team.
- Demonstrate ability to work effectively as a member in a team.
- Applies and communicates the appropriate methods throughout the design process.
- Explicitly defines the problem and applies constraints to guide the process toward an optimal solution.
- Follows appropriate iterative engineering design process to resolve problem.
- Develops the detailed criteria to measure performance and ensure compliance subject to constraints, assumptions and other factors relevant to all stakeholders.
- Compare multiple strategies for solving a problem.
- Share ideas and information by eliciting, giving, and applying positive and effective feedback.
- Demonstrate professional conduct and integrity.
- Intentionally incorporate principles of fairness, access and opportunity into decision making.
- Apply economic considerations to design process.
- Effectively plan project.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0, Tut: 1)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Assess vapour intrusion into indoor air using an industry standard mathematical screening model.
- Characterize hazardous waste sites with respect to the presence and spatial distribution of non-aqueous phase liquids to the level of competency expected by Canadian regulators.
- Assess the applicability of various in-situ technologies for the remediation of hazardous waste sites.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0.5, Tut: 0.5)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Describe the sources of contaminants in source water and the regulatory requirements for their removal.
- Apply physical/chemical/biological to calculate sedimentation, floatation, coagulation, flocculation, softening, and filtration properties.
- Determine disinfectant dose and strategy to manage microbial risks.
- Evaluate interrelatedness of upstream and downstream unit processes.
- Design and optimize water treatment unit processes, individually and/or as part of a water treatment train.
NOT OFFERED 2024-2025
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0, Tut: 1)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Use industry-standard models to simulate the performance of large-scale water resources systems in urban catchments.
- Apply probability theory and statistical tools to solve water resources problems.
- Apply the governing equations of open channel flow and closed-conduit flow to make predictions about hydraulic quantities.
- Design a large-scale water resource system.
NOT OFFERED 2024-2025
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0, Tut: 1)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Explain the framework and key considerations of transportation planning.
- Apply the planning and decision-making process of Environmental Assessment (Act).
- Describe the key components of Active Transportation and Complete Streets.
- Explain the fundamentals of Road Safety and Human Factors.
- Discuss the elements of roadway geometric design.
- Propose solutions to a corridor improvement problem.
- Apply basic bus transit service design.
- Review Transportation Demand Management.
- Identify the trends and future of transportation.
- Recognize the important roles of transportation engineer in society.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0, Tut: 1)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Explain the framework and key considerations of transportation planning.
- Apply the planning and decision-making process of Environmental Assessment (Act).
- Describe the key components of Active Transportation and Complete Streets.
- Explain the fundamentals of Road Safety and Human Factors.
- Discuss the elements of roadway geometric design standards.
- Propose solutions to a freeway interchange problem.
- Analyze traffic signal warrant and calculate design signal timing, traffic flow and roadway level of service.
- Review Traffic Demand Forecasting and Traffic Management.
- Identify the trends and future of transportation.
- Recognize the important roles of transportation engineer in society.
(Lec: 3, Lab: 0, Tut: 1)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- CLOs coming soon; please refer to your course syllabus in the meantime.
K4(Lec: Yes, Lab: Yes, Tut: Yes)
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Analyze and interpret literature and identify research needs.
- Contribute to the advancement of knowledge, developing new data and synthesize research information considering sources of uncertainty and limitations to reach substantiated conclusions.
- Effectively plan their project, including mitigating risks, to complete the project on-time.
- Deliver formal oral presentations with suitable language, content, style, timing and flow, adapted to context.
- Produce clear, concise, precise and well-organized written communication, with figures and references.