Graduate Course Descriptions

These are the graduate courses available in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The 500-numbered courses are undergraduate courses which may be taken for graduate credit. The 700-numbered courses may be taken only for graduate credit. Not all courses listed will be offered each year.

503 -- Structural Modeling and Experimental Methods. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 327) Introduction of structural modeling; strain gauge instrumentation; force, displacement, acceleration, pressure, temperature measurements; concrete and steel modeling; size effects; analysis of experimental data.

520 -- Structural Analysis II. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 320) Advanced methods of structural analysis with emphasis on matrix methods. Development of the generalized matrix force and matrix displacement methods of static analysis, with applications to trusses and frames.

521 -- Numerical Methods in Mechanics. (3) (Prereq: MATH 242) Numerical modeling of typical engineering problems. Numerical solution of linear and nonlinear, boundary and initial value problems. Introduction to optimization.

530 -- Foundation Analysis and Design. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 330) Subsurface investigation procedures. Theoretical and practical aspects of the design of earth retaining structures, spread footings, and pile foundations.

533 -- Environmental Geotechnics. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 330) Principles for the design, construction, and performance of waste containment systems. Characterization of barrier materials; geosynthetics; design of liner and leachate collection systems; stability and deformation analyses of land fills.

535 -- Geotechnical Engineering in Transportation. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 330) Remote sensing and engineering geology. Field and laboratory testing. Design and maintenance methods for flexible and rigid pavements. Topics in tunnel design and buried conduit.

551 -- Elements of Water and Wastewater Treatment. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 350) Unit operations and processes employed in the physical, chemical, and biological treatment of water and wastewater. Design of water and wastewater treatment systems.

555 -- Principles of Municipal Solid Waste Engineering. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 350, graduate standing or approval of the instructor) Fundamentals and engineering principles of solid waste generation, characterization, collection and transport, source reduction and recycling, and physical, chemical, and biological treatment strategies.

556 -- Air Pollution Control Engineering. (3) (Prereq: Math 142, Physics 211, and Chem 112 or instructor’s approval) Introduction to the sources of air pollution and the engineering principles used for control and prevention.

557 – Sustainable Construction for Engineers. (3) (Prereq: Chem 112 and ECIV 570 (or consent of instructor)) Introduction to sustainable engineering design alternatives and principles for construction and site development from pre-construction through design and the construction phase (Minimum of Junior standing required.)

558 -- Environmental Engineering Process Modeling. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 350 or consent of instructor) Modeling fate and transport phenomena in environmental processes with applications in engineered unit operations and natural systems.

560 -- Open Channel Hydraulics. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 360) Steady and unsteady flows in single or multiple-channel systems.

562 -- Engineering Hydrology. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 360 or consent of instructor) Applications of hydrologic techniques to design problems; stormwater simulation models; urban stormwater.

563 -- Subsurface Hydrology. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 310 and ECIV 360) Hydrologic cycle, subsurface physical properties, equations of groundwater flow, well flow, well design, groundwater resource development, design of dewatering systems, groundwater contamination.

570 -- Land Development for Engineers. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 111 (autoCAD or equiv.) and Minimum Junior Standing) Fundamentals of designing and permitting the conversion of land to new or altered states, including environmental issues, traffic and parking, utility resources, site engineering, ADA, planning & zoning requirements.

705 -- Deterministic Civil and Environmental Systems Engineering. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 405 or Consent of instructor) Planning, design and operation of large-scale, integrated civil and environmental engineering systems, with applications of mathematical programming and other search methods.

706 -- Probabilistic Civil and Environmental Systems Engineering. (3) Civil and environmental systems engineering under uncertainty, including decision rules, decision theory, uncertainty propagation, stochastic programming, and conservative design.

712 -- Boundary Element Methods in Engineering. (3) (Prereq: ENGR 260, MATH 242) Introduction to boundary element methods and their computer implementation. Steady-state and transient solutions of two- and three-dimensional problems of elasticity and potential flow.

720 -- Advanced Structural Mechanics and Analysis. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 520) Development of concepts and practical applications of the finite element method of structural analysis with emphasis on the displacement method approach. Initial strains, specified displacements, numerical integration, and isoparametric elements are included.

722 -- Theory and Design of Plates and Shells. (3) (Prereq: MATH 242) Development of the fundamental differential equations for plates. Miscellaneous classic plate solutions. Membrane and bending solutions for shells of revolution, circular cylindrical shells, hyperbolic paraboloid shells and circular cylindrical barrel shells.

724 -- Dynamics of Structures. (3) (Prereq: ENGR 260, MATH 242) Lumped and continuous multidegree of freedom mechanical systems and structural assemblies. Steady-state, shock, and random excitation. Modal analysis, numerical methods. Introduction to wave propagation, earthquake engineering, and nonlinear vibrations.

725 -- Advanced Analysis and Design in Structural Metals. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 425) Analysis and behavior of metal structural components under general loading combinations. Buckling phenomena of thin-walled open sections in the elastic and inelastic regions, and correlation with design code criteria. Behavior and design of plate girders.

726 -- Repair and Retrofit of Structures. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 520) Analysis and modeling existing and repaired structures. Selection, modeling, and design of repair and/or retrofit measures.

727 -- Advanced Analysis and Design of Reinforced Concrete. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 427) Design of multistory structures, two-way slabs, joints in buildings, pavement design, and miscellaneous topics.

728 -- Prestressed Concrete Analysis and Design. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 427) Pre-stressing methods and materials; flexural analysis, shear and torsion, design of simple, composite and continuous beams. Deflections, slab design, and study of axially loaded members.

730 -- Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 530) Mechanical properties of soil. Field and laboratory tests to determine soil properties required for foundation analysis and design. Bearing capacity theory. Consolidation theory and settlement analysis. Shallow and deep foundations.

731 -- Slope Stability, Retaining Systems, and Lateral Earth Pressure. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 530) Shear strength of soil and rock under effective stress. Slope stability analysis, tieback and reinforced earth systems. Computation of earth pressures for excavations and tunnels. Dewatering for construction.

732 -- Theoretical and Numerical Methods in Geomechanics. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 530) Constitutive models and their numerical implementation. Elastic and plastic approaches to analysis. Finite element applications to geomechanics problems. Layer analysis, arching, and stability case studies.

733 -- Physico-chemical Properties of Soils. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 530) Soil mineralogy, chemistry, and clay-water systems. Impact of soil fabric and microstructure on engineering behavior. Soil-contaminant interaction. Barriers and liners for containment.

734 -- Dynamics of Soils and Foundations. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 330) Properties of soils under dynamic loading. Harmonic and periodic motion. Free and forced vibrations. Vibrations of footings on an elastic half-space. Cyclic loadings and liquefaction, earthquake response of soils.

736 -- Ground Improvement Techniques. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 530) Application of soil mechanics principles to improving the engineering characteristics of soil and rock. Topics include mechanisms of soil densification, preconsolidation, grouting, ground freezing, reinforced earth, and soil nailing.

737 – Advanced Foundation Design. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 530) Application of soil mechanics to design and analysis of foundations. Shallow foundations, bearing capacity, settlement. Deep foundations, axial and lateral loading, wave equation analysis, drilled shafts. Design and construction issues.

748 -- Traffic Flow Theory. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 541, STAT 509) Survey of statistical techniques useful in traffic engineering. Deterministic and stochastic models of traffic flow. Operations research techniques. Simulation by digital computer. Applications to highway problems.

750 -- Principles of Environmental Engineering Process. (3) (Prereq: CHEM 112 and MATH 142) Basic physical, chemical, and biological processes applied to aqueous systems.

751 -- Water and Wastewater Treatment Theory I. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 750) Physical and chemical water and wastewater treatment processes. Topics include mixing, coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, oxidation, absorption, and ion exchange.

752 -- Water and Wastewater Treatment Theory II. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 750) Biological water and wastewater treatment process. Topics include activated sludge, biofilms, nutrient removal, lagoons, and sludge treatment and disposal.

753 -- Unit Operations Laboratory for Water and Wastewater Treatment. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 350L) Laboratory experiments in selected processes for water and wastewater treatment.

755 -- Industrial Wastewater Treatment. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 751 or 752) Industrial sources, characteristics, and treatment plant design.

760 -- Computational Hydraulics. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 560) Unsteady flow in open channels and pipes: theory, governing equations, and methods for their solution.

761 -- Numerical Methods in Subsurface Hydrology. {=GEOL 775} (3) Formation of groundwater flow and solute transport problems: theory and practice, numerical methods, solution techniques.

762 -- Advanced Hydrology. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 562) Advanced theories and techniques used in stormwater modeling; kinematic hydrology; soil physics infiltration; deterministic and parametric stormwater models; stochastic methods.

763 -- Unsaturated Flow Theory. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 563) Moisture content-matric suction relationships, theory of flow in unsaturated soils, governing equations, measurement techniques, computer modeling of flow and transport.

764 -- Contaminant Transport. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 563) Quantitative study of conservative and non-conservative pollutant transport in groundwater. Special topics include: transport processes, field techniques to determine aquifer transport parameters, and computer modeling of flow and transport.

765 -- Erosion and Sediment Control. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 562) Erosion, sediment transport, methods for control, pond hydraulics and performance, nonpoint source pollution, stream water quality.

766 -- Fluid Transients. (3) (Prereq: ENGR 360) Definitions; derivation of governing equations; methods of solution; method of characteristics; transients caused by turbomachinery, and methods for controlling transients

767 -- Sediment Transport and River Mechanics. (3) (Prereq: ECIV 560) Sediment properties, review of fluid mechanics of sediment transport as bedload and suspended load, stability analysis of bedforms, alternate bars, growth and migration of meander bends.

790 -- Selected Topics in Civil Engineering. (3-9) (Prereq: consent of instructor) Individual studies and/or investigations of special topics in the field of civil engineering.

797 -- Research in Civil Engineering. (1-12, to be designated upon registration)

798 -- Seminar in Civil and Environmental Engineering. (1) Seminar on current topics in civil and environmental engineering. Includes oral presentations by students on their research projects. Pass-Fail Grading.

799 -- Thesis Preparation in Civil Engineering. (1-12) To be arranged by candidates for the master's degree with the instructor under whose direction the master's thesis is being written.

899 -- Dissertation Preparation in Civil Engineering. (1-12)