Computing Methods for Civil and Environmental Engineering

Catalog description

This course will cover essential computing methods, implementations, and applications in civil and environmental engineering. Computing is essential for the civil and environmental engineering profession. It is used in many aspects of civil and environmental engineering, for example analyzing data and making impressive visualizations, computing backwater curve in a river, solving species concentration in chemical reactors, finding deflection of a beam, or calculating seepage and consolidation of soils. In engineering practice, computers are used to solve real world, complex problems beyond the capability of hand calculations. Major topics covered in this course include basic programming with Python, scientific and technical visualization, root finding, interpolation and curve fitting, direct and iterative solution of linear equation systems, numerical integration, numerical differentiation, and numerical solution of ordinary differential equations. Application examples of these computing techniques will be introduced and explained to help students understand the context. For example, root finding can be used to solve the nonlinear Manning's equation to design drainage channels, curve fitting and regression can be used to analyze measurement data, the solution of linear equation systems is at the core of many modern engineering software solving governing differential equations, numerical integration can be used to calculate wind load on buildings, numerical differentiation is essential for solving governing differential equations, the solution of ordinary differential equations can be used to model the dynamics of a structure or a reaction system. The objectives are for the students to have a fundamental understanding of algorithms and solution techniques for common computing problems in civil and environmental engineering, the ability to correctly implement computing algorithms with a programming language, and the ability to utilize existing numerical libraries and understand their strength and limitations. The course is structured to have two lectures and one computer lab session per week. Students will work on simple problems with manual calculations and more complex problems with computer codes which implement the covered computing methods. Homework and exams will draw on many application examples students may encounter in their coursework for the civil and environmental engineering major and in their future professional career.