Civil Engineering Terms

 Tie - It is a loop of reinforcing bar or wire enclosing longitudinal reinforcement.

 Tied columns - A column in which the longitudinal bars are braced with series of closed ties.
 Footings - Structural members used to support columns or wall and transmit their load to the underlying
soil.
 Stopping sight distance (SSD) - This is the length of roadway needed between a vehicle and an arbitrary
object (at some point down the road) to permit a driver to stop the vehicle safely before reaching the
obstruction.
 Void ratio “e” - It is the ratio between volumes of voids to the volume of solids of a soil mass.
 Primary Consolidation Settlement - It is caused by a volume change in saturated cohesive soils due to
expulsion of water that occupies the void spaces.
 Immediate Settlement - Caused by the elastice deformation of dry, moist and saturated soils, without
any change in moisture content.
 Secondary Consolidation Settlement – Cause by plastic adjustment of soil fabrics. It is an additional form
of compression that occurs at constant effective stress
 Abrasion - The removal of surface material from any solid through frictional action of another solid, a
liquid, or a gas or combination thereof.
 Abatement - The waste produced in cutting a timber, stone, or a metal piece to a desired size and shape.
 Abutment - A supporting wall carrying the end of a bridge or span and generally sustaining the pressure of
the abutting earth.
 Accelerograph - It is an instrument which measures the velocity and acceleration of an earthquake in the
ground.
 APEX - In architecture or construction, the highest point, peak or tip on any structure.
 Backfill - Soil replaced in an area that had previously excavated.
 Bank measure - The volume of a given portion of soil or rock as measured in its original position before
excavation.
 Barodynamics- The mechanics of heavy structures which may collapse under their own weight.
 Groin - A wall built into the sea to protect shore, area, harbour, anchorage, or basin from the action of
waves
 Buckling load -The crippling load of a long column.
 Camber - Curvature fabricated into a beam or truss so as to compensate for deflection induced by loads.
 Creep - Gradually increasing permanent deformation of a material under stress.
 Brittleness - ability of material to break or shatter without significant deformation under stress, opposite
of plasticity
 Bulk Modulos - Ration of pressure to volumetric compression.
 Coefficient of Restitution – ratio of relative speeds after and before an impact taken along the line of
impact.
 Elasticity - ability of a body to resist a distoring influence or stress and to return to its size and shape
when stress is removed.
 Fatigue Limit – Maximum stress a material can withstand under repeated loading
 Flexibilty - ability of an object to bend or deform in response to an applied force.
 Flexural Modulus – Ratio of stress to strain in flexural deformation.
 Flexural Strength - Defined as the stress in a material just before it yields in flexure stress
 Fracture Roughness – Energy absorbed by unit area before fracture of material.
 Hardness – Ability to withstand surface indentation and scratching.
 Plasticity – Ability of material to undergo irreversible or permanent deformations without breaking or
rupting.
 Ductility - To deform under tensile load.
 Malleability - To deform under compressive stress without developing defects.
 Poission’s Ratio - Ratio of lateral strain to axial strain.
 Ressilience - To absorb energy when it is deformed elastically, combination of strength and elasticity.
 Shear Modulus - Ratio of shear stress to shear strain.
 Shear Strain - the angle between two perpendiculat line in a plane.
 Stiffness - Ability of an object resists deformation in response to an applied force, Rigidity, complimentary
of flexibility.
 Tensile Strength - Maximum tensile stress a material can withstand before failure.
 Critical Path Method - A systematic procedure for detailed project planning and control.
 Early finish date - The earliest time that an activity can be completed.
 Panel Length - The distance between adjacent joints on a truss, measured along upper or lower chord
 Top Chord - runs to the top of the truss
 Panel point – where the web meets the top chord. Strongest point for lifting the truss.
 Heel - where the top chord and bottom chord meets.
 Pitch - the angle of the top chord which makes with the bottom chord.
 Eave overhang – horizontal distance to the top chord exted from the wall
 Bottom chord – a large horizontal member at the bottom of truss.
 Web - runs from bottom chord to the top chord.
 Truss Span – the length of the bottom beam that spans the wall frames.
 Liquid limit - the boundary between liquis and plastic limit.
 Plastic limit – the boundary between plastic and semi solid state
 Shrinkage limit - the boundary between semi – solid and solid states
 Active earth pressure coefficient - the ratio between the lateral and vertical principal effective stresses
when an earth retaining structures moves away from the retained soil.
 Passive earth pressure coefficient – the ratio between the lateral and vertical principla effective stresses
when an earth retaining structure is forced against a soil mass.
 Degree of saturation - the ratio of the volume of water to the volume of voids.
 Porosity – the ratio between the volumes of voids to the total volume of a soil mass.
 Stalk - The vertical part of a reinforced concrete retaining wall.
 Torsion - Strength of Material under twisting moments of components.
 Alteration - the changing or remodelling of a building without adding to its physical size of a floor area
 Yield Point - the lowest stress which strain increases without any increase in stress.
 Banks man-A man who is assisting a crane driver by signalling to him when he is to raise, lower, or swing
his load.
 Permeability - The ability of soil to allow water to flow through it.
 Acrometer - An instrument used to measure the density of oils.
 Weep holes - Openings left in retaining walls, aprons, linings, foundations, etc. to permit drainage and
reduces pressures.
 Toughness - The property of a Material which enables it to withstand bending or torsion without fracture.
 Relief – the configuration and roughness of the ground.
 Discharge- the volume of fluid passing a certain section of the stream, pipe or channel which has the
dimension in cubic meter per second
 Turbine – a mechanical device which when installed in the pipe will extract energy from the system.
 Rating curve – a graph that plots the measured stream flow the discharge versus water surface elevation.
 Soil moisture – term used for capilliary water in the smaller pore surface of the soil.
 Chemical Oxygen Demand - the measurement of the amount of oxygen requireed to stabilize the waste
completely.
 Effluent stream – a stream channel with perenial flow.
 Isentropic – a heat transfer Q is zero and the flow is frictionless.
 Arch Dam – transmit most of the horizontal thrust of water to the abutments by arch action. It has the
smallest cross section.
 Buttress Dam – dam is used on foundation that are weak to support a gravity dam.
 Gravity Dam – depends on its own weight for stability.
 Embankment Dam/ Earth Dam – utilized natural materials and may be built with primitive equipment
under conditions where other construction material would be impracticable.
 Weber number – is the ratio of inertia force to surface tension.
 Euler number – is the ratio of inertia force to pressure force.
 Mach number – is the square root of the ratio of inertia force to elastic force.
 Froude number – is the ratio between inertia and gravity forces.
 Side channel spillway – is used in narrow canyons where sufficient crest length is not available for
overflow or chute spillway.
 Shaft spillway – used where there is inadequate space for other types of spillways.
 Subsonic flow - if the Mach number is less than 1
 Supersonic flow – if the Mach number is greater than 1
 Secondary Yield – is the water available in excess of safe yield during periods of high flow.
 Reservoir Yield – refers to the amount of water that can be supplied during a specified interval of time.
 Specific Yield – is the fractional volume of water that will drain freely by gravity from a unit volume of the
aquifier.
 Comminution – is a wastewater treament method that involves grinding of course solids to a more or less
uniform size.
 Flocculation – is a wastewater treatment method that promotes the aggregation of small particles into
larger particles to enhance the removal by gravity sedimentation.
 Screening – is a wastewater treament that invloves the removal of course nd settleable solids by
interception.
 Cleanout – is used to permit cleaning of small sewers, particularly at the upper end of the laterals.
 Manholes – provides access to sewers for inspection or cleaning.
 Waste pipe – is a drain pipe which receives waterborne discharge from plumbing fixtures.
 Traps – are the devices used to maintain water seal against sewer gases, air, and odors.
 Anaerobic Bacteria – a type of bacteria found in water, which libes and develops without oxygen.
 Schmutzdecke – a gelatinous surface coat of biological growth developed due to slow filtration rate.
 Protozoa – these are single called animals which reproduce by binary fission.
 Biomass – the total mass of living matter within a given unit of environmental area.
 Sludge bulking – results from the presence of filamentous microorganisms or from entrained water in
individual cells.
 Wharf – the berthing place for shipping vessels, which is constructed parallel to the waterfront.
 Hamilton’s Principle – states that if during an incrementt of time the variation of the kinetic and potential
energy of the system is added to the variation of the work done by the non – conservative forces acting
on the system, then the sum of these scalar quantities must be zero.
 Degree of Freedom - are defined as the independent joint displacements (translations and rotations) that
are necessary to specify the deformed shape of the structure when subjected to an arbitraryloading.
 RA 544 – an act regulate the practice of Civil Engineering in the Philippines. “Civil Engineering Law”
 PD 1594 – prescribes policies, guidelines, rules and regulations for government infrastructures contracts
 RA 4566 – “Contractors’ License Law”. An act creating the Philippine licensing board for contractors, prescribing its
powers, duties and functions.
 PD 1746 – creating the construction industry authority of the Philippines.
 PD 1167 – developing and regulating the overseas construction industry, providing incentives therefore, and for
other purposes
 RA 9184 – government procurement reform an act providing for the modernization, standization, and regulation of
the of the government of the Philippines.
 PD 1096 – National Building Code
 PD 1185 – Fire Code of the Philippines
 PD 856 – Code on the Sanitation of the Philippines.