Introduction to Infrastructure: An Introduction to Civil and Environmental Engineering

Chapter Ten

Design Fundamentals

Chapter Outline

• Introduction
• Introductory Case Study: Rock Lake
• The Design Process
• Design Factors
• Case Study: Chicago River Reversal
• Design Applications
• Outro

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Describe the steps of the engineering design process.
2. Demonstrate how the design process is applied to meet a need.
3. Explain how constraints, regulations, standards, safety factors, design life, and risk affect the design process.
4. Complete simplified designs for the major subdiscipline areas of infrastructure engineering.

Introduction

When asked the question “What do engineers do?” many children answer, “They build things.” A person with a vague understanding of engineering will likely respond, “They design things.” In many cases, both answers are correct. Without a doubt, the fundamental role of most engineers is design; however, as we have discussed in the previous chapter, design is not the only responsibility of an engineer, nor is it something that every engineer will do. Perhaps a better answer to the question is “engineers identify and solve problems.” This answer emphasizes that engineering is an all-encompassing discipline that includes much more than design alone.

In this chapter, we will start with a discussion of engineering design in general, and then present civil and environmental engineering design applications.

Introductory Case Study: Rock Lake

Property located along lakes and rivers typically has ...