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“Civil Engineering Interview Questions and Answers will guide your now that Civil engineering is a professional engineering and discipline that deals with the design, construction and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment. Civil Engineering Interview Guide will describe that including works such as bridges, roads, canals, dams and buildings. Learn Civil Engineering by Civil Engineering Interview Questions and Answers Guide.”



119 Civil Engineering Questions And Answers

41⟩ What is diversion tunnel in a dam?

When a dam is to be built, a diversion tunnel is usually bored through solid rock next to the dam site to byPAss the dam construction site. The dam is built while the river flows through the diversion tunnel.

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42⟩ Are cruise ships built for the transatlantic run?

The Queen Mary 2 was built for transatlantic crossings, but much smaller ships can make the crossing easily. In 1995, I crossed the Atlantic from New York to the Azores on the Royal Princess (which was not the same ship as the current Royal Princess), which was about one-fourth the size of the QM2. Just about any seaworthy PAssenger ship can navigate the Atlantic safely, if not comfortably.

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43⟩ What distance in meters on the ground is the equivalent of one second of arc in longitude or latitude?

One minute of arc as measured at the centre of the Earth covers one nautical mile on the surface of the Earth at mean sea level. One nautical mile is 6080 feet or 1853.2 meters. Therefore one second of arc would be 6080 / 60 = 101.3 feet or 30.886 meters.

Lines of latitude are at regular intervals PArallel to the equator. The relationship between degrees of latitude and the distance sPAnned on the earth’s surface remains constant. Therefore at all latitudes 1 minute of latitude sPAns 1 nautical mile on the earths surface.

Lines of longitude converge at the poles. Therefore, the relationship between degrees of longitude and the distance sPAnned on the earth’s surface is reduced as the poles are approached.

At the equator, the distance sPAnned by 1 minute of longitude would be 1 nautical mile. At the poles, it would be zero. To calculate the actual distance on the surface of the earth between two points of known latitude and longitude requires knowledge of spherical trigonometry to calculate the great circle distance between the two points.

The distances quoted are for the surface of the earth at mean sea level. Distances will be increased above sea level and reduced below it.

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44⟩ Why is the statue of liberty made of copper?

Copper is a very durable material when exposed to weather and is soft enough that it can be easily molded to curved shapes such as those in the Statue of Liberty. It is also traditionally used in buildings for complex roofs, so there would have been trades people available trained to use it.

Other metals that can be molded are lead but it does not have the attractive verdigris color, and gold much is more expensive

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45⟩ What are advancements in civil engineering?

Unlike other fields of engineering, the major advancement of the filed has been in the early years of the century before the last century where the use of concrete technology is advanced. The use of cement as a construction material is since the turn of the last century, improvement in the field increase by the use of steel elements in the construction of buildings and bridges of various types. With the help of two, it was possible to do multistory buildings in the world.

Machineries were created to speed up the construction structures. The last century has also seen the advent of sophisticated design to withstand the effect of earthquake that was not possible before. With the use of computers, development of model and analysis of structures under the effect of loads was made possible. Before just two decades, it used to take months and months to design high-rise building and big bridges. Now it is a matter of hours.

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46⟩ What is the meaning of a blue land surveyors flag?

If the flag was placed by Utility personnel responding to a "One-call" locate request, the blue flag indicates a buried water line. You see these marked when a contractor calls the "Call before you dig number" a couple of days prior to excavating. This is required by law in each state to reduce the likelihood of damaging underground utilities when excavating.

The standard color code used by almost all utility comPAnies for PAinting & flags is:

White - "Here is the area I plan on excavating!"

Blue - water line

Red -electricity

Yellow -natural gas

Green -sewer

Orange -telephone and/or fiber optic line

If the blue flagging was a fuzzy blue marker nailed to the top of a wood surveyor's stake, then it probably serves to indicate the top of the grade at which the engineer wants the earthmoving equipment to place fill dirt. These are called "blue-top" stakes.

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47⟩ How do you determine Specific gravity of cement?

Cement is usually purchased as a powdery substance that is mixed with sand, aggregate, gravel, and water to form concrete. Since the cement itself is usually a powder, it is hard to measure a standard value for its specific gravity. In addition, since cement is usually not used by itself, knowing its specific gravity is not PArticularly useful.

A more useful question is "What is the typical density of concrete?" A rule of thumb answer is that normal cured concrete has a density of about 150 pounds per cubic foot. This includes the weight of the cement, sand, aggregate, and that PArt of the water that chemically binds with the cement to form the concrete. Since water weighs about 62.4 pounds per cubic feet, concrete is about 2.4 times as heavy. Thus, the specific gravity of concrete is about 2.4. If you took cement and mixed it with water, you would eventually have a hard lump of useless cement and it would also have a specific gravity of between 2 and 2.4.

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48⟩ What is the difference between QA and QC?

Many people and organizations are confused about the difference between quality assurance (QA), quality control (QC), and testing. They are closely related, but they are different concepts. Since all three are necessary to manage the risks of developing and maintaining software, it is important for software managers to understand the differences. They are defined below:

a) Quality Assurance: A set of activities designed to ensure that the development and/or maintenance process is adequate to ensure a system will meet its objectives.

b) Quality Control: A set of activities designed to evaluate a developed work product.

c) Testing is the process of executing a system with the intent of finding defects. (Note that the "process of executing a system" includes test planning prior to the execution of the test cases.)

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49⟩ Will Water damage concrete?

As far as only concrete is concerned i.e. plain concrete, the effect of water seePAge is very little (depending upon the grade of concrete) whereas for RCC (reinforced cement concrete) water that seeps in corrodes the reinforcement and thus reduces the life of the structure. The defects that water seePAge induces in concrete are as follows:

a) induces capillary formation (due to the detiorating characteristics of water)

b) With this capillaries the concrete starts sPAlling out; i.e. the places where capillaries are formed, with even slight amount of stress that portion comes out and exposes the steel to the atmosphere

c) Concrete has a pH of about 12 -13. It also reduces the pH of the concrete when in salty water (or) when exposed to marshy areas.

d) Reduces the overall strength of concrete

e) Reduces durability

f) Reduces permeability to further water seePAge

g) Results in ageing of structures

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50⟩ How did the Romans get water up hills using aqua ducts?

Technically, the Romans were not able to get water to move uphill in a general sense. All aqueducts move water from an elevated source (spring-fed streams in the mountains) to end-users at a lower elevation. The water flows almost entirely downhill from the source to the end user. If the water needed to cross a valley, the Romans would build an arched structure with an elevated channel to cross the valley, but even this channel would have a vary slight downhill gradient that allowed water to flow towards the end user. If a large hill was in their way, the Romans would either divert the channel around the hill, dig a trench through the hill, or dig a tunnel through the hill, all while maintaining a fairly constant, slight downhill gradient towards the end user.

The only exception to the rule of a generally constant downhill slope to the water channel is that specific tunnel segments, the Romans could build the tunnel as an inverted siphon (mentioned above) to cross a depression or valley and raise the water level on the downhill side almost to the level of the uphill side. To do this requires a well-sealed tunnel strong enough to withstand the increased water pressure within the siphon. Note, however, that except for gaining a little bit of elevation if you slow down fast-moving water, you normally cannot get water to flow out of the outlet at a higher elevation than the inlet. So technically, even the Romans were not able to get water to flow "up a hill".

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54⟩ What is the absolute pressure scale?

Absolute pressure is calculated from a vacuum (0 PSI) and atmospheric pressure is14.7PSIa or 14.7 PSI above a vacuum 1PSI on a tire pressure gauge is called 1PSIg = 15.7PSIa 10PSIg=24.7PSIa 100PSIg=114.7PSIa etc.

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55⟩ How do you maintain water pressure?

If you have water pressure and wish to maintain it, do not cause flow in the line, which will reduce pressure due to friction. To keep pressure up, reduce friction by increasing the line size or eliminating some other restriction.

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56⟩ What are some facts about concrete?

Actually, drying is not directly linked to hardness in concrete. After concrete is poured, putting it in a wet environment by spraying it constantly with water will hasten its hardening and its curing. After concrete cures, it is hard.

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58⟩ Where is the worlds longest elevator and how long is it?

Gold mines in South Africa go a few kilometers below the surface. The deepest mine now is the Mponeng Mine in the Orange Free State. The depth of the mine is well over 3000m from the surface and is getting deeper. The lift itself descends 3037m to a point 1200m below sea level. It takes 4 minutes.

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59⟩ How is the Leaning Tower of Pisa supported?

In the same manner, it was supported when it was constructed. However, it has gotten some "help" over the years.

In the last couple of decades, the responsible PArties rolled up their sleeves and removed something approaching 40 meters3 of earth from under the higher side of the structure. This had the effect of straightening it toward the vertical by about a foot and a half at the top. For the first time in its history, it is no longer moving. In addition, in the good-news corner of the PAper is that it is open to the public again. In addition, the folks who lived near the tower in the direction it was leaning have returned to their homes and do not have to sleep with an eye and an ear open.

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60⟩ What does civil engineering mean?

They do many interesting things. Their job has to do a lot with design and construction. They can tell you what works and what will not for all sorts of situations. There is a lot of mathematics involved along with many other disciplines. They have to have a good solid understanding of how the environment works and how nature interacts with man made. They are probably best known for designing bridges, interstates, skyscrapers, canals, and so forth.

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