Terminologies in Civil Engineering Part 2
Back Filling
Brickwork is used between structural members or covering the outside curved surface of an arch.
Back-To-Back
Two or more items that are placed in mirror image to one another. When used with plumbing fixtures, where a common wall is shared, back-to-back installation saves both space and money. Since the water supply and the waste drain and pipe venting are shared, repeat installation is unnecessary.
Baffle
Obstruction is used to control flowing of gas, liquid, light, or sound or is used to control the splashing of liquid in a container. A heat shield is used to deflect the byproducts of combustion.
Balconet
A pseudo-balcony. A low, ornamental railing which projects only slightly beyond a window sill.
Balloon framing
In carpentry, the lightest and most economical form of construction, in which the studding and corner plates are set up in continuous lengths from the first-floor line or sill to the roof plate to which all floor joists are fastened.
Balusters
Small vertical members in a railing used between a top rail and the stair treads.
Bartizan
Small turret hanging over a wall or tower.
Bascule Bridge
A bridge over a waterway with one or two leaves which rotate from a horizontal to a near-vertical position, providing unlimited clear headway.
Bascule
Device balance so that when one end is lowered, the other is raised. Hinged cantilever balance by a weight.
Baseboard Trim
Typically a wood trim board that is placed against the wall around the perimeter of a room next to the floor. The intent is to conceal the joint between the floor and the wall finish.
Bat
Piece of brick with one end intact, which is used to fill in a section where only a partial brick will fit.
Batten Plate
A formed piece of metal designed to cover the joint between two lengths of metal edge.
Batter
Type of wall that is purposely built to the slope on the outside even though it is straight on the inside. Also, masonry that slopes back in courses and is the reverse of a corbel.
Bearing Pile
A pile which provides support through the tip (or lower end) of the pile
Before Sheathing Window
The term for a window, which is, installed before the sheathing being installed, having an extra strip of wood on the side that is nailed directly through to the studs. It is more difficult to install than a window that is installed after sheathing.
Bell and Spigot Piping
Also called a hub and spigot piping this gravity-rated vent and drain or pressure piping, has a bell-shaped section at one end with a straight section at the other. The straight part fits into the bell-shaped end as the pipe is being installed.
Bell and Spigot Piping
Also called a hub and spigot piping this gravity-rated vent and drain or pressure piping, has a bell-shaped section at one end with a straight section at the other. The straight part fits into the bell-shaped end as the pipe is being installed.
Belt Course
A course (horizontal layer) of stone or brick, flush with the wall or projecting from an exterior, masonry wall; used to mark a floor line or visually to reduce the height of a building. Generally narrower than the other courses.
Belvedere
A summer house on height or an upper story open-roofed gallery designed to give a view of the scenery.
Birdsmouth
Cut that resembles the open mouth of a bird, which is made at the end of a rafter so that the rafter joints are snug with the top wall plate.
Bitumen
(1) A class of amorphous, black or dark-colored, (solid, semisolid, or viscous) cementitious substances natural or manufactured, composed principally of high molecular weight hydrocarbons, soluble in carbon disulfide, and found in asphalts, tars, pitches, and asphaltites;
(2) A generic term used to denote any material composed principally of bitumen;
(3) In the roofing industry, there are two basic bitumens: asphalt and coal-tar pitch. Before application, they are either
(a) heated to a liquid state,
(b) dissolved in a solvent, or
(c) emulsified.
Blaine Fineness
The fineness of granular materials such as cement and pozzolan expressed as total surface area in square centimeters per gram, determined by the Blaine air-permeability apparatus and procedure.
Bleeding, Bleed Water
A form of segregation in which some of the water in a mix tends to rise to the surface of freshly placed concrete. Known also as water gain.
Blind or Shutter
A lightweight frame in the form of a door is located on each side of a window. They are most commonly constructed of wood (solid or louvered panels) or plastic. Originally they were designed to close and secure over the windows of security and foul weather. Most shutters now are more likely decorative pieces that are secured to the house beside the windows.
Blueprint (S)
A type of copying method is often used for architectural drawings. Usually used to describe the drawing of a structure which is prepared by an architect or designer for design and planning, estimating securing permits.
Bond Stress
A term commonly applied in reinforced-concrete construction to the stress developed by the force tending to produce movement or slippage at the interface between the concrete and the reinforcement bars.
Box Culvert
A culvert of rectangular or square crosssection.
Bracing
In a stick-built roof system, it is the W-shaped structural member that provides support to the roof rafter. A piece of dimensional lumber or metal is used diagonally on the corner of a home.
Breaking Joints
Any arrangement of masonry units which prevents continuous vertical joints from occurring in adjacent courses.
Brick Tie
A thin corrugated galvanized or rippled strip of metal used to tie masonry walls together or to tie a brick veneer wall to the wood frame walls.
Brick Veneer Wall
A facing of brick is commonly used in modern construction that covers an exterior load-bearing wall.
Brittle
Characteristics of a material that fails without warning; brittle materials do not stretch or shorten before failing.
Bulkhead
A retaining wall-like structure is commonly composed of driven piles supporting a wall or a barrier of wooden timbers or reinforced concrete members.
C T D bars
Cold twisted deformed bars are commonly termed as Tor-steel rods used as reinforcement in R.C.C. These are generally available in Fe 415 grade.
Cable-Stayed Bridge
A bridge in which the superstructure is directly supported by cables, or stays, passing over or attached to towers located at the main piers
Caisson Disease
An affliction developed by people moving in and out of caissons quickly; also called the bends and decompression sickness.
Camber
The slightly arched form or convex curvature provided in beams to compensate for dead load deflection, in general, a structure built with perfectly straight lines appears slightly sagged.
Cantilever
A horizontal projection, such as a balcony or beam supported at one end and unsupported at the other.
Capstan
A hoist made of cable which is wound around a drum which has either a crank or motor attached to turn it to raise the load which is attached. it has a vertical axis of rotation used to wind or unwind the cable once it has a load attached.
Casement Window
A window, which is hinged on the side, allowing it to swing open outward. A quadrant gear forces a lever to open and close the window when the crankshaft, which is attached to a gear that turns the quadrant gear, is turned. Windows will be held in any position by the gearing, which can also be operated by remote control.
Cavity Wall
A wall built of hollow masonry units arranged to provide continuous internal air space.
Ceiling Joist
A horizontally placed framing member at the ceiling of the top-most living space of a house that provides a platform to which the finished ceiling material can be attached.
Cellular Concrete
A lightweight product consisting of portland cement, cement-pozzolan, cement sand, lime-pozzolan, or lime-sand pastes, or pastes containing blends of these ingredients and having a homogenous void or cell structure, attained with gas-forming chemicals or foaming agents. For cellular concretes, containing binder ingredients other than or in addition to portland cement, autoclave curing is usually employed.
Cement Mixtures
Rich-1 part cement, 2 parts sand, 3 parts coarse aggregate. Used for concrete roads and waterproof structures. Standard-1 part cement, 2 parts sand, 4 parts coarse aggregate. Used for reinforced work floors, roofs, columns, arches, tanks, sewers, conduits, etc. Medium-1 part cement, 2 ½ parts sand, 5 parts coarse aggregate. Used for foundations, walls, abutments, piers, etc. Lean-1 part cement, 3 parts sand, 6 parts coarse aggregate. Used for all mass concrete work, large foundations, backing for stone masonry, etc. Mixtures are always listed Cement to Sand to Aggregate.
Cement, Portland (ASTMC150)
A powdery substance is made by burning, at a high temperature, a mixture of clay and limestone producing lumps called clinkers, which are ground into a fine powder consisting of hydraulic calcium silicates. For non-portland cement.
Certificate of Occupancy
A document stating that a building is approved for occupancy. The building authority issues the Certificate of Occupancy.
Chemical Injection Grouting
Leak repair technique is usually used below grade in cracks and joints in concrete walls and floors that involve the injection of sealant (usually urethane) that reacts with water to form a seal.
Closed Spandrel Arch
A stone or reinforced concrete arch span having spandrel walls to retain the spandrel fill or to support either entirely or in part the floor system of the structure when the spandrel is not filled.
Collar Tie
A horizontal member used to provide intermediate support for opposite roof rafters, usually located at the upper third of the rafter to decrease its span
Construction Equipment
All equipment, machinery, tools, and temporary retaining structures and working platforms, that is, tools, derricks, staging, scaffolds, runways, ladders, and all material, handling equipment including safety devices.
Construction Joint
The contact between the placed concrete and concrete surfaces, against or upon which concrete is to be placed and to which new concrete is to adhere, that has become so rigid that the new concrete cannot be incorporated integrally by vibration with that previously placed. Unformed construction joints are horizontally placed or nearly so.
Continuous Span Beam Bridge
Simple bridge made by linking one beam bridge to another; some of the longest bridges in the world are continuous span beam bridges
Continuous Truss
A truss having its chord and web members arranged to continue uninterrupted over one or more intermediate points of support.
Conventional Roof Framing
The building of a roof frame one piece at a time, as opposed to using pre-fabricated roof members that are assembled on-site.
Cornice
A horizontal projecting course on the exterior of a building, usually at the base of the parapet. In residential construction, the overhang of a pitched roof at the cave line, usually consisting of a fascia board, a soffit for a closed cornice, and appropriate moldings.
Cover Plate
A plate is used in conjunction with flange angles or other structural shapes to provide additional flange sections in a beam, column, or similar member.
Covered Bridge
An indefinite term applied to a wooden bridge having its roadway protected by a roof and enclosed sides.
Creep Modulus
The ratio of initially applied stress to creep strain.
Crib
A structure consisting of a foundation grillage combined with a superimposed framework providing compartments or coffers which are filled with gravel, concrete, or other material satisfactory for supporting the structure to be placed thereon.
Crib
A structure consisting of a foundation grillage combined with a superimposed framework providing compartments or coffers which are filled with gravel, concrete, or other material satisfactory for supporting the structure to be placed thereon.
Cribwork
Large timber cells which are submerged fully of concrete to make an underwater foundation.
Crocket
A carved ornament, usually made to look like foliage, projecting upward at regular intervals along the sloping edges of a spire, pinnacle, gable, canopy, etc., especially in Gothic Revival architecture.
Cross Bracing
Transverse bracings between two main longitudinal members.
Cross Bridging
Diagonal bracing between adjacent floor joists, usually placed near the center of the joist span to stiffen the floor and prevent the joists from twisting.
Cross Girders
Girders supported by bearings which supply transverse support for longitudinal beams or girders.
Crown of Roadway
The vertical dimension describing the total amount the surface is convexed or raised from gutter to centerline, this is sometimes termed the cross fall of the roadway.
Curb
A short barrier paralleling the side limit of the roadway to guide the movement of vehicle wheels and safeguard constructions and pedestrian traffic existing outside the roadway limit from a collision with vehicles and their loads.
Curtain Wall
A thin wall, supported by the structural steel or concrete frame of the building independent of the wall below. Also a metal (most often aluminum) framing system on the face of a building containing vision glass panels and spandrel panels made of glass, aluminum, or other material.
Cutwater
A sharp-edged structure is built around a bridge pier to protect it from the flow of water and debris in the water.
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