Design of Civil Structures and Infrastructures

The SE_A3 module teaches you how to design engineering (infra)structures within a realistic context: from scratch, investigating multiple variants and materials to find the most suitable design. You will make a functional and technical design, with considerable level of detail.

A3 will be organised as an engaging module:

• during the first weeks of the module keynote lectures from industry and expert staff members will be organised; broad and advanced content on design methodology, and the design of buildings, bridges, rail track and roads/pavements.

• in parallel you will be trained in various (soft/hard) skill-related lectures/workshops (teamwork, parametric design, presentation, setting up a clear calculation, visual communication)

• the central task is a group assignment around a realistic clients brief, containing buildings, bridges, rail and/or road, and including an individual contribution of each team member in the form of a preliminary design of one structural type.

• for deepening your knowledge on subjects, which is necessary for your individual contribution to the team design, various self-study content will be offered from a learning pool.

In A3, attention will be given to ethical aspects of design of engineering structures by means of addressing a realistic design context and working in a realistic team atmosphere. Considerations related to ethics are:

• Which team member will take responsibility for which part of the design?

• Can we guarantee that the design is safe?

• Is this design addressing the societal need in a correct way?

• To what extent is our global environment loaded by the presented design?

• To what extent will people be affected by the construction process of this design?

• Can the design be constructed safely and how?

The Core faculty module (CFM) will provide the fundamental basis for ethics, on which the course will build forth.

Structural Design is also about optimisation and graphical representation – CFM content that prepares for this will be built upon.

This module also considers topics that will continue the line of both modelling and coding from the MUDE module. MUDE: Coding skills (Python, Matlab etc.) and MUDE on modelling, data and uncertainty analysis are pre-requisites. This module will follow the lines of MUDE by analysing advanced methods with application on bridges, building, road, railway structures and circularity. The MUDE course in this aspect prepare students to understand reliable design parameters, criteria and reliable design choices out of several options.