Environmental Engineering Major

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ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING (Civ Engr)
Offered by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Civ Engr 330. Elementary Structural Analysis. Static analysis of determinate structures: stresses and deformations in beams, trusses and frames.

Civ Engr 351. Civil Engineering Practices - Field Engineering. The two-phase course includes Operation Civil Engineering Air Force (OPSCEAF) and a three-week field experience at the USAFA Field Engineering and Readiness Laboratory (FERL). Second-class cadets spend first period at a government facility working on a project in the civil engineering field. Participants will be scheduled for a second- or third-period summer leadership program. The three-week field experience introduces surveying, construction materials, design of concrete mixes, and hands on construction using metal, timber, asphalt and concrete and working knowledge of environmental systems. Cadets will construct various projects that they will design in later civil and environmental engineering courses.

Civ Engr 361. Fundamental Hydraulics. Application of the principles of incompressible fluid mechanics. Topics include: fluid properties, manometry, forces on submerged bodies, open channel flow and conduit flow. Impulse-momentum, energy methods, Hardy-Cross method for balancing flows in distribution systems and sewer design are also covered.

Civ Engr 362. Introduction to Environmental Engineering. Fundamental theory and principles and preliminary design of unit operations in environmental engineering. Topics include air and water pollution, municipal and hazardous waste treatment, water chemistry, microbiology, mass balance, reactor theory and kinetics and physical process theory.

Civ Engr 368. Ground and Surface Hydrology and Contaminant Transport. A comprehensive introduction to groundwater and surface water hydrology. Contaminant transport of hazardous chemicals in groundwater is also covered. Topics include: hazardous chemicals, environmental regulations, hydrologic cycle, groundwater flow, well hydraulics, transport of contaminants in the subsurface environment, surface water hydrology, hydrographs, rational method of storm water runoff, and storm water collection system design.

Civ Engr 369. Introduction to Air Pollution. An in-depth introduction into air pollution covering such topics as the causes, sources and effects of air pollution. Topics include: legislative standards (ambient and source) for pollutants, regional and global air pollution issues, environmental health, indoor air pollution, noise, basic meteorology, air pollution instrumentation and gas flow measurements, and dispersion modeling. The course work will involve several laboratory exercises.

Civ Engr 390. Introduction to Soil Mechanics. Engineering properties of soils, soil classification, permeability, consolidation, compaction and shear strength and applications to engineering design. Soils laboratories and reports.

Civ Engr 405. Civil Engineering Seminar. A course designed to give civil engineering majors the opportunity to synthesize and apply the concepts they have learned throughout their undergraduate education. Topics discussed will include engineering ethics and those that cadets may encounter in the Air Force after graduation.

Civ Engr 463. Wastewater Treatment Plant Design. Design of facilities for physical, chemical and biological treatment of wastewater and treatment and disposal of sludge. Coverage of advanced wastewater treatment and land treatment systems. Laboratory exercises analyzing raw sewage with data being used for the design processes.

Civ Engr 467. Water Treatment Principles and Design. Design of unit operations for coagulation, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection for treatment of drinking water. Introduces the chemistry of drinking water treatment processes. Use of unit operations to design treatment solutions to contemporary environmental problems. Topics include the design of ion exchange, reverse osmosis, chemical precipitation and selected hazardous waste disposal problems.

Civ Engr 468. Solid and Hazardous Waste Facilities Design. Design and analysis of solid and hazardous waste management systems including collection, transport, processing, resource recovery and disposal (e.g., the design of landfills and incinerators). Hazardous waste regulations, treatment and site cleanup are addressed.

Civ Engr 469. Design of Air Pollution Controls. Modeling and predicting the effects of air pollution and the design of the facilities for air pollution control. The designs of electrostatic precipitators, cyclones, bag houses and other methods for the control of air contaminants are addressed.

Civ Engr 480. Project Management and Contract Administration. This is the final course in the civil and environmental engineering capstone sequence. First-class students integrate discipline-specific design work from previous courses through a semester project. Cadets take an owner’s project requirements through stages of scope definition, budgeting and planning, conceptual design, scheduling, and construction contract administration. Cadets apply engineering standards and consider realistic issues including engineering economics, constructability, environmental requirements, sustainability, and safety. The course addresses and applies management topics and concepts of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling in the context of a capstone engineering project. The course concludes with a project competition involving construction industry professionals.

Civ Engr 499. Independent Study. Individual study and research in an advanced civil engineering topic approved by the department head.