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Physics for Civil Engineering

This is an introduction to Electricity, Strength of Materials and Waves.

Course Content

Syllabus Greek alphabet
Synopsis The SI Unit System

Lecture 1

• Electric Charge, Current and Potential Difference
• Microscopic picture of current in a wire
• Conductors, Conductance and Conductivity
• Resistors, Resistance and Resistivity
• Conductors, Insulators and Semiconductors
• Temperature coefficient of resistivity
• Heating effect of current

Current, Potential and Resistance

Lecture 2

• Circuit Elements and Electric Circuits
• Electromotive force
• Resistors connected in series
• Resistors connected in parallel
• Series/parallel substitution of resistors in circuits
• Internal Resistance of an electric cell
• Maximum power transfer theorem

Electrical Circuits

Lecture 3

• Simple circuits are reduced to a single equivalent resistor by series and parallel substitution,
• Kirchhoff's rules for finding currents and potential differences in networks are demonstrated.

Simple Electrical Circuits and Networks

Lecture 4

• the capacitance of two conducting surfaces
• the effect of dielectrics (insulators) between the capacitor plates
• the series and parallel combination of capacitors
• the energy stored in a capacitor

Capacitors

Lecture 5

• Solids, Fluids, Plastics & Plasmas
• Two techniques of calculation with fluids
• Four concepts of fluid flow
• Streamlines
• Equation of continuity
• Bernoulli's equation
• Fluid statics

Fluids: Flowing and Static

Lecture 6

• Archimedes' achievements & death
• Hiero's crown
• Archimedes' principle

Archimedes

Lecture 7

• Planar Laminar flow
• Laminar flow of a fluid in a tube
• Newton's law of Viscosity
• Viscosity at the Atomic Level
• Viscosity and Temperature
• Viscosity and Time
• Terminal Velocity
• Stokes' Law and Terminal Speeds
• Poiseuille's Law and Laminar flow in a tube
• Reynold's number and Turbulent flow

Viscosity

Lecture 8

• surface energy is defined,
• the effects of temperature and contaminants on the surface is discussed,
• methods of measuring surface energy in solids & surface tension in liquids,
• the angle of contact between liquids and solids is defined,
• capillary action is seen as a surface tension effect,
• size of bubbles is seen as a balance between excess pressure & surface tension,
• Laplace's law, for cylinders of fluid.

Surface Tension and Surface Energy

Lecture 9

• Negative Potential Energy
• Potential Energy and Force
• The Lenard-Jones Potential Energy Function
• Equilibrium Separation
• Maximum Binding Energy
• The Electron Volt

Interatomic Potential Function

Lecture 10

• The Classification of Chemical Bonds
• The Periodic Table with Electron Configurations
• Ionic Bonds
• Covalent Bonds
• Metallic Bonds
• Electric Dipoles
• Hydrogen Bonds
• Van der Waals Bonds

Types of Chemical Bonds

Lecture 11

• Crystal Structures
• Body Centred Cubic Unit Cell
• Face Centred Cubic Unit Cell
• Hexagonal Close Packed Unit Cell
• Diamond structure Unit Cell
• Simple Cubic structure
• Packing Density in the Unit Cell (FCC and BCC)
• Ionic, Covalent and Metallic Crystals
• Intermediate Bond types
• Amorphous Solids
• Polymers

Microstructures: crystalline and amorphous

Lecture 12

• Brittle solids and the critical distance for breaking a bond are introduced,
• the homogeneous separation and microcrack models of brittle failure are compared,
• Plastic solids are introduced,
• the homogeneous shear and dislocation models of plastic failure are compared.

Brittle and Plastic Failure

Lecture 13

• Oscillations and Vibrations
• Simple Harmonic Motion
• Damped Simple Harmonic Motion
• Forced Oscillations
• Vibrations inside built structures
• Vibrations coming from outside built structures
• Positive and Negative Damping

Oscillations and Waves

Lecture 14

• Wave motion as an energy transfer
• Types of waves
• Basic Basic Wave Parameters
• Representing Moving Shapes
• Transverse Sinusoidal Waves
• The Intensity, Impedance and Pressure Amplitude of a Wave
• Intensity Level and decibel scale
• Hearing Loss
• The Fletcher-Munson Curves and the Phon
• Pitch

Waves, Wave Equation and Intensity

Poiseuille's equation

Derivation


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