Civil Engineering Photos

Photo Credit: Alex Mead

Featured here is a free standing jib crane (the yellow column and beam assembly). Cranes like this one are permanent pieces of equipment found in factories, fabrication shops, or adjacent to loading docks. The main advantage of a free standing jib crane is its ability to pick up a load, rotate the load, extend the reach of the jib, and deposit the load all in a very controlled and predetermined motion. This crane is in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the University of Michigan Power Plant. It is used to unload trucks from the visible loading dock.

Photo Credit: Alex Mead

This is part of the structural testing lab at the University of Illinois, one of the premier structural labs in the world. The blue box is a particular piece of equipment capable of applying forces in all three cardinal directions as well as moments in all three cardinal directions. Experiments performed with this machine allow engineers to control all the aspects of the motion and load a structural element is undergoing. Seen here is a pier being tested for post seismic repair adequacy.

Photo Credit: Alex Mead

Pictured above is a drill rig used for constructing auger cast piles. On this machine a few features are very obvious that make it different than a traditional boom-lattice crane. First, the large green box on the back is an engine that powers the auger. The auger, encased in the frame hanging on the front of the crane, is then used to excavate the soil where the piles will be poured. Once the auger reaches the desired depth, concrete is pumped through the auger like a straw to fill the hole as it is pulled out. A resteel cage can then be lowered into the hole to add tensile strength to the auger cast pile.

Photo Credit: Nathan Shoemaker

This drill rig is used to core rock, and water is used to keep the bit cool, clean and lubricated. Rock coring is used for geotechnical and hydrological investigation as well as for well drilling in certain instances and also oil exploration.

Photo Credit: Alex Mead

This machine is used to build the civil engineering infrastructure on which society dependents. It is called a trencher, or in some circles, the ground or soil chainsaw. One use of a trencher is to bury pipes or cables. Trenchers are good at excavating long and narrow openings in the earth which pipes and cables are then laid in to deliver the water, gas, electricity, and other resources needed by the recipients of the cable or pipe from the distribution grid.

Photo Credit: Nathan Shoemaker

Pictured above is a Cone-Penetration-Test(CPT) Rig. CPTs are used for geotechnical site-investigations and can help determine the soil type, soil layer thickness, relative strength of the soil, and pore water pressure among other things. This information is then used to determine how structures must be built on the site. The CPT test is done using a small diameter cone that is hydraulically pushed at a constant displacement; the cone is configured with multiple transducers to measure tip resistance, sleeve (friction) resistance, and pore-water pressure.