1 Introduction
1.1 Module aims
• To extend the application of the fundamental principles of soil behaviour introduced in Soil
Mechanics, with particular emphasis on analysis and design of foundation and earth retaining
structures;
• To develop and justify detailed solutions to civil engineering problems by a process of
appraisal, analysis and validation using specialist software, codes of practice and other
learned society guidance, as appropriate;
• To further develop presentation, team working and personal management skills
1.2 Learning outcomes
Knowledge & understanding
On successful completion of this module students will be able to:
• Critically review soil behaviour in analysis and design of geotechnical problems.
• Extend, integrate and apply the knowledge and understanding from previous study to develop
detailed solutions to civil engineering problems through a process of appraisal, analysis and
validation.
• Apply engineering principles to analysis civil and structural engineering design problems.
• Apply quantitative methods and, where appropriate, computer software to solve civil and
structural engineering problems
Subject-specific skills
On successful completion of this module students will be able to:
• Use fundamental soil parameters in design and identify their significance.
• Create detailed solutions to engineering problems that satisfy modern performance standards
and sustainability requirements.
• Present solutions in the form of detailed drawings and supporting calculations
Personal transferable skills
On successful completion of this module students will be able to:
• Present and interpret data
• Solve problems systematically
• Collect, manage, interpret and use design data obtained from a variety of sources;
• Use IT skills to aid the presentation of technical solutions to a problem;
• Demonstrate detail design communication skills (calculations and drawings).
1.3 Timetable
This design work will be completed by the week 9 of Semester 2. It is expected that you will
continue to work in the same groups as established for the Feasibility Study exercise in
Semester 1, you are NOT permitted to change groups.
Semester 2 week 1: lecture session. Semester 2 weeks 2~9: tutorial sessions. Tutors: Prof D
Lam. If you need to discuss with the tutor out of your tutorial session time, please send an email
to Prof D Lam to make an appointment. The coursework will have two submissions. The first
submission is the design calculations and report, the deadline of submission: Semester 2,
Week 7 Friday 12pm. The second submission is the design drawings, the deadline of
submission: Semester 2, Week 9 Friday 12pm.
1.4 Scope of Design Project
Civil Engineering Design is the continuation of the work that you started in the Semester 1
Feasibility Study module. It involves the detailed design of the recommendations you made to
your client in your Feasibility Study report. Each design team is required to produce one set of
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fully detailed design report, including analyses, calculations, justifications and drawings, for any
one of the following schemes that were proposed as part of the Whitby Regeneration Study:
Scheme A: Civil & Structural Engineering Works for a multi-storey building with basement
Various buildings have been developed for the Whitby Regeneration Study. These include hotels,
multi-storey car parks and a variety of other forms of building. Scheme A should consist of a
relatively large structure (at least 3 storeys of above-ground construction) for it to be sufficiently
challenging for this exercise. Some buildings were designed with basement either for a swimming
pool or as underground car parking; a building with a basement and at least 2 storeys above
ground will also be acceptable for Scheme A.
For Scheme A you must provide design calculations for:
• The basement retaining wall for your building. This should include the basement wall
foundations as well as the vertical earth retaining part of the wall (usually known as the “stem”).
The influence of any groundwater (and possible flood water) on your basement and the
envisaged construction sequence must also be taken into account in your design.
• The principal structural elements of the building i.e. roof members (including purlins), main
beams and floors, vertical supporting elements (i.e. load-bearing masonry walls and/or steel
or concrete columns – if designing columns, calculations must be provided for a corner column
and the worst loaded internal column) and foundations for an internal column. The foundations
must include the analysis and design of any piles, if appropriate.
• Where composite floor construction is being used (e.g. steel beams acting compositely with
steel permanent formwork plus in-situ concrete or steel or concrete beams acting compositely
with precast concrete units) you may use the safe load tables provided by the manufacturers
of the permanent formwork or precast concrete units. Note: it is likely that you will be using a
system of secondary and primary beams – calculations are required for one of each beam type.
• You should make sure that the roof and floors do not deflect excessively.
• You must demonstrate that your proposed building is stable and robust at all times, in particular,
when subjected to lateral wind loading. For scheme A, no calculations are required for this
BUT you are required to produce a written statement (with supporting diagrams) explaining
how your building is robust and how stability against lateral loading (mainly wind action) has
been provided.
• You are NOT required to produce calculations and drawings for any temporary works.
• You are not required to design any specialist glazing elements (details obtained from specialist
manufacturers can be used – details may be found from a web search).
• If designing reinforced concrete structures, you will be required to submit calculations for
anchorage stress checks, lapped bars (i.e. lap lengths) and curtailment of reinforcement. You
must also demonstrate that any concrete elements you design will not deflect or crack
excessively.
• If designing a steel structure, you must ensure that the principal steel members do not deflect
excessively. In addition, you are required to produce calculations for a typical beam to column
connection and a typical column to foundation connection
• In all cases, due attention must be paid to fire resistance and durability.
• NO calculations are required for wall cladding, lifts, lift-shafts, staircases, ventilation plant or
any other mechanical and electrical services, although all these aspects of construction must
be accounted for in your design and on your drawings.
Scheme B: Civil & Structural Engineering Works for an Underground Car Park
Several design teams specified a wholly or partially buried multi-storey car park as part of their
proposed Whitby Regeneration Study. Scheme B should consist of a structure that has, at least,
2 storeys of car parking plus one storey of basement.
For Scheme B you must provide design calculations for:
• A typical length of retaining wall. This should include the wall’s foundations as well as the
vertical earth retaining part of the wall (usually known as the “stem”). The influence of any
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groundwater (and possible flood water) on your retaining wall and the envisaged construction
sequence must also be taken into account in your design.
• The principal structural elements of the car park structure i.e. roof members (these may be of
similar construction to a typical floor but are likely to be more heavily loaded), main floors
(including supporting beams), vertical supporting elements (i.e. steel or concrete columns – if
designing columns, calculations must be provided for the worst loaded internal column) and
foundations for an internal column. The foundations must include the analysis and design of
any piles, if appropriate.
• Where composite floor construction is being used (e.g. steel beams acting compositely with
steel permanent formwork plus in-situ concrete or steel or concrete beams acting compositely
with precast concrete units) you may use the safe load tables provided by the manufacturers
of the permanent formwork or precast concrete units. Note: it is likely that you will be using a
system of secondary and primary beams – calculations are required for one of each beam type.
• You should make sure that the roof and floors do not deflect excessively.
• You are NOT required to produce calculations and drawings for any temporary works.
• You should allow for a minimum of 50mm of asphalt covering for the roof plus any waterproof
membrane and an allowance for imposed action above the car park.
• If designing reinforced concrete structures, you will be required to submit calculations for
anchorage stress checks, lapped bars (i.e. lap lengths) and curtailment of reinforcement. You
must also demonstrate that any concrete elements you design will not deflect or crack
excessively.
• If designing a steel structure, you must ensure that the principal steel members do not deflect
excessively. In addition, you are required to produce calculations for a typical beam to column
connection and a typical column to foundation connection. In all cases, due attention must be
paid to fire resistance and durability.
• No calculations are required for the lifts, lift-shafts, staircases, ventilation plant or any other
mechanical and electrical services, although all these aspects of construction must be
accounted for in your design and on your drawings.
Scheme C: Civil & Structural Works for either a replacement of the swing bridge or a new
high bridge
For Scheme C you must provide design calculations for:
• The principal structural elements of the permanent works including the deck, primary and
secondary structural members and the foundations of the bridge (including any load-bearing
piles, if necessary).
• Design of the temporary structure such as cofferdam, and temporary platform (depend on
your scheme e.g. a typical section of sheet piled walling including the design of any props,
ties or ground anchors, if necessary) at all stages of construction must be taken into account.
Each design team must make a clear statement about the sequence of construction (in their
calculations and on the drawings) and the assumed sequence of construction must be
considered in the design. In particular, the use of any internal strut system used for the
temporary works must be accounted for in the detailing of the seawall and lock structure.
• The effects of water and earth pressure must be taken into account in the design of the
permanent and temporary works.
• Impact force to the bridge pier from the collision of ships.
• Different load patterns: moving load and braking load from vehicles such as lorries.
• The control of thermal expansion
• If designing reinforced concrete structures, you will be required to submit calculations for
anchorage stress checks, lapped bars (i.e. lap lengths) and curtailment of reinforcement. You
must also demonstrate that any concrete elements you design will not deflect or crack
excessively.
• In all cases, due attention must be paid to minimum maintenance and durability.
• You are NOT required to design any access stairs, or any mechanical and electrical
equipment.
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1.5 Basis of Detailed Design
The detailed design work undertaken should, ideally, be based on the recommendations made to
your “Client” as a conclusion to the feasibility study, i.e. the aim is to convert your ideas or
concepts into a workable solution. Hence, provided that you have carried out the feasibility study
in sufficient detail, all the major dimensions and the form of construction should be contained in
your feasibility study reports!
In the light of further investigations that you will carry out in the early stages of the detailed design
process, you may find that you need to make some alterations to your proposals, e.g. you may
wish to use piled foundations instead of spread footings or you may decide to adopt a concrete
frame rather than the steel frame originally envisaged, etc. Such changes are acceptable provided
that the basic layout and general concept that you submitted in your feasibility study report remain
unaltered.
Before you start any detailed design, you will almost certainly have to rationalise and improve on
your conceptual design contained in your feasibility study report. This is not only acceptable but
it is also expected!
It may be acceptable to change the design described in your feasibility study report where the
work is likely to be unfairly onerous (or too simple!) compared with designs proposed by other
students.
2 Design Information
2.1 Codes of Practice
All designs should comply with the current suite of structural Eurocodes (e.g. BS EN1992 for
structural concrete work, BS EN 1993 for structural steelwork, BS EN 1994 for composite member,
BS EN 1990 and 1991 for general principles and actions). Note that you will NOT be expected to
satisfy the requirements of BS EN 1997 for any geotechnical works (such as the foundations),
And you are NOT expected to comply with the requirements of the specialist bridge codes of
practice in this exercise.
2.2 Actions
Wind Actions
Although, in practice you would normally have to estimate the wind action from BS EN 1991, for
this exercise you may assume that the characteristic (unfactored) wind action (Wk) = 1.5 kN/m²
for all parts of the new or existing works. Note that wind actions can act in any direction!
Imposed Actions
Unless stated otherwise, the actions described below are all unfactored or characteristic variable
actions and each should be multiplied by a γf value (partial safety factor) of 1.5 for design ultimate
conditions.
Surcharge for retaining wall – traffic and/or construction plant loading: When designing any
structure (permanent or temporary) where vehicle access is possible either during construction
or in the completed state, allow for a uniformly distributed load of 10.0 kN/m2 (Likely examples
include earth retaining walls or basements walls where cranes and other construction plant will
be supported on the retained earth and seawall or dock structures that are designed to
accommodate vehicles for future maintenance).
Imposed loads – Building Design: The imposed loads are to be used in the design of those
buildings in Schemes A and B can be obtained from relevant Eurocodes; The roof of these
buildings should be designed to accommodate a minimum imposed UDL (unfactored) of 0.6
kN/m² – this represents a nominal snow load or maintenance loading to the roof cladding
necessary.
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Imposed load – Wave action: For permanent structures (e.g. sea walls, locks and dry docks), use
the hydrostatic water pressure (for the full height of the structure) with a γf value (partial safety
factor) of 1.75 for design ultimate conditions. This allows for dynamic effects and a nominal
amount of over-topping. For temporary works, use the same value as for permanent works but
with a γf value (partial safety factor) of 1.3 for design ultimate conditions.
Dead Loads
You may assume the following unit weights / densities in your calculations:
Mass or lightly reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete – 24 kN/m³; heavily reinforced concrete

• 25 kN/m³; structural steelwork – 78.5 kN/m³; structural brickwork – 20 kN/m³; bituminous surfacing
  & waterproofing (e.g. epoxy surfacing) – 23 kN/m³; seawater – 10.05 kN/m³; sandstone masonry
  (with few mortar joints) – 22 kN/m³; typical roof construction (slates or clay pantiles plus timber
  battens and purlins) –allow 1.0 kN/m2
  ; roof glazing – allow 0.6 kN/m2 (in the absence of more
  accurate manufacturer’s data); services – 0.9 kN/m2 (in the absence of more accurate data);
  lightweight demountable partition walling – allow 1.0 kN/m2
  ; concrete blockwork partitions – allow
  2.5 kN/m2
  .
  The unit weight of timber is dependent on the species specified (see relevant Eurocodes for more
  information). More detailed information regarding the dead loads of different forms of construction
  can be obtained from Manufacturer’s catalogues, from reference books (e.g. Reinforced Concrete
  Designer’s Handbook by Reynolds and Steedman) or from other guides such as “Extracts from
  British Standards for Students of Structural Design” etc.
  Load combinations and Partial Safety Factors for Loads
  See relevant Eurocodes EC0, EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4, EC7, etc.
  2.3 Soil Parameters
  You may assume the following:
  Imported fill (compacted behind the new earth retaining structures or similar):
  Unit weight of drained, imported backfill (fully compacted), ρdry = 18 kN/m³. Unit weight of
  saturated, imported backfill (fully compacted), ρsat = 20 kN/m³. Angle of shearing resistance of
  imported backfill (fully compacted), φ= 35º.
  Note that any earth retaining structures should be designed for undrained (i.e. full hydrostatic)
  conditions in the temporary state but may be designed for fully drained conditions in the
  permanent condition.
  Basement walls and rigid walls such as sea walls or marina walls should be designed for “at rest”
  earth conditions in the permanent condition but may be designed for “active” earth conditions in
  the temporary unpropped condition. Flexible forms of earth retaining structure such as steel sheet
  piles may be designed for active earth pressure in the temporary and permanent conditions.
  Bearing Pressures:
  Based on the ground investigation report for the West Cliff leisure centre (provided by
  Scarborough Borough Council), considered in the feasibility study, the allowable bearing pressure
  for a spread foundation on the glacial till can be assumed to be 200kN/m2
  . For marina structures
  cast onto the Alum Shale (or on mass concrete above the Alum Shale) an allowable bearing
  pressure of 1500 kN/m2 may be used.
  2.4 Other Aspects of Design
  In the design of basement (and other earth retaining) walls, sea or marina walls, care must be
  taken to allow for the early thermal cracking and longer term shrinkage of the concrete. Careful
  consideration should be given to the provision and layout of contraction and movement joints and
  details should be adopted that are appropriate for watertight construction.
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  When design the buildings (schemes A or B), consideration should be given to the provision of
  expansion joints. In addition, the external cladding should be provided with movement joints to
  cater for differential movement of the cladding relative to the supporting structural frame. The
  provision of expansion joints must also be considered when design seawalls or marina walls (in
  Scheme C).
  2.5 Characteristic Strengths
  Each design team is responsible for selecting and specifying the materials for all parts of their
  scheme.
  3 Submission Details
  3.1 General
  The submission of the coursework includes two parts. The first is the design report and it is to
  take the form of a design report including description, analysis, argument, and supporting
  calculations etc. The submission deadline is Semester 2 Week 7- Friday, 12 March 2021 at 12pm.
  The second part is the design drawings. The submission deadline is Semester 2 Week 9 – Friday,
  26 March at 12pm. All the report and drawings must submit in pdf format through CAVAS.
  The design report should have the usual title page, contents pages, etc. (but there is no
  requirement to provide an abstract), an introduction of the designed project work, a set of
  conclusions or any written sections other than the preamble to each set of calculations (see below)
  or any short statements explaining your design methods. Any computer printout used in the
  design should be included in an Appendix at the end of the report and the output should be very
  clearly cross-referenced to the appropriate calculations. It is important that the calculations, any
  computer output and the drawings can be readily followed by a member of staff (or by someone
  else using them or checking them in the future)
  3.2 Design calculations
  i). At the beginning of each section of your design calculations you must include a brief statement
  of the main assumptions made in your analysis and design together with a list of the main
  design parameters, e.g. loading and load combinations, cover, materials strengths assumed,
  fire resistance requirements and anything else you consider to be relevant to aid the clear
  understanding of your work.
  ii). You should ensure that your calculations are well structured and presented in a clear and
  logical manner. It is strongly recommended that sketches are used alongside the calculations
  to clarify the main assumptions and dimensions used. All calculations must be submitted on
  calculations sheets (an electronic copy of a “standard” type of calculation sheet will be provided
  on request).
  iii). At the end of each section (e.g. on completion of the design of a typical section of basement
  wall, a floor slab, a beam, etc.) there should be a clear statement of the outcome of the design
  calculations. In some cases, particularly the case of reinforced concrete design calculations, it
  is good practice to include a sketch of a typical cross section showing the reinforcement layout.
  iv). Marks will be deducted from calculations that are poorly presented and difficult to follow.
  v). Word processed calculations and calculations submitted in pencil are NOT acceptable.
  (However, cover and contents pages and any preamble or introduction to your calculations
  may be word processed). Only design calculations for the worst loaded typical structural
  elements should be submitted (Do not submit calculations for the other less critical structural
  members).
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  vii). In some cases, the worst (i.e. most critical) design case may occur during rather than on
  completion of construction. Where appropriate this must be taken into account in the detailed
  design.
  viii). Where precast concrete units are specified, the design must take account of any stresses
  induced in the units when lifting from the casting bed or into position in the permanent works.
  ix). So mainly base on the manual calculation, for the overall behaviour such as the horizontal
  deflection, can use computer, but need to show your understanding of the software. Where
  a plane frame or similar computer-based structural analysis has been used (e.g. to check the
  deflection or to analyse a frame with rigid joints), the input and output should be included in
  an appendix. Where such output is used in your design, you MUST provide supporting check
  calculations to show that the output is of the correct order of magnitude. It is good practice to
  be suspicious of the output from software until you can gain confidence in it by producing
  simple approximate checks.
  x). The calculation requirements for each design exercise were defined earlier. In all cases, care
  must be taken to ensure that each structural element has adequate strength (under design
  ultimate conditions, i.e. factored loads) and that it does not deflect or, in the case of reinforced
  concrete, crack excessively under design service loads, i.e. unfactored loads.
  xi). In addition, the overall stability of all forms of construction must be ensured at all times,
  particularly in the temporary condition when wind loading can cause a significant risk of
  collapse. With many forms of construction, some form of temporary bracing or support is
  usually required.
  NOTES: You will have access to all the Faculty’s specialist structural engineering software. Most
  of this has been provided free of charge – such software is used extensively in industry. You may
  use this software to support your designs.
  3.3 Design drawings
  There is no set number of drawings to be submitted by each design team. However, care must
  be taken to make efficient use of the space. Marks will be deducted if drawings with very little
  information; with excessively large detail (inefficient use of space) or excessively small detail (poor
  use of space – difficult to read) are submitted – see additional comments below. The following 3
  types of drawing are required:
  • General arrangement
  • Structural details
  • Miscellaneous details
  General Arrangement Drawing(s)

Sample Solution