Structural Engineering
Structural engineering encompasses all structural elements and systems. Common structures include buildings, bridges, dams, and towers. Structural engineers determine and design structural elements and systems - the columns, beams, walls, and floors – that stand up to loads and stresses, ensuring that the structure has the strength to perform its function safely, while enhancing the quality of life . Buildings, the structures that surround us, are often the major landmarks of cities. Examples of this include the Empire State Building, the Sydney Opera House and the Taipei 101. With its important function in transportation, bridges often create a unique landscape, forming another type of urban landscape. The Golden Gate Bridge, declared one of the modern wonders of the world by the American Society of Civil Engineers, is an excellent example of this.
Structural engineering is the design of structural systems which withstand outside forces. Thus, the study of structures and mechanics is inseparable. Basic courses at the Department of Civil Engineering include Engineering Mechanics, and Mechanics of Materials, as well as Theory of Structures, Design of Reinforced Concrete, and Design of Steel Structures. In addition, the graduate program offers courses in various fields, including Reinforced Concrete, Steel Structures, Structural Mechanics, Earthquake Engineering, Computer-Aided Design, Research and Development in Self-Compacting Concrete, Structure Monitoring and the Application of Nanomaterial in Concrete. The first few courses explore the properties of reinforced concrete and steel structures as well as the behavior of linear and non-linear structures. In accordance with national research and development efforts, Earthquake Engineering studies earthquake characteristics, soil structure interaction, and structure dynamic behavior. A future focus in the research of reinforced concrete, self-compacting concrete combines the advantages of being environmentally friendly, creating better quality products, increasing cost effectiveness, and reducing a project’s construction time. The Application of Nanomaterial in Concrete not only improves the mechanical and chemical properties of concrete, but is also used to design smart materials which can sense, self-repaired and alarm and play an important role in retrofit and reinforcement. Structure safety/health monitoring has become quite valued for its importance in evaluating a structure’s ability to withstand earthquakes, in the management of the structure’s life cycle and the life and property’s safety, and in the development of the sustainability. Smart materials and composites, which have couplings between mechanical, thermal, electric and magnetic fields, can be used as sensors and actuators to design new health monitoring or energy harvesting systems. Nowadays, with the development of technology, computational mechanics has been widely applied in interdisciplinary area through the use of advanced numerical methods to solve complex physical problems based on mechanics.