Further Enquiries:

School of Civil, Environmental
and Mining Engineering
Engineering North N136,
North Terrace Campus
The University of Adelaide
SA 5005
AUSTRALIA
Email

Telephone: +61 8 8313 5451
Facsimile: +61 8 8313 4359

Link to the University's Future Students portal
for details about application & admission.

Link directly to Bachelor of Engineering 
(Civil & Structural) for program details 
in Program Finder.

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Civil & Structural Engineering

Many objects that we refer to as structures are buildings, but plenty are not. Civil & structural engineers work on buildings of all shapes and sizes, but their skills and knowledge are also applied to large non-building structures.

Just to name a few of the structures a Civil & Structural Engineering graduate might work on: viaducts; stadiums; tunnels; bridges; television and radio masts and towers; pipelines; storage tanks; chimneys; sewers; cooling towers; roller coasters; wharves; retaining walls; aqueducts; piers; dams; parking structures; cranes; offshore oil platforms; electric power transmission towers; Ferris wheels; observation platforms; distillation equipment and structural supports at chemical and petrochemical plants and oil refineries; buildings of all kinds, constructed of masonry, concrete, stone, steel, wood.

Design and analysis of structures

Civil & structural engineers specialise in the design and analysis of the structural elements and materials of which these sorts of structures, as well as buildings, are constructed. The particular focus is on the elements that hold the structure together and keep it upright, so that it can safely serve the purpose for which it was built.

Sports arenas. Think, for example, about a stadium, such as the MCG or AAMI Stadium. These large structures have to stand up to enormous stresses from the weight and movement of the people who clamber into and around in them, and from their own intrinsic weight, which is tugged at by gravity and pushed at by the wind.

We tend to take their existence and their safety for granted, but just how thick should the floors be to support 95,000 people (the seating capacity of the MCG)? How many beams are needed to support the seating levels or the roof? How thick should beams, pylons or columns be? What should they be made from? Where should they be placed? What would happen if a supporting beam failed for some reason? As a civil & structural engineer, you will know answers to these questions, and be able to advise and design. read more