2007-2008 Academic Catalog

Course descriptions


Course descriptions index


Civil Engineering

A $25 per semester student computing facility user fee is assessed for CEM engineering courses. This fee is in addition to any lab/materials fees.


CE 112      3 Credits
Elementary Surveying
Basic plane surveying; use of transit, level, theodolite and total station. Traverses, public land system, circular curves, cross-sectioning and earthwork. Course fee: $50. (Prerequisite: MATH 108.) (2 + 3) Offered Spring


CE 326W       4 Credits
Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering
Fundamentals of geotechnical engineering including identification and classification of soil, physical and mechanical properties of soil, subsurface exploration, laboratory testing techniques, seepage, compaction, stresses in soil, soil consolidation, shear strength of soil and basic frozen ground considerations. Course fee: $50. (Prerequisites: ES 331, 341, CE 334, ENGL 111X, ENGL 211X or 213X, or permission of instructor.) (3 + 3) Offered Spring


CE 330      4 Credits
Environmental Engineering
Fundamentals of environmental engineering including theory and application of water and wastewater, solid waste and air quality engineering practice; emphasis on natural processes that influence pollutant fate and use of these processes in engineered systems for pollution control. Course fee: $50. (Prerequisite: ES 341, CHEM 106X and graduate standing.) (3 + 3) Offered Spring


CE 331      3 Credits
Structural Analysis
Analysis of statically determinate and indeterminate structures to include beams, trusses and frames. Internal force resultants, shear and moment diagrams, deflections, internal stresses. Influence lines and criteria for moving loads. Indeterminate analysis to include methods of consistent deflections, slope deflection and moment distribution. Introduction to matrix methods. Course fee: $50. (Prerequisites: CE 334.) (2 + 3) Offered Spring


CE 334      3 Credits
Properties of Materials
Properties of engineering materials. Bonding, crystal and amorphous structures. Relationships between microstructure and engineering properties. Modification of properties and environmental serviceability. Concrete and asphalt mixes. Course fee: $50. (Co-requisite: ES 331.) (2 + 3) Offered Fall


CE 344      3 Credits
Water Resources Engineering
Fundamentals of engineering hydrology and hydraulic engineering. Water cycle and water balance, precipitation, evaporation, runoff, statistical methods, flood control, open channels and groundwater. Course fee: $50. (Prerequisite: ES 341.) (3 + 0) Offered Fall


CE 400      0 Credits
FE Exam
Complete the FE application and take the state of Alaska Engineering-in-Training Exam in the same semester of course enrollment. (Prerequisite: Senior standing in civil engineering.) Offered Fall, Spring


CE 402      3 Credits
Introduction to Transportation Engineering
Introduction to multimodal transportation systems and the factors that influence the planning, design, and operation of the systems. (Prerequisite: CE junior standing or permission of instructor.) (3 + 0) Offered Fall


CE 405      3 Credits
Highway Engineering
Design of geometric elements of streets and highways with emphasis on safety and efficiency. Roadway functional classification, design controls, vertical and horizontal alignments, cross sections, interchanges and intersections. (Co-requisite: CE 302 or permission of instructor.) (2 + 3) Offered Fall


CE 406      3 Credits
Traffic Engineering
Operation and control of transportation systems with emphasis on traffic on highways and streets. Traffic control devices, data collection, capacity and level of service analysis, intersection signalization, traffic impact analysis, accident analysis and other safety considerations. (Prerequisite: CE 405 or permission of instructor.) (2 + 3) Offered Spring


CE 415      3 Credits
Advanced Surveying
Azimuth by astronomic methods. Route surveying, including horizontal and vertical curves, spirals, cross-sectioning and earthwork. Reduction of electronic distance measurements. Alaska State Plane Coordinate System, both old (NAD27) and new (NAD83). Course fee: $50. (Prerequisite: CE 112.) (2 + 3) Offered Fall


CE 416      1 Credit
Boundary Surveying
Surveying problems related to land subdivision with emphasis on the legal aspects. Metes and bounds descriptions and platted subdivisions. (Prerequisite: CE 112 or permission of instructor.) (1 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 422      3 Credits
Foundation Engineering
Bearing capacity of soils and effects of settlements on structure. Design of footings and rafts, pile and pier foundations, retaining walls and anchored bulkheads. Foundations on frozen soils and construction problems in foundation engineering. An introduction to slope stability analysis. (Prerequisites: CE 326, ES 301.) (3 + 0) Offered Fall


CE 423      3 Credits
Introduction to Earthquake Engineering
Introduction to sources of earthquakes; source mechanism and source parameters; attenuation relationships; earthquake response of single and multi-degree of freedom systems; earthquake response spectra and earthquake-induced liquefaction and densification of soil. (Prerequisite: CE 326. Next offered: 2007-08.) (3 + 0) Offered Alternate Spring


CE 425      3 Credits
Advanced Soil Mechanics
Soil formation, identification and classification, physical and mechanical properties of soil, seepage, drainage and frost action, subsoil investigation, bearing capacity of soils, and lateral earth pressures and stability of slopes. Course fee: $50. (Prerequisites: CE 326, ES 301.) (2 + 3) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 432      3 Credits
Steel Design
Design philosophies and current practice related to steel design are covered. Describes how the understanding modes of failure are used to design structural members with an appropriate factor of safety to satisfy strength and serviceability (performance). Tension members, fasteners, welds, column buckling, beam behavior and beam-columns will be discussed. The current AISC specifications are used. Course fee: $50. (Prerequisite: ES 331, CE 331.) (2 + 3) Offered Fall


CE 433      3 Credits
Reinforced Concrete Design
Behavior of reinforced concrete members. Design philosophies and current practices. Flexural members, to include: rectangular, T-beams and one-way slabs. Crack control, anchorage, development lengths and deflections. Axially loaded members. Laboratory experiments. Current ACI 318 Code used. Course fee: $50. (Prerequisites: CE 331 and ES 331.) (2 + 3) Offered Fall.


CE 434      3 Credits
Timber Design
Design loads. Building systems and loading path. Physical and mechanical properties of wood. Design values and adjustment factors. Design of axial members, beams and columns. Connection details. Design of wood frame structures. Current National Design Specifications (NDS) for Wood Construction used. Course fee: $50. (Prerequisites: CE 331 and ES 331.) (2 + 3) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 435      3 Credits
Design and Construction of Bridges
Design-build technology for bridge structures is introduced. A bridge system is developed for a given crossing with predetermined specifications. Alternate designs are developed. These alternatives are based on design calculations, prepared drawings, and suitability. Design ideas are developed and tested to verify if the idea meets the design assumptions. Techniques in design, fabrication, fund raising, project management, fiscal responsibility, safety, public speaking, and teamwork are learned and used during the semester. The final structure will be load tested and graded based on meeting the goals of the specifications. (Prerequisite: Permission of instructor. Recommended: CE 432.) (1 + 6) Offered Spring


CE 438W, O       3 Credits
Design of Engineered Systems
System design principles for large-scale constructed facilities. Application of ethics, liability and legal principles to professional practice. Emphasis on teamwork and leadership. (Prerequisite: ENGL 111X; ENGL 211X or ENGL 213X or permission of instructor; and COMM 131X or 141X; and last year of civil engineering B.S. program.) (3 + 0) Offered Spring


CE 442      3 Credits
Environmental Engineering II
Design of pollution control and remediation systems. Theories and principles for the design of engineering systems for environmental protection, management and control. Includes air pollution control, water and wastewater treatment, solid waste management, and hazardous and toxic waste transport, treatment and disposal. (Prerequisites: CE 441 and junior standing in civil engineering.) (3 + 0) Offered Fall


CE 445      3 Credits
Hydrologic Analysis and Design
Design and analysis; extended coverage of hydrologic concepts from CE 344. Precipitation, snow cover and evaporation analysis; groundwater hydraulics; runoff analysis and prediction; statistical hydrology; application of simulation models. Design of structures such as culverts, reservoirs, wells, pumps, and pipe networks. (Prerequisite: CE 344.) (2 + 3) Offered Spring


CE 470      1 Credit
Civil Engineering Internship
Supervised work experience in engineering organizations. Assignments individually arranged with cooperating organizations and agencies. Course may be repeated three times. Each repeat must be for a different type of project. As part of the requirements for earning credit, the student must have a letter of release of information from the company, prepare a written report and make an oral presentation. Program must be approved in advance by the department. (Prerequisites: Junior/senior standing, permission of department coordinator.) (0 + 3) Offered Fall, Spring


CE 490      .5 Credit
CE 491      .5 Credit
Civil Engineering Seminar
CE 490-491, together, constitute the standard one-year engineering seminar. The class is designed to provide the student with exposure to the latest information available from researchers and practicing professionals in industry. (Prerequisite: Junior/senior standing.) (1 + 0) 490 Offered Fall, 491 Offered Spring


CE 603      3 Credits
Arctic Engineering
Application of engineering fundamentals to problems of advancing civilization to polar regions. Logistics, foundations on frozen ground and ice thermal aspects of structures, materials, transport and communications, and heating and ventilating. Course fee: $50. (Recommended: Senior standing or B.S. degree in engineering; or permission of instructor.) (3 + 0) Offered Fall, Spring


CE 605      3 Credits
Pavement Design
Current design techniques for flexible and rigid pavements. Materials characterization, loading considerations, empirical design methods, mechanistic design methods and rehabilitation. (Recommended: Graduate standing and CE 402 or permission of instructor. Next offered: 2008-09.) (3 + 0) Offered Alternate Spring


CE 617      3 Credits
Control Surveys
Geodetic surveying, where the shape of the earth must be considered. Forward and inverse geodetic problems. Medium to long electronic distance measurements. Heavy emphasis on Alaska State Plane Coordinate System (NAD 83) and UTM Coordinate System. Adjustment of level nets. (Prerequisites: CE 415 or other surveying experience acceptable to instructor.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 620      3 Credits
Civil Engineering Construction
Construction equipment, methods, planning and scheduling, construction contracts, management and accounting, construction estimates, costs and project control. (Recommended: ESM 450 or equivalent.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 622      3 Credits
Foundations and Retaining Structures
Advanced study of shallow and deep foundations; analyses and design of retaining walls, free-standing sheet-pile walls, braced excavations, slurry walls, tied-back retention systems, reinforced earth, frozen soil walls, anchored bulkheads, and cellular cofferdams. (Prerequisites: CE 422 or permission of instructor.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 625      3 Credits
Soil Stabilization and Embankment Design
Soil and site improvement using deep and shallow compaction, additives, pre-loading, vertical and horizontal drains, electro-osmosis and soil reinforcement, dewatering and stabilization; embankment design, earth pressure theories and pressure in embankment, embankment stability, embankment construction, control and instrumentation. (Prerequisites CE 422 or permission of instructor. Next offered: 2008-09.) (3 + 0) Offered Alternate Fall


CE 626      3 Credits
Thermal Geotechnics
Fundamentals of thermal regimes of soils and rocks. Thermal impact of structures on soils. Thawing of permafrost beneath roads, buildings and around pipelines. Natural and artificial freezing of soils. Engineering means to maintain thermal regime of soils. Thermal design considerations. (Prerequisites: CE 326, CE 422 and CE 425 or permission of instructor.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 627      3 Credits
Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering
Introduction to soil dynamics and geotechnical aspects of earthquakes; influences of soils on ground motion, determination of soil response under strong seismic motion, causes of soil failures, soil liquefaction, lateral spreading, the seismic response of earth structures, and seismic-deformation procedures for slopes. (Prerequisites: CE 326 or permission of instructor. (3 + 0) Offered Alternate Spring


CE 628      3 Credits
Unsaturated Soils Mechanics
Fundamentals of soil behavior under load; pore pressure during monotonic loading; Ladd's "Simple Clay" model; densification and drained cyclic loading of sand; undrained cycle loading of soil. (Prerequisite: CE 326.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 630      3 Credits
Advanced Structural Mechanics
Shear and torsion, nonsymmetrical bending, shear center, curved beams, introduction to composite material mechanics, application in bridge engineering. (Prerequisites: MATH 302, ES 331. Recommended: Graduate standing in engineering.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 631      3 Credits
Advanced Structural Analysis
Derivation of the basic equations governing linear structural systems. Application of stiffness and flexibility methods to trusses and frames. Solution techniques utilizing digital computers. Planar structures and space structures (trusses and frames) will be covered. Both exact and approximate solution techniques will be reviewed. (Prerequisite: CE 331 or permission of instructor. Next offered: 2008-09.) (3 + 0) Offered Alternate Spring


CE 633      3 Credits
Theory of Elastic Stability
The theory and implementation of the buckling of slender elements will be covered. Both lateral and local buckling concepts will be discussed. Emphasis will be placed on developing the ability to evaluate if a member is likely to buckle. The course will cover elastic and inelastic buckling of columns. Other topics include lateral torsional buckling of beams, potential buckling of beam-columns and rigid frame members and the buckling of non standard shapes. (Prerequisites: CE  431 CE 432, or permission of instructor. Recommended: MATH 302. Next offered: 2008-09.) (3 + 0) Offered Alternate Spring


CE 634      3 Credits
Structural Dynamics
This course covers the theory of structural dynamics. Subjects include equations of motion for un-damped single and multiple degree of freedom systems. Free vibration and response to harmonic and periodic excitations will be studied. Response to arbitrary, step and pulse type excitations are studied in preparation for a study of earth quake type loading. The basic concepts related to the interaction of a structure to an earthquake event will be discussed. (Prerequisites: ES 209, ES 210, CE 331 or permission of instructor. Recommended: MATH 302.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 635      3 Credits
Numerical Methods for Geo-Mechanics and Soil-Structure Interaction
Applications of numerical methods for problems involving seepage, consolidation, foundation on expansive soils and pile installation. Finite difference and element methods, non-linear analysis techniques, elasto-plastic formulation with a tangent stiffness approach, seepage analysis, flow-deformation, coupled analysis, models for soil-structure interaction, solution accuracy and reliability. (Prerequisites: Graduate standing of permission of instructor, MATH 302 is strongly recommended. CE 326.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 637      3 Credits
Earthquakes: Seismic Response of Structures
Fundamentals of structural earthquake engineering: strong ground motion phenomena; dynamic analysis of structural systems for seismic motion; response spectrum and time history methods, design of structural systems for lateral forces; shearwalls and diaphragms; moment-resistive frames, braced frames; current design criteria and practice; connection details, serviceability requirement; story drift, non-structural building elements; soil-structure interaction. (Prerequisite: CE 432.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 640      3 Credits
Prestressed Concrete
Theory and practice of prestressed concrete design. Pre-tensioning, post-tensioning. Anchorage of steel. Materials, design specification. Application in bridges, tanks and slabs. (Prerequisite: CE 331 and 433. Recommended: graduate standing.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 646      3 Credits
Structural Composites
The basics of structural composite theory. Basic design procedures related to structural composite members and the structural analysis of members made of various materials to create laminates or sandwich panels will be covered. (Prerequisites: ES 331, CE 331 or permission of instructor.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 650      3 Credits
Bridge Engineering
Covers structural systems, loading and analysis by influence lines. Slab and girder bridges considering composite design, prestressed and concrete bridges and how these bridges are designed and rated using AASHTO specifications. (Prerequisites: CE 432, CE 433 and CE 640 or permission by instructor. (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 661      3 Credits
Advanced Water Resources Engineering
Engineering hydraulics and hydrology including use of standard computer models to solve water resource engineering problems. Saint Venant shallow water equations. Introduction to perturbation method. (Recommended: Permission of instructor.) (3 + 0) Offered Alternate Spring


CE 662      3 Credits
Open Channel and River Engineering
Principles of open channel flow, specific energy, hydraulic jump, transitions and controls, uniform and non-uniform flows, steady and unsteady flows, numerical solution for unsteady flows. River engineering, stream channel mechanics and mechanics of sedimentation. (Recommended: Permission of instructor) (3 + 0) Offered Alternate Spring


CE 663      3 Credits
Groundwater Dynamics
Fundamentals of geohydrology, hydraulics of flow through porous media, well hydraulics, groundwater pollution and groundwater resources development. (Recommended: Permission of instructor) (3 + 0) Offered Alternate Fall


CE 676      3 Credits
Coastal Engineering
Review of deep and shallow water waves, littoral drift, coastal structures, pollution problems and harbor seiches. (Prerequisite: ES 341.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants


CE 681      3 Credits
Frozen Ground Engineering
Nature of frozen ground, thermal properties of frozen soils, classification, physical and mechanical properties of frozen soils, subsurface investigation of frozen ground, thaw settlement and thaw consolidation, slope stability and principles of foundation design in frozen ground. (Prerequisite: Training or experience in soil mechanics. Next offered: 2007-08.) (3 + 0) Offered Alternate Fall


CE 682      3 Credits
Ice Engineering
The factors governing design of marine structures, which must contend with the presence of ice. Topics include ice growth, ice structure, mechanical properties and their dependence on temperature and structure, creep and fracture, mechanics of ice sheets, forces on structures, and experimental methods. (Prerequisites: ES 331, MATH 202X, training or experience in soil mechanics. Next offered: 2008-09.) (3 + 0) Offered Alternate Spring


CE 683      3 Credits
Arctic Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering
Aspects of hydrology and hydraulics unique to engineering problems of the north. Although the emphasis will be on Alaskan conditions, information from Canada and other circumpolar countries will be included in the course. (Prerequisite: CE 344 or equivalent.) (3 + 0) Offered Alternate Fall


CE 684      3 Credits
Arctic Utility Distribution
Practices and considerations of utility distribution in Arctic regions. Emphasis on proper design to include freeze protection, materials, energy conservation and system selection. (Prerequisite: ES 341 or permission of instructor.) (3 + 0) Offered Alternate Fall


CE 685      3 Credits
Topics in Frozen Ground Engineering
Selected frozen ground foundation engineering problems will be explored in depth including refrigerated foundations and pile foundations. (Prerequisite: CE 681.) (3 + 0) Offered As Demand Warrants