Case Study in Civil Engineering:

– Prepare a case study or studies related to civil engineering

-Written report shall be an extended abstract with a maximum of 4 pages (including tables and

figures) with a minimum of 5 references.

-The objective of this project is to provide students with useful information pertaining to past,

present, or future issues in civil engineering.

-The report should be in general terms and provide a broad overview.

EXAMPLE CASE STUDY IN FORENSIC ENGINEERING

Given your assigned engineering failure or disaster, describe it in some detail

and discuss what ethical issues might have been at least partly responsible for

the failure. Prepare a failure analysis report that includes:

• What failed and why it failed.

• Who was at fault and why.

• Possible corrective actions (i.e., how to make it not fail).

If appropriate, describe how a lack of "professionalism" or "ethics" may have

helped lead to the failure.

An abbreviated abstract and a list of references (relevant publications can be

found in ASCE Journals, Engineering Index, Science Citation Index, Google, etc.)

Potential projects include:

• Wind induced bridge failures (Tacoma Narrows Bridge)

• Failures during construction (Injaka Bridge-South Africa; FIU Sweetwater

University City Pedestrian Bridge-Florida)

• Fatigue and fracture failures (Silver Bridge-WV, Mianus River Bridge-CT)

• Support settlement (differential bridge settlement at bridge approaches)

• Bridge failures due to scour (Schoharie Creek Bridge-NY)

• Bridge failures due to connection issues (Mississippi River Bridge-MN)

• Bridge failures due to other issues (Genoa Bridge-Italy)

Other failures can be found at the following site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_structural_failures_and_collapses

*ASCE Author Guide: https://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/9780784479018.ch05