What are the latest research advancements in civil engineering?

With each day, technology is getting upgraded in a rapid manner. Now, you can have humanized robots speaking to you through the websites, automated tools helping in movement of the goods in warehouses, smart door locks, and so on. With these new and modern technologies, it has become much easier for us to live in a luxurious manner. Similarly, in civil engineering also, several new advancements have been introduced which will help in the betterment of constructions, architecture designs, and so on. In this forthcoming article, we will speak about some of these technological innovations that have revolutionized the entire civil industry.

Photovoltaic glaze

Photovoltaic cells when placed together in a series electric connection can absorb the solar energy and convert the same into electrical energy. The same concept is now being used by Polysolar as it is building glass windows, walls, facades and others in the form of photovoltaic cells. When used in the buildings, these units will act as an envelope and absorb the incident solar radiation. Thus, it can generate electricity which when fed to the transformer can be harnessed for residential or commercial use.

3D modeling

One of the latest innovations that have revolutionized the civil industry is the introduction of 3D models of the properties that need to be constructed. Here, software is used to design the geospatial structures of the buildings and the other related architectures. Once done, the roads and other connectors are shown via the 2D lines. A 3D model will bring the designing and construction team on the same page, thereby helping them to collaborate and coordinate with each other in a much fluent and better manner.

Kinetic roads

Introduced by the Polytechnic University of Milan in joint cooperation with Underground Power, the kinetic road concept is a major change in the civil industry. When cars and other vehicles move over the road surfaces, their tires generate kinetic energy. Special pavers will be installed that are capable of picking up the kinetic energy and then through a system, the same is converted into electrical energy. It is then fed to the electrical grid from where different systems can be powered. Therefore, there is no need to acquire electricity from other areas like the main power plant. Since it will reduce pressure on the traditional power plants, it’s considered as an eco-friendly technology.

Asset mapping

At the time of construction of buildings, be it residential, commercial or industrial, several assets need to be installed. For example, the rooms usually need to have heating and cooling units, the entire buildings have plumbing materials, and more. If these assets are installed in a haphazard manner, tracking their performance will become difficult. In fact, it will become quite problematic to reduce the insurance costs and the risks of accidents and mishaps. This is where the use of asset mapping is applicable. It is a technique where a computerized plan of the building overview is taken and the assets to be installed are marked as dots in different colors to represent their types. After that, lines of the concerned colors are used to describe the connections and through which places they will be done.

Modular construction

Modular construction is very much different from other methods of building and other civil element construction approaches. First, a property plan or architecture plan is segregated into independent modules. For example, let’s say a residential building is constructed. Here, the possible modules will be pillars, concrete floor slabs, stair blocks, concrete hollow blocks, and so on. These structures will be constructed at offsite or remote regions and once the construction is complete, they are carried to the main area of work. With this type of approach, vehicle movement can be reduced because pre-constructed parts need to be transported only rather than all the raw materials. It is more cost-effective and also reduces the time taken for the construction project.

Conclusion

These advanced technologies are being integrated into education because civil engineering students need to gain more knowledge about them. Even though not all boards and institutions have adopted these studies, colleges like the Jodhpur Institute of Engineering and Technology have started to train their students based on these. So, now, students have more access to know about the recent upgrades in civil engineering concepts and the opportunity to apply them in real life.