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AREAS AND VOLUME

Mohd Effendi Daud (Dr. Sc)
B.Surv (UTM, Malaysia) Msc (UTM, Malaysia), Dr. Sc (Nagoya Univ., Japan)
(Geomatic Division)
Faculty of Civil & Environmental Engineering,
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Batu Pahat, Johor,
MALAYSIA.
Phone : +6074537363; +60197853740; Fax : +6074537060
E-mail : effendi@uthm.edu.my
Web: http://www.fkass.uthm.edu.my/

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 INTRODUCTION
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• Area is often required in the context of

design, e.g., we might need the surface
area of a lake, the area of a tract of land or
of a cross-sectional area of road cutting.
• Volumes are often calculated by
integrating the area at regular intervals e.g.
, along a road centerline, or by using
regularly spaced contours.

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 INTRODUCTION
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• We need to know the volume of materials

in virtually all facets of civil engineering
especially in design and construction e.g.,
earthwork computations, amount of cut or
fill, amount of concrete, and etc.
• There are two cases for calculating the
areas:
– Areas of Straight Boundary
– Area of Irregular Boundary

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 AREAS OF STRAIGHT
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BOUNDARY
• The determination of areas depend upon
the topography of the terrain and the
accuracy required.
• The area of land portion, may be
determined by the following methods:
– from the field notes, and
– from the plotted plan or map

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 AREAS OF STRAIGHT
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BOUNDARY

Computation of Areas from Field Notes

• Whenever the area of a plot of land is to be
determined directly from the field notes, it
should be ensured that the survey lines include
the whole area and the land is divided into
geometrical figures such as:-
– Triangles,
– Squares,
– Rectangles and etc.

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 AREAS OF STRAIGHT
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BOUNDARY
Computation of Areas from Field Notes

Case 1:

Area of triangle ABC is given as s  s  a  s  b  s  c 

1
where, s  a  b  c
2

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 AREAS OF STRAIGHT
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BOUNDARY
Computation of Areas from Field Notes

Case 2:

1
 bh
2
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 AREAS OF STRAIGHT
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BOUNDARY
Computation of Areas from Field Notes

Case 3:

The area of a rectangle  a b

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 AREAS OF STRAIGHT
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BOUNDARY
Computation of Areas from Field Notes

Case 4:

1
The area of a trapezium  a  b  d
2

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 AREAS OF STRAIGHT
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BOUNDARY

Computation of Areas from Plans

1. Graphical method

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 AREAS OF STRAIGHT
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BOUNDARY

Computation of Areas from Plans

2. Instrumental method

The Planimeter

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 AREA BY COORDINATES
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• The area of shape ABCDEA can be

calculated in the following manner????

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 AREA OF IRREGULAR
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BOUNDARY
1. The Trapezoidal Rule

A1
A2 A3 A4 A5

where,
O1, O2, … : Offset
L : Interval between offset (constant)
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 AREA OF IRREGULAR
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BOUNDARY

1. The Trapezoidal Rule

Trapezoidal formula

A1　= ½ (O1 + O2) L

A2　= ½ (O2 + O3) L
A3　= ½ (O3 + O4) L and,
A5　= ½ (O5 + O6) L
∑　= L/2 [(O1 + O6 + 2(O2 +O3 + O4 + O5)]

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 AREA OF IRREGULAR
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BOUNDARY

2. The Simpson’s Rule

In Simpson’s Rule, it is assumed that the irregular
boundary is comprised of parabolic arcs.
Parabola arc

　　
A = P/3 [(O1 + O7 + 4(O2 + O4 + O6) + 2(O3 + O5)]

A = P/3 [1st + last ordinates) + 4(even ordinates)

+ 2(odd ordinates)]
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 AREA OF IRREGULAR
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BOUNDARY

2. The Simpson’s Rule

Parabola arc

It is important to note that Simpson’s Rule requires an

even number of divisions of the area, i.e. the total
number of ordinates must be odd.

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VOLUMES
Mohd Effendi Daud (Dr. Sc)
B.Surv (UTM, Malaysia) Msc (UTM, Malaysia), Dr. Sc (Nagoya Univ., Japan)
(Geomatic Division)
Faculty of Civil & Environmental Engineering,
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Batu Pahat, Johor,
MALAYSIA.
Phone : +6074537363; +60197853740; Fax : +6074537060
E-mail : effendi@uthm.edu.my
Web: http://www.fkass.uthm.edu.my/

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 INTRODUCTION
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• In civil engineering calculation of volumes of

earthwork is required.
• There are several methods available for the
determination of the volume of three
dimensional figures and earthworks.
• Generally the methods are based on using field
survey techniques to acquire data that
represents the shape of the land so that volume
calculations can proceed.
• The methods are as follow:

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 VOLUMES
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Cross-Sections
• A cross-section of the natural surface indicates
the existing ground profile normal to a fixed
direction at a selection point.
• The fixed direction is usually of significance
such as the center line of a road.
• Example of cross sections are described as
follow:

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 VOLUMES
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Cross-Sections
• For a cut or fill on horizontal ground

Area = h(2b + nh)

where h is the average cutting depth, n is the side slope
and b is the formation width
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Cross-Sections
• For a cut and fill on sloping ground

Assuming a cut such as the Fig.

the cross-sectional area is found
firstly by calculating WL & WG.

WL = S(b + nh)/(S + n)
WG = S(b + nh)/(S-n)

Thus Area = ½ (h + b/n)(WL + WG) - b2/n

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 VOLUMES
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Volumes from Contours

contour 190
contour 188
contour 186
contour 18 ４
contour 182

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 VOLUMES
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Volumes from Contours - solutions

Prizmoidal formula

I = d/3 [ ( A1 + An) +4(A2 + A4 + .. + An - 1) + 2(A3 + A5 ) ]

= d/3 [ ( A1 + A5) +4( A 2 + A 4 ) + 2( A 3) ]

= 2 / 3 [ ( 3 15 0 + 2 10) +4(8 4 0 + 2 4 6 0 ) + 2( 16 30) ]

= 2 / 3 [ ( 3 3 6 0) +4( 3 3 0 0 ) + 2( 16 3 0) ]

= 1 3 , 2 1 3. 3 m

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 VOLUMES
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Volumes from Spot Heights

• This method is particularly useful for large, open

excavations such as tank, borrow pits etc.
• The area is divided into a grid, and levels
obtained at the intersection points.
• The spacing of the grid depends on the terrain,
accuracy required, and resources available.

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Volumes from Spot Heights

• There are two methods
– Rectangular base, and
– Triangular base

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Rectangular base - solution

Dug Dug Occurance No. (N) x (X)
Points Reduced Level (Reduced Level) Level (X) (N)

A 13.15 10.00 3.15 1 3.15

B 13.70 10.00 3.70 2 7.40

C 14.33 10.00 4.33 1 4.33

D 13.94 10.00 3.94 2 7.88

E 14.80 10.00 4.80 4 19.20

F 14.97 10.00 4.97 2 9.94

G 15.17 10.00 5.17 1 5.17

H 16.10 10.00 6.10 2 12.20

J 14.67 10.00 4.67 1 4.67

16 73.94

Average (Dug) = 73.94/16 = 4.62

Volume = Area x Average
= (30 x 25) x 4.62 = 3465.9 m2
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Triangular base - solution

Dug Dug Occurance No. (N) x (X)
Points Reduced Level (Reduced Level) Level (X) (N)

A 13.15 10.00 3.15 1 3.15

B 13.70 10.00 3.70 3 11.10

C 14.33 10.00 4.33 2 8.66

D 13.94 10.00 3.94 3 11.82

E 14.80 10.00 4.80 6 28.80

F 14.97 10.00 4.97 3 14.91

G 15.17 10.00 5.17 2 10.34

H 16.10 10.00 6.10 3 18.30

J 14.67 10.00 4.67 1 4.67

24 111.75

Average (Dug) = 111.75/24 = 4.66

Volume = Area x Average
= (30 x 25) x 4.66 = 3492.2 m2
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Pheewww! End of Part VI

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