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Future Civil Engineering Challenges - Skill Requirements, New Professional

Profiles and Implementation

Chapter · June 2017

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FUTURE CIVIL ENGINEERING CHALLENGES - SKILL REQUIREMENTS, NEW PROFESSIONAL
PROFILES AND IMPLEMENTATION

Wolfram Schmidt
Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), Berlin, Germany
Wolfram.schmidt@bam.de

Brief author biography

Wolfram Schmidt received a diploma in structural engineering at the RWTH Aachen, and he holds a
PhD in civil engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology. He works at BAM in the
department “Safety of Structures”. His research focus is on admixtures, rheology, and high
performance concrete. He is member of RILEM and fib technical committees and member of the RILEM
Educational Activities Committee.

The role of civil engineers for the global environment

Urbanisation, habitat, environment, infrastructure and sustainability are major global challenges of
the 21st century. By planning, exploiting of resources, building, and maintaining, civil engineers and
relevant adjacent disciplines have been carrying a large responsibility for the existing environmental
problems (Fig. 1). Civil engineers are responsible for 70% of all material uses in the world, and civil
construction has been dominating the growth of the developing world for the next decades, with
enormous impact on the global climate as well as the distribution of wealth and quality of living in the
world.

Figure 1: The role of civil engineers for the global challenges of the 21st century.

Today a variety of sustainable construction concepts have been developed and discussed. Recently a
UNEP report was published [1], which provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges and
potentials in the future from a scientific and industrial point of view. Sustainable solutions based on
abundantly available resources (pozzolana and clay) or on renewable instead of limited industrial by

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products (e.g. agricultural waste ashes) and new construction technologies do exist. By applying,
promoting and developing the implementation of the existing knowledge into real life constructions,
civil engineers also hold the key for the mitigation of the global challenges. Using best practice
sustainable construction solutions is particularly of highest importance in the developing world, since
the implementation at an early stage creates the highest leverage for positive effects [2].

New skill requirements for civil engineers

The potentials for more sustainable building can be found mainly in new materials technologies.
However, a major part of the civil engineering education is related to the design of structures, where
the calculation of stresses is a dominating component, whereas materials properties are typically
taken from tables, which provide very simplified and conservative values. From a historic point of view,
this is pertinent, since in the beginning of civil engineering, the reliable calculation of stresses was
essential for the safety of the structure, while the choice and performance variations of materials were
limited. Therefore, profound knowledge about mathematics and physics were among the major skill
requirements, while materials knowledge was not too important. Today, the variety of materials has
tremendously increased with enormous influence on structural behaviour, construction site
management, and cost of construction. Solely concrete provides a vast performance range with
regards to strength, ductility, and workability. Depending upon the application concrete can be
designed for no flow or for self-compaction, the strength can range between a few MPa and 200 MPa
and with support of nano technologies, the Young’s modulus can be as high as 60 GPa [3]. At the same
time, computer technologies have become an important tool for all civil engineering disciplines.
Although, new computational technologies have led to further evolutions such as finite or discrete
element methods or computational fluid dynamics, which fundamentally increased the mathematical
complexity, computers have also taken away an enormous burden regarding the reliability of the
calculations. Thus, the skill requirements for civil engineers have been changed dramatically from
mathematical skills towards more materials and natural science knowledge. At the same time, it
appears that most academic education is still focused on the classical mechanics, while materials
technologies are often underestimated in the existing curricula. However, to cope with the challenges
of the future, new skills will become of highest relevance for civil engineers, and the classical
professional profiles may have to be replaced by more timely profiles. Some relevant skills are
discussed below.

Generalisation: Today, alumni are often highly specialised but lack the capacity to look at entire
systems. For example, concrete consists of an enormous variety of multi-scale and multi-phase
constituents, which all mutually interact with time [4]. Understanding of effects of each constituent
requires specialist knowledge, but good concrete can only be created by a holistic design. Civil engineers
therefore require higher capacity to filter the specialist knowledge adequately regarding the relevance
for the entire systems.

Simplification and evaluation of applicability thresholds: The simplification of complex problems has
always been the major tasks of civil engineers. However, the parameters today have increased in
number and the assessment of the range of validity of simplifications has become a complex matter.
The rheology of concrete is a good example. Unlike in the past, where water and cement were
dominating, the flow performance of concrete today depends on a tremendous number of parameters,
including among many others interactions between mineral hydration phases and polymers that

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interact with crystal surfaces. Despite the complexity, for most standard applications
phenomenological approaches for the performance prediction are fully adequate, but for more complex
technologies, particularly additive manufacturing, it will be required to use more complex models.
Therefore, civil engineers require the capacity to simplify systems as much as possible, while at the
same time the limits of applicability should to be well understood.

Cultural skills and application of foreign standards: Today, globalisation has become an inevitable fact
in our world. A concrete construction in Tanzania may be built by a Chinese contractor with an Indian
consultant using machines from Italy and concrete with admixtures from Germany and cement from
Rwanda with gypsum from Ethiopia and grinding agent from a French company. Despite all parties
doing their best, without intercultural skills, it will be hardly possible to develop the best practice
solutions, since intercultural communication is typically full of pitfalls. Furthermore, for different
processes, different standards may be applied, which cannot always easily be synchronised. The task
of engineers is to deliver the best solutions, which can only succeed if standards are understood by
their principles rather than their descriptive values. For ideal solutions, performance based solutions
should the taught rather than descriptive concepts.

New engineering profiles

In the future, civil engineers need to be trained to operate closer to natural sciences and in a more
global environment. Building these capacities, is a challenge for lecturers but for students exciting new
professional possibilities will form, some of which are discussed.

Forensic engineering: The occurrence of construction failures or deterioration before the predicted
service life or maintenance interval is unwanted but not entirely preventable, and it comes unexpected.
The damages typically affect the quality of living of a high number of people, and the treatment of the
consequences is a lengthy judicial affair. According to Walraven [5], who defined the profile, a forensic
engineer identifies deficiencies of structures and their causes. Like a detective, a forensic engineer
should access the damaged structure rapidly after failure or deterioration occur to seek for indicators
that clarify the damage process and history as well as mitigation strategies. Forensic engineers need
outstanding skills in materials and structural damage processes from micro to macro scale as well as
in analytical sciences and non-destructive testing.

Minerals engineering: Cement and concrete contribute to an enormous percentage to the global carbon
emissions due to the sheer global demand, although they are generally more environmentally friendly
than most other materials [1, 6, 7]. From a global perspective, the replacement of ordinary Portland
cement with SCMs seems to be the most viable approach today. Due to the limited availability of
industrial by products, it is required to make increasingly use of natural pozzolana, calcined clays and
pozzolanic agricultural ashes. However, for all these SCMs sound adaption to the cementitious system
is required. Mineral engineers can optimise and permanently adjust ternary or higher binder systems
also being able to quickly involve new and alternative materials into the system without significant
performance changes, e.g. when raw material sources vary. Mineral engineers require good education
in chemistry, mineralogy, and process technology.

Material based structural engineering: Structural design basically comprises of converting the relevant
load cases to stresses, and to compare these with the materials resistance, considering additional

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safety factors linked to failure probabilities. However, the calculation of stresses follows fundamental
physical laws, hence, no optimisation potential can be found (Fig. 2). However, innovation potential
can be found on the resistance side, that is materials properties. In addition, sound and robust
materials properties also allow for reduced safety factors. Today, the only widely applied materials
parameter is the compressive strength value at 28 days, which is a dramatic simplification. As result,
typically the real resistance of structures against load cases is much higher than required. From an
economic and environmental point of view, however, overcapacity should be avoided as much as
possible. Engineers that are familiar with materials and structural design could develop structures,
where cross sections and strength values are optimally adjusted so that the full load bearing capacity
and ductility of the material can be utilised.

Figure 2: Structural design steps and innovation potentials in stress calculations, probabilistic
factors, and materials design.

Sustainable aesthetic engineering: Many relevant structures are designed for service life times of
several decades. Nevertheless, the architectural design often follows the spirit of times, which is not
always sustainable, since the societal aesthetic perception is volatile. As result, many structures are
replaced far before their service lifetime. According to Kruger cost optimised but non-aesthetic
structural design leads to destruction of value [8]. Aesthetic engineering could close the link between
classical architectural disciplines and engineering tasks, comparable to the profile of master builders
several centuries ago.

Locally focused global engineering: Every region in the world provides different resources. Abundant
raw materials in one region can be scarce in another region. However, alternative materials may exist
that can avoid unnecessary transportation distances. For example, GGBS and fly ash that are typically
used as SCM in Europe do not occur in most African countries. Therefore, GGBS is partly imported from
Asian regions. From a global point of view this is not at all sustainable. GGBS should be used to make
best available cement in the region where it occurs, while regions that lack GGBS can use alternatives
such as clay resources or agricultural waste materials. Hence, for engineers it will be increasingly
important to act locally to contribute to the mitigation of global challenges.

Nano engineering and meta materials engineering: The increasing interest in the micro and nano scale
has brought a tremendous innovation potential to concrete technology. In addition, many materials
that were too expensive for construction materials in the past have become viable today. Technically,

12
it is thinkable to develop functional concrete types that outperform existing concrete concepts by far
by nano to macro hierarchical design [3]. These so called metaconcretes provide outstanding properties
and can incorporate nano sized silica or aluminates, or carbon nano-tubes, as well as hybrid core shell
composites to modify microstructure, ductility, or various physical properties, respectively. However,
the hierarchical material design requires deep understanding of physico-chemical processes that are
closely linked to building physical and structural properties.

Implementation
Civil engineering curricula need modifications in the future. Curricula should focus more into building
up capacity to adapt to a global and ever changing environment. Thus, curricula should focus on
understanding of fundamental principles rather than on man-made rules and thresholds. The major
potentials for more sustainable construction in the future are found in materials. Therefore,
awareness needs to be raised that construction materials exhibit a vast variety of properties to be used
beneficially, and that general-purpose solutions are dead end from a global sustainability point of view.
If this is communicated within all civil engineering disciplines, from management to structural design,
civil engineers can become major drivers for environmentally friendly technologies. Particularly in
developing regions, societies can take advantage from curricula that prepare the next generation of
civil engineers ideally, since sustainable technologies can be implemented at a stage where major
developments are still lying ahead so that the benefits can pay back vastly.

Summary and conclusions

This papers provides a discussion of some of the major relevant skills for civil engineers in the future
and suggests future engineering profiles that can contribute to more efficient and sustainable use of
materials. Inevitably civil engineers will require better materials understanding to be capable to
contribute to mitigation of the global environmental and social challenges of the 21st century. Current
civil engineering curricula do not well prepare the next generations for these challenges.
Interdisciplinary skills and holistic problem understanding become more relevant. Therefore, it will be
important to re-consider the role of engineers as technology pioneers, rather than as appliers of
standards, that limit the framework of actions as well as the innovation potentials.

References
[1] K. Scrivener, V. M. John, and E. M. Gartner, "Eco-effcient cements: Potential, economically viable
solutions for a low-CO2, cement-based materials industry," UNEP 2016.
[2] W. Schmidt, "Why Africa can spearhead innovative and sustainable cement and concrete
technologies globally," in KEYS Knowledge Exchange for Young Scientists: Valorisation of
Industrial By-products for Sustainable Cement and Concrete Construction – Improvement of Solid
Waste Management, Accra, Ghana: BAM, 2016, pp. 7-19.
[3] S. P. Shah, "Nanotechnology, and meta concrete," presented at the Nano-Engineered Meta-
materials for Civil Infrastructures, Jinan, China, 2017.
[4] W. Schmidt, L. Weba, et al., "Influences of Nano Effects on the Flow Phenomena of Self-
Compacting Concrete," in SCC 2016 - 8th International RILEM Symposium on Self-Compacting
Concrete, Washington DC, USA, 2016, pp. 245-254.

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 [5] J. Walraven, "Forensic Engineering: Need for a New Professional Profile," in Performance-Based
Approaches for Concrete Structures, Cape Town, South Africa, 2016, pp. 73-82.
[6] K. Carstensen and O. Rapf, "A blueprint for a climate friendly cement industry," WWF, Nürnberg,
Germany2008.
[7] L. Barcelo, J. Kline, G. Walenta, and E. Gartner, "Cement and carbon emissions," Materials and
Structures, vol. 47, pp. 1055-1065, 2014.
[8] E. Kruger, "Concrete Bridge Design for Aesthetical Performance," in Performance-Based
Approaches for Concrete Structures, Cape Town, South Africa, 2016, pp. 63-72.

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