Menegon Alexandru-Bogdan Inginerie Geotehnica an 1

Constructions of the Colosseum Theatre at Leptis Magna The constructions of the Flavian amphitheatre or Colosseum, and the Theatre at Leptis Magna both demonstrate the importance of Roman construction methods and materials used, to accommodate for the use of each building, as is true for the shape, layout and architectural features of both buildings. We see that these features of the buildings overlap and interrelate to achieve success in all areas of usage, showing both the magnificence in each building as well as in some cases, Roman propaganda. The materials used in each building have had a strong influence in the usage of them. The Colosseum demonstrates the use of lighter building materials in order to support the weight of the construction, as if materials were too heavy, the building would not be able to stand, particularly in the free standing tiered seating. Travertine stone, or limestone, is the main material used in the building of the Colosseum, as well as opus cementicium and brick as these are lighter than other materials and are resistant, an important feature in order to allow the Colosseum to be a success, and one which has allowed it to stand for so many years. The main body of the construction, and the columns and paved area around the Colosseum are made from travertine stone; however the top level was made from wood in order to reduce the weight. Most of the Colosseum was paved in marble, used for its aesthetic qualities. Because it is a heavier stone, it was simply veneered over the other stonework to allow less weight, and this was used on top cover most of the building including the seating. The use of marble also demonstrated propaganda to the people of Rome, as by using the handsome stone on public seating showed the crowds the goodness of the Emperor towards his people. The use of a wooden arena was particularly successful as it allowed the floor to be removed for sea battles, in which the arena was flooded with water and gladiatorial boats were used for fighting, and then could be put back for the land based activities. The theatre of Leptis Magna is constructed mostly from grey limestone, yet fairly plain stone but allowing a strong foundation for the theatre. Cipollino marble is again used in the theatre for its aesthetic qualities. The first tier of the cave is made using marble, because this is where the authority of the city, and most important theatre goers sat as well as thrones which the attendants sat on in this part of the seating also constructed from marble, to demonstrate their importance. The construction methods of the Colosseum relate to the materials used also. The use of arches in the building is the most important construction method of the Colosseum. The building is supported by the many arches through it, as these allow the

building to create wedges, which in turn allow the oval shape of the amphitheatre. The use of arches reduces the weight of the building also, as it allows the reduction of materials, which of course also relates to the materials chosen to make these, as together, the weight is reduced to allow the free standing of the building. The arches therefore also allow the tiered seating to be supported, and along with the 37 degree angle of the seating aids in allowing the building to be free standing. The barrel vault passageways of the arches are also successful in allowing the easy access for the crowds in filling and emptying the theatre, as there are so many passageways.

History of the civil engineering profession Engineering has been an aspect of life since the beginnings of human existence. Civil engineering might be considered properly commencing between 4000 and 2000 BC in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia when humans started to abandon a nomadic existence, thus causing a need for the construction of shelter. During this time, transportation became increasingly important leading to the development of the wheel and sailing. The construction of Pyramids in Egypt (circa 2700-2500 BC) might be considered the first instances of large structure constructions. Other ancient historic civil engineering constructions include the Parthenon by Iktinos in Ancient Greece (447-438 BC), the Appian Way by Roman engineers (c. 312 BC), and the Great Wall of China by General Meng T'ien under orders from Ch'in Emperor Shih Huang Ti (c. 220 BC). The Romans developed civil structures throughout their empire, including especially aqueducts, insulae, harbours, bridges, dams and roads. Until modern times there was no clear distinction between civil engineering and architecture, and the term engineer and architect were mainly geographical variations referring to the same person, often used interchangeably. In the 18th century, the term civil engineering began to be used to distinguish it from military engineering. The first self-proclaimed civil engineer was John Smeaton who constructed the Eddystone Lighthouse. In 1771 Smeaton and some of his colleagues formed the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers, a group of leaders of the profession who met informally over dinner. Though there was evidence of some technical meetings, it was little more than a social society. In 1818 the Institution of Civil Engineers was founded in London, and in 1820 the eminent engineer Thomas Telford became its first president. The institution received a Royal Charter in 1828, formally recognising civil engineering as a profession. Its charter defined civil engineering as the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man, as the means of production and

of traffic in states, both for external and internal trade, as applied in the construction of roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals, river navigation and docks for internal intercourse and exchange, and in the construction of ports, harbours, moles, breakwaters and lighthouses, and in the art of navigation by artificial power for the purposes of commerce, and in the construction and application of machinery, and in the drainage of cities and towns. The first private college to teach Civil Engineering in the United States was Norwich University founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge. The first degree in Civil Engineering in the United States was awarded by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1835. The first such degree to be awarded to a woman was granted by Cornell University to Nora Stanton Blatch in 1905. History of the science of civil engineering Civil engineering is the application of physical and scientific principles, and its history is intricately linked to advances in understanding of physics and mathematics throughout history. Because civil engineering is a wide ranging profession, including several separate specialized sub-disciplines, its history is linked to knowledge of structures, materials science, geography, geology, soils, hydrology, environment, mechanics and other fields. Throughout ancient and medieval history most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans, such as stone masons and carpenters, rising to the role of master builder. Knowledge was retained in guilds and seldom supplanted by advances. Structures, roads and infrastructure that existed were repetitive, and increases in scale were incremental. One of the earliest examples of a scientific approach to physical and mathematical problems applicable to civil engineering is the work of Archimedes in the 3rd century BC, including Archimedes Principle, which underpins our understanding of buoyancy, and practical solutions. Brahmagupta, an Indian mathematician, used arithmetic in the 7th century AD, based on Hindu-Arabic numerals, for excavation (volume) computations. Romanian architecture Pre-Modern styles During the middle ages in Romania there were two types of construction that developed in parallel and different in point of both materials and technique. The first is

the popular architecture, whose most spectacular achievements were the wooden churches, especially those in the villages of Maramure, Banat and Apuseni Mountains, where the tradition is still carried out today. In Maramure, in Surdeti village, the 54 m high church tower built during 17211724 is among the highest of this kind in Europe. The second comprises mainly of monasteries, as well as princely seats or boyar mansions. Unfortunatelly, most of the old lay edifices were destroyed by time, wars, earthquakes and fires. In mediaeval architecture, influences of Western trends can be traced, to a greater or lesser extent, in all the three lands inhabited by Romanians. Such influences are stronger in Transylvania, and weaker in Moldavia, in forms absorbed by local and Byzantine tradition. In Wallachia, Western elements in architecture were even fewer; there, from the 14th century architecture was based on the local adaptation of the Byzantine model (the Princely Church in Curtea de Arges and the Cozia Monastery). There are monuments significant for the Transylvanian Gothic style preserved to this day, in spite of all alterations, such as the Black Church in Braov (14th15th c.) and a number of other cathedrals, as well as the Bran Castle in Braov County (14th c.), the Hunyades Castle in Hunedoara (15th c.). Transylvania also developed fortified towns extensively during the Middle Ages; their urban growth respected principles of functionality (the usual pattern is a central market place with a church, narrow streets with sides linked here and there by archways): the cities of Sighioara, Sibiu and Braov are remarkable examples in that sense. Building greatly developed in Moldavia, too. A great number of fortresses were built or rebuilt during the reign of Moldavia's greatest prince, Stephen the Great (1457 1504). Suceava, Neam, Hotin, Soroca and others were raised and successfully withstood the sieges laid in the course of time by Sultan Mehmet II, the conqueror of Constantinople, by the kings of Poland and Hungary. It was during his time that the Moldavian style, of great originality and stylistic unity, developed, by blending Gothic elements with the Byzantine structure specific to the churches. Among such constructions, the monumental church of the Neam Monastery served, for more than a century, as a model for Moldavian churches and monasteries. The style was continued in the 16th c., during the rule of Stephen the Great's son, Petru Rare (15271538, 15411546). The main innovation was the porch and the out wall paintings (the churches of Vorone, Sucevia, Moldovia monasteries). These churches of Northern Moldavia have become famous worldwide, due to the beauty of their painted elegant shapes that can be seen from afar. The 17th century, the zenith of the pre-modern Romanian civilisation, brought about a more significant development of outstanding lay constructions (elegant boyard mansions or sumptuous princely palaces in Moldavia and Wallachia, Renaissance-style lordly castles in Transylvania), as well as the expansion of great monasteries. The latter were endowed with schools, art workshops, printing presses, and they were significant

cultural centres. To this period belongs the church of the Trei Ierarhi Monastery in Iai, raised in 16351639, a unique monument due to its lavish decoration with carved geometric motifs, coloured in lapis lazuli and golden foil, all over the facades. The architectural style developed in Wallachia, especially under the reigns of Matei Basarab (16321654) and Constantin Brncoveanu (16881714), is of a remarkable stylistic unity. The Brancovan style is characterized by integration of Baroque and Oriental features into the local tradition. Some examples are the Hurezi Monastery in Oltenia or the princely palace of Mogooaia, both of which are lavishly decorated, with beautiful stone carvings, stucco work and paintings. The 18th century (the Phanariot rule) brought to Wallachia and Moldavia elements of Oriental influence in urban civil architecture, where the number of religious constructions decreased relatively. In Transylvania, the Baroque dominated both religious (the Roman Catholic churches in Timisoara and Oradea) and lay architecture (Banffy Palace in Cluj and Brukenthal Palace in Sibiu).

Modern Styles In the first half of the 19th century, urban life grew considerably and there was a Western-type modernisation policy, due to which the architecture of the Romanian lands became a combination of Romantic and Neo-Classical elements. In the second half of the century a national tendency developed, to use to a great extent elements and forms of the traditional local architecture. Ion Mincu (18521912) was founder of both trends and of the Romanian school of architecture. His works, the Lahovary House or the Central Girls School in Bucharest, are among the most prominent achievements of this movement. It is due to an opposite trend that they designed houses and administrative buildings in the spirit of French eclecticism (the Justice Palace, the Central Post Office) or by adapting classicism (the buildings that now hosts the House of the Men of Science, or the Cantacuzino Palace in Bucharest).

Steel Steel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten. Carbon and other elements act as a hardening agent, preventing dislocations in the iron atom crystal lattice from sliding past one

another. Varying the amount of alloying elements and form of their presence in the steel (solute elements, precipitated phase) controls qualities such as the hardness, ductility, and tensile strength of the resulting steel. Steel with increased carbon content can be made harder and stronger than iron, but is also less ductile. Alloys with a higher carbon content are known as cast iron because of their lower melting point and castability Steel is also distinguished from wrought iron, which can contain a small amount of carbon, but it is included in the form of slag inclusions. Two distinguishing factors are steel's increased rust-resistance and better weldability. Though steel had been produced by various inefficient methods long before the Renaissance, its use became more common after more efficient production methods were devised in the 17th century. With the invention of the Bessemer process in the mid-19th century, steel became a relatively inexpensive mass-produced material. Further refinements in the process, such as basic oxygen steelmaking, further lowered the cost of production while increasing the quality of the metal. Today, steel is one of the most common materials in the world and is a major component in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, automobiles, machines, and appliances. Modern steel is generally identified by various grades of steel defined by various standards organizations.

Material properties Iron, like most metals, is found in the Earth's crust only in the form of an ore, combined with other elements such as oxygen or sulfur. Typical iron-containing minerals include Fe2O3the form of iron oxide found as the mineral hematite, and FeS2pyrite (fool's gold). Iron is extracted from ore by removing oxygen and combining the ore with a preferred chemical partner such as carbon. This process, known as smelting, was first applied to metals with lower melting points, such as tin, which melts at approximately 250 C (482 F) and copper, which melts at approximately 1,000 C (1,830 F). In comparison, cast iron melts at approximately 1,370 C (2,500 F). All of these temperatures could be reached with ancient methods that have been used since the Bronze Age. Since the oxidation rate itself increases rapidly beyond 800 C, it is important that smelting take place in a low-oxygen environment. Unlike copper and tin, liquid iron dissolves carbon quite readily. Smelting results in an alloy (pig iron) containing too much carbon to be called steel. The excess carbon and other impurities are removed in a subsequent step. Other materials are often added to the iron/carbon mixture to produce steel with desired properties. Nickel and manganese in steel add to its tensile strength and make austenite more chemically stable, chromium increases hardness and melting

temperature, and vanadium also increases hardness while reducing the effects of metal fatigue. To prevent corrosion, at least 11% chromium is added to steel so that a hard oxide forms on the metal surface; this is known as stainless steel. Tungsten interferes with the formation of cementite, allowing martensite to form with slower quench rates, resulting in high speed steel. On the other hand, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorus make steel more brittle, so these commonly found elements must be removed from the ore during processing. The density of steel varies based on the alloying constituents, but usually ranges between 7.75 and 8.05 g/cm3 (0.2800.291 lb/in3). Even in the narrow range of concentrations which make up steel, mixtures of carbon and iron can form a number of different structures, with very different properties. Understanding such properties is essential to making quality steel. At room temperature, the most stable form of iron is the body-centered cubic (BCC) structure ferrite. It is a fairly soft metallic material that can dissolve only a small concentration of carbon, no more than 0.021 wt% at 723 C (1,333 F), and only 0.005% at 0 C (32 F). If the steel contains more than 0.021% carbon then it transforms into a face-centered cubic (FCC) structure, called austenite or -iron. It is also soft and metallic but can dissolve considerably more carbon, as much as 2.1% carbon at 1,148 C (2,098 F)), which reflects the upper carbon content of steel. When steels with less than 0.8% carbon, known as a hypoeutectoid steel, are cooled from an austenitic phase the mixture attempts to revert to the ferrite phase, resulting in an excess of carbon. One way for carbon to leave the austenite is for cementite to precipitate out of the mix, leaving behind iron that is pure enough to take the form of ferrite, resulting in a cementite-ferrite mixture. Cementite is a hard and brittle intermetallic compound with the chemical formula of Fe3C. At the eutectoid, 0.8% carbon, the cooled structure takes the form of pearlite, named after its resemblance to mother of pearl. For steels that have more than 0.8% carbon the cooled structure takes the form of pearlite and cementite. Perhaps the most important polymorphic form is martensite, a metastable phase which is significantly stronger than other steel phases. When the steel is in an austenitic phase and then quenched it forms into martensite, because the atoms "freeze" in place when the cell structure changes from FCC to BCC. Depending on the carbon content the martensitic phase takes different forms. Below approximately 0.2% carbon it takes an ferrite BCC crystal form, but higher carbon contents take a body-centered tetragonal (BCT) structure. There is no thermal activation energy for the transformation from austenite to martensite. Moreover, there is no compositional change so the atoms generally retain their same neighbors. Martensite has a lower density than austenite does, so that transformation between them results in a change of volume. In this case, expansion occurs. Internal stresses from this expansion generally take the form of compression on the crystals of

martensite and tension on the remaining ferrite, with a fair amount of shear on both constituents. If quenching is done improperly, the internal stresses can cause a part to shatter as it cools. At the very least, they cause internal work hardening and other microscopic imperfections. It is common for quench cracks to form when water quenched, although they may not always be visible.