Civ-A5 — Hydraulic Engineering
Dimensional analysis and hydraulic models. Application of continuity, momentum and energy principles. Steady, closed conduit flow in single pipes and pipe networks. Steady, open-channel flow under uniform and gradually varied conditions, control sections, hydraulic jumps, and energy dissipaters. Hydraulic transients; surges and water hammer in closed conduits, surface waves in open channels. Concepts and principles of turbo machinery, especially centrifugal pumps; similarity relations and cavitation; operation of pump-and-pipe systems. Introductory concepts of hydraulic structures, including environmental aspects of hydraulic works and water quality management.
Subject outline
Civ-A5 Hydraulic Engineering is a Civil Engineering technical exam (PEO National Examination 16-Civ-A5) on water in pipes and open channels. The May 2019 and December 2019 papers examine pipe friction by the Hazen–Williams equation, energy and hydraulic grade lines, wall shear stress from a force balance, a valve controlling a transmission main, a ten-pipe network between two reservoirs, unsteady pipe flow by the rigid water column model, the momentum balance on a pipe elbow, normal depth, critical depth and specific energy in open channels, the classification of a gradually varied water surface profile, and the St-Venant equations after a landslide dams a river. The study notes also cover the parts of the syllabus these two papers do not reach directly: Darcy–Weisbach and the Moody diagram, pumps and system curves, water hammer, the hydraulic jump, weirs, culverts and design floods.
The paper is 3 hours and closed book — candidates may take in one 8.5 × 11 inch aid sheet (both sides may be used) and an approved Sharp or Casio calculator. Each paper has six questions: candidates complete any five — only the first five as they appear in the answer book are marked — and all questions are of equal value, 20 marks each, with the parts of a multi-part question of equal value. The front page prints the Hazen–Williams equation as a useful equation, sets the defaults (local losses and velocity head negligible, nominal pipe diameters, water at 1,000 kg/m³) and asks for a clear statement of any assumption where a question is open to interpretation.
What this course gives you
Worked solutions — all twelve questions from May 2019 and December 2019, every lettered part, fully retypeset as live text and maths, with the final answers pulled out ahead of the working and 26 authored diagrams and charts set into the solutions — grade lines, system and valve curves, specific-energy diagrams, water surface profiles. Published solutions exist for both sittings, and every one of the twelve needed a correction: 23 steps are flagged at the step that goes wrong — 13 in May 2019 and 10 in December 2019 — each explained at that point with the corrected working beside it. Most of them change the final answer, not merely the route to it: the steady flow of Question 1 is published as 0.0675 m³/s from an equation that is not a pipe-flow law, where the Hazen–Williams equation printed on the paper gives 0.718 m³/s; the critical depth of Question 5 is published as 0.323 m with q where the formula has q², and is 0.225 m; the May 2019 elbow pressure of 272.17 kPa comes from a sign slip and is 294.6 kPa; the December 2019 wall shear stress is 281 Pa, not 28.6 Pa; the December 2019 network carries 0.245 m³/s, not 0.3864 m³/s; and the St-Venant equations are written with the wrong sign and no friction term. Two questions also carry a problem in the paper's own data, and the solutions say so rather than hide it: the valve data of Question 3 give τ = 1.07, more than fully open for a valve the question calls partially closed, and the May 2019 elbow is over-determined. December 2019 repeats four May 2019 questions word for word, and each repeat is worked in full in both papers. Nothing is silently overwritten: the published figure is kept beside the correction. Study notes — ten condensed topics — pipe flow and the grade lines, wall shear stress, valves and system control, pipe networks and Hardy Cross, pumps and system curves, the rigid water column and water hammer, the momentum principle, uniform flow, specific energy and critical depth, gradually varied flow and the hydraulic jump, and the St-Venant equations with flood hydrology — most naming the questions they serve, with 25 authored diagrams and charts and 5 tables between them. Practice & case studies — ten multiple-choice questions and five longer problems — two of them engineering case studies, a roadside drainage design and a sluice gate with its hydraulic jump — with worked answers for every one. All fifteen are written for this course; none is taken from the two papers. Formula sheet — two pages, 31 relations in seven groups: exactly one aid sheet written on both sides, the single sheet this closed-book exam lets you take in. The front page prints only the Hazen–Williams equation. Printable resources — ten reference sheets — pipe friction and losses, a Moody diagram with pipe roughness, Hazen–Williams C and Manning n tables, networks, valves and Hardy Cross, pumps and system curves, unsteady flow in pipes and rivers, specific energy and critical flow, gradually varied flow profiles, jumps, weirs, culverts and runoff, and an exam-day strategy — plus four blank exam stationery templates. Reference links — eleven selected reference websites and ten YouTube links — seven chosen videos and three topic searches — each with a note on what it is good for. Practice papers — the two question papers on their own, unmarked, for a timed run.