UPSC exam which is an annual exam held in India enables the aspirants to become officers in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and a host of other services if they get a good mark. It is considered as a tough exam but an aspirant with a good understanding about their subjects can pass it without much effort.
Civil Engineering Optional Books For IAS is a subject among the 48 optional subjects in the exam. This subject is not highly concentrated with candidates but it has a good scoring potential. But this subject is only recommended for civil engineering students who already have the understanding and knowledge about the subject matter with four years of experience. Normal aspirants find it hard to pass this if they don’t have a civil engineering background. However every aspirant must follow a good preparation strategy and studying session to earn a high score.
Books for Civil Engineering Books and Syllabus UPSC Exam
There are a lot of civil engineering optional upsc books that you could refer to get in touch with the syllabus related to the exam. There are a lot of books written by many prolific Indian and foriegn writer that you could refer for civil engineering optional. Here are some of the most recommended civil engineering optional upsc books that you could study for UPSC Exams:
List of Best Civil Engineering Optional Books for UPSC
- Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering – A Singh and K R Arora
- Theory of Structure: Volume- II – Vazirani and Ratwani
- Introduction to Mechanics of Solids – Crandall, Stephen, Lardner, Thomas
- Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics – Irving Herman Shames
- Strength of Material- Prof. S. Ramamrutham
- Structural Analysis- C. K. Wang
- Limit state design of steel structures: S K Duggal
- Design of steel structures: N Subramanian
- Basic and applied Fluid Mechanics-Garde
- Introduction to Mechanics of Solids – Crandall, Stephen, Lardner, Thomas
- Prestressed Concrete – N. Krishna Raju
- Strength of material – Gere and Timoshenko
- Engineering Hydrology – K. Subramanya
- Basic and applied Fluid Mechanics-Garde
- Irrigation Engineering – S.K. Garg
- Surveying – Punmia
- Mechanics for Engineers- B Johnson
- Limit state design of steel structures: S K Duggal
Civil Engineering Optional Syllabus Paper-I
1. Engineering Mechanics, Strength of Materials and Structural Analysis:
1.1 Engineering Mechanics
1.2 Strength of Materials
1.3 Structural Analysis
2. Design of Structures: Steel, Concrete and Masonry Structures:
2.1 Structural Steel Design: Structural Steel: Factors of safety and load factors, Riveted, bolted and welded joints and connections, Design of tension and compression member, beams of built up section, riveted and welded plate girders, gantry girders, stanchions with battens and lacings.
2.2 Design of Concrete and Masonry Structures: Concept of mix design. Reinforced Concrete: Working Stress and Limit State method of design-Recommendations of I.S. codes Design of one way and two way slabs, stair-case slabs, simple and continuous beams of rectangular, T and L sections. Compression members under direct load with or without eccentricity Cantilever and Counterfort type retaining walls. Water tanks: Design requirements for Rectangular and circular tanks resting on ground. Pre stressed concrete: Methods and systems of prestressing, anchorages, Analysis and design of sections for flexure based on working stress, loss of prestress. Design of brick masonry as per I.S. Codes
3. Fluid Mechanics, Open Channel Flow and Hydraulic Machines:
3.1 Fluid Mechanics
3.2 Dimensional Analysis and Similitude: Buckingham’s Pi-theorem, dimensionless parameters.
3.3 Laminar Flow: Laminar flow between parallel, stationary and moving plates, flow through tube.
3.4 Boundary layer: Laminar and turbulent boundary layer on a flat plate, laminar sub layer, smooth and rough boundaries, drag and lift. Turbulent flow through pipes: Characteristics of turbulent flow, velocity distribution and variation of pipe friction factor, hydraulic grade line and total energy line.
3.5 Open channel flow: Uniform and non-uniform flows, momentum and energy correction factors, specific energy and specific force, critical depth, rapidly varied flow, hydraulic jump, gradually varied flow, classification of surface profiles, control section, step method of integration of varied flow equation.
3.6 Hydraulic Machines and Hydropower: Hydraulic turbines, type’s classification, Choice of turbines, performance parameters, controls, characteristics, specific speed and Principles of hydropower development.
4. Geotechnical Engineering
Civil Engineering Optional Syllabus Paper-II
1. Construction Technology, Equipment, Planning and Management:
1.1 Construction Technology
1.2 Construction
1.3 Construction Planning and Management
2. Surveying and Transportation Engineering
2.1 Surveying
2.2 Railway Engineering
2.3 Highway Engineering
3. Hydrology, Water Resources and Engineering:
3.1 Hydrology: Hydrological cycle, precipitation, evaporation, transpiration, infiltration, overland flow, hydrograph, flood frequency analysis, flood routing through a reservoir, channel flow routing-Muskingum method.
3.2 Groundwater flow: Specific yield, storage coefficient, coefficient of permeability, confined and unconfined aquifers, aquifers, aquitards, radial flow into a well under confined and unconfined conditions.
3.3 Water Resources Engineering: Ground and surface water resource, single and multipurpose projects, storage capacity of reservoirs, reservoir losses, reservoir sedimentation.
3.4 Irrigation Engineering: Water requirements of crops, Canals, Water logging, Canal structures, Diversion headwork, Storage works, Spillways, River training
4. Environmental Engineering:
4.1 Water Supply: Predicting demand for water, impurities of water and their significance, physical, chemical and bacteriological analysis, waterborne diseases, standards for potable water.
4.2 Intake of water: Water treatment: principles of coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation; slow-; rapid-, pressure-, filters; chlorination, softening, removal of taste, odor and salinity.
4.3 Sewerage systems: Domestic and industrial wastes, storm sewage-separate and combined systems, flow through sewers, design of sewers.
4.4 Sewage characterization: BOD, COD, solids, dissolved oxygen, nitrogen and TOC, Standards of disposal in normal watercourse and on land.
4.5 Sewage treatment: Working principles, units, chambers, sedimentation tanks, trickling filters, oxidation ponds, activated sludge process, septic tank, disposal of sludge, recycling of wastewater.
4.6 Solid waste: Collection and disposal in rural and urban contexts, management of long-term ill effects.
5. Environmental pollution: Sustainable development. Radioactive wastes and disposal, Environmental impact assessment for thermal power plants, mines, river valley projects, Air pollution and Pollution control acts.
All of the topics are divided into two papers. Each paper gives 250 marks and a total of 500 marks. Understanding the concepts and deep diving into them will sharpen the knowledge. Going through the past year papers and practicing them will help to understand the structure of the paper and the questions. So the aspirant can keep himself calm during the exam. Describing the answers with the concepts and giving examples is a good strategy to earn more scores. Earning a score is the main target.
Most civil engineers who have previous knowledge about this subject are facing this exam. But they also have to work according to a good studying strategy. Practicing and following the syllabus is the most important thing.
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