FE Exam Review 1.0

What is a lump sum contract? What is important to remember about them?

Lump sum contracts are contracts for a specified service at a fixed price. This puts all risk on the contractor, as higher actual costs will reduce profit, but lower actual costs increase profit.

What is a unit price contract? What is important to remember about them?What is a cost plus fee contract? What is important to remember about them?

Unit price contracts are based on unit prices and anticipated quantities. They are useful for projects where the type of work and material is known but the scope or duration is indefinite, where costs can be adapted and tracked according to the quantity of work done.

What is a cost plus fee contract? What is important to remember about them?

Cost plus fee contracts are contracts to pay for the complete cost of materials and work plus an additional fee. For projects where the type of work, material, equipment, and scope are uncertain, as the contractor will be paid for all costs and will have a fixed (percentage or amount) profit.

What are activity based costs? Give examples.

Overhead, or indirect costs, required to operate. These include rent, utilities, office costs, etc.

What is sensitivity analysis in engineering economics?

Analysis to determine how sensitive variables are to changes in specific parameters or variables.

What is flexibility in asphalt pavement? What mix design feature is important for ensuring flexibility? Why?

Flexibility is the ability to withstand deflection/bending without cracking. Use of an open-graded aggregate mix. This provides sufficient voids in the mix to allow for expansion or compaction.

What is durability in asphalt pavement? What mix design feature is important for ensuring durability? Why?

Durability is the resistance of pavement to falling apart under loading or due to environmental conditions. Using enough asphalt to fully coat all aggregate particles and fill all voids maximizes durability by ensuring proper adhesion.

What is stability in asphalt pavement? What mix design feature is important for ensuring stability? Why?

Stability is the ability of pavement to resist deformation under loading. Using aggregate with angular shapes and rough textures, with just enough asphalt to coat all particles. This ensures that aggregate particles properly transfer loads by point-to-point contact.

What is coping in metalworking?

Coping is cutting sections into metal parts to allow proper fitting with other parts.

What is the difference between tempering and quenching?

Both processes first heat metals below the melting point, but tempering is the process of allowing the metal to cool slowly in air while quenching is the process of rapidly cooling it in liquid.

What is azimuth in surveying and how do you find it?

Azimuth is the clockwise angle measured from north to the line in question. Align the start point of the line with the origin of your axis, then find the clockwise angle.

What are the 3 conditions for triaxial soil testing? Which are the fastest and longest? What is determined by each type?

Unconsolidated Undrained is the fastest, but only measures total stress as effective stress can’t be determined. Consolidated Undrained does not allow excess pore pressure to dissipate during testing excess pore pressure is measured to determine effective stress. Consolidated Drained allows excess pore pressures to dissipate and takes the longest, simulates long-term conditions and determines effective stress in conditions where pore pressure has enough time to dissipate.

What is the typical range for angles of internal friction in soils? What happens to this value if the soil is mostly clay?

Typical ranges are 25° to 40°. Clay soils tend to have lower angles around 15° to 25°.

What are the AASHTO MEPDG asphalt pavement performance criteria?

Fatigue/alligator cracking, thermal cracking, roughness/smoothness, and rutting.

What are the 9 traffic signal warrants from the MUTCD?

8-hour vehicular volume, 4-hour vehicular volume, peak hour vehicular volume, pedestrian volume, school crossing, coordinated signal system, crash experience, roadway network (concentrating/organizing traffic flow), intersection near a grade crossing

When is the student’s t-distribution more suitable than the normal distribution? How to calculate degrees of freedom for t-distribution? How to determine confidence interval?

Student’s t-distribution is more suitable for small sample sizes with unknown variance. Degrees of freedom is the number of observations minus one. Confidence intervals are used by finding the critical t-value, then multiplying that by the standard deviation of the data.

What are the 3 components of hydraulic head and what are they based on? Which of these translates to pumps and their capacity to transport liquids to a specific height?

Velocity head is based on kinetic energy of fluid, elevation head is based on the height of the fluid above the datum, and pressure head which is based on the static pressure exerted by the fluid. The maximum height to which a pump can deliver fluid is equivalent to the maximum pressure it can deliver, which is the pressure (also known as static) head.

What is the difference between suppressed and contracted weirs?

Suppressed weir minimizes contraction of the flow by using channel walls as the sides of the weir, contracted weirs do not span the full channel width.

What is the general order of processes in wastewater treatment?

Screened, clarified, aerated, clarified, disinfected.

What is alum used for in wastewater treatment, and what test is associated with it? What is lime used for?

Alum is used for coagulation/flocculation, and jar tests are used to identify the proper dosage of alum. Lime is used to soften water, neutralize acidity, and precipitate certain chemicals from water.

Explain approach sight triangles and departure sight triangles for traffic.

Approach sight triangles are for drivers approaching an intersection and describe their ability to see conflicting vehicles on the intersecting road before they reach the intersection. Departure sight triangles are for drivers stopped on a road approach and describe their ability to see conflicting vehicles so they can merge with the intersecting road or cross the intersection without conflict.

Describe the differences between hot-mix asphalt, warm-mix asphalt, and concrete pavement.

Hot-mix asphalt production is more durable and the mix design is simpler to figure out but it has greater environmental impacts. Warm mix asphalt is better for the environment, but can be less durable, more expensive, and more complicated to design. Concrete is more durable than asphalt but can be more expensive.