BiH Engineering & Architecture Licensure Exam key terms

A situation in which an engineer's or architect's personal, financial, or family interest could improperly influence professional judgment, requiring disclosure and withdrawal from the affected decision.

The duty to keep confidential all client information, project data, and business details learned during professional work, releasing them only with consent or where law requires disclosure.

The published set of binding principles governing conduct of licensed engineers and architects, covering competence, honesty, public safety priority, fair competition, and respect for the profession's reputation.

The obligation to make technical decisions solely on professional grounds, free from pressure by clients, contractors, employers, or political actors that could compromise safety or quality.

The legally defined set of activities a licensed professional may perform, distinguishing reserved engineering and architectural work from tasks open to unlicensed technicians or contractors.

The registered stamp and signature applied to drawings and reports, certifying that the licensed professional prepared or supervised the work and accepts technical responsibility for it.

The process of obtaining the legal right to practice through verified education, supervised experience, and passing a state examination, after which the professional is entered in the public register.

The mandatory accumulation of training hours, courses, and technical updates required to renew a professional licence and keep knowledge current with codes and technology.

The designer's legal duty for the adequacy, safety, and buildability of the design, including correction of errors discovered during construction and participation in acceptance of completed works.

A design method verifying that a structure will not become unfit for use, checking ultimate states such as collapse and serviceability states such as excessive deflection or cracking under factored loads.

A prescribed arrangement of simultaneous actions, with factors applied to permanent, variable, and accidental loads, used to verify a structure for a specific design situation.

A multiplier applied to loads or material strengths to cover uncertainty, variability, and the consequences of failure, producing design values used in limit state verification.

The total horizontal force assumed at the base of a structure during an earthquake, derived from the structure's mass, period, and the design spectral acceleration.

A classification of a structure's capacity to deform inelastically without collapse, which sets the permitted behaviour factor and detailing requirements in seismic design.

The maximum pressure a foundation soil or rock can sustain without shear failure or excessive settlement, usually expressed as an allowable or design value per unit area.

The downward movement of a foundation caused by compression of the supporting ground under load, assessed for both total magnitude and differential effects on the structure.

An in-situ test in which a split-spoon sampler is driven into the ground by a falling hammer, the blow count indicating soil density and strength for foundation design.

Loss of soil strength when saturated loose sands or silts build up pore water pressure during shaking and behave temporarily like a liquid, damaging foundations and buried services.

The lateral force exerted by retained soil on a wall, evaluated as active, at-rest, or passive depending on the wall's permitted movement and drainage conditions.

A designation of concrete by its characteristic compressive cylinder or cube strength at 28 days, used as the basis for structural calculations and conformity assessment.

The mass ratio of water to cementitious material in a concrete mix, which strongly governs strength, permeability, and durability of the hardened concrete.

The planned sampling and testing regime, including acceptance criteria and identity testing of delivered materials, used to demonstrate that construction meets specified requirements.

A laboratory procedure determining the maximum dry density and optimum moisture content of soil or aggregate, used to set field compaction targets and acceptance limits.

The rate of heat flow through a building element per unit area and temperature difference, combining all layers and surface resistances, expressed in watts per square metre kelvin.

A localized path of higher heat loss where geometry or materials create a break in insulation, such as balcony slabs or window lintels, increasing total building heat demand.

A document rating a building's energy use and carbon emissions against a defined scale, required at sale or lease and accompanied by cost-effective improvement recommendations.

The volume of outdoor air supplied to a space per unit time, set to control indoor pollutants, moisture, and carbon dioxide while limiting energy loss through conditioning.

The ratio of total gross floor area of a building to the area of the plot on which it stands, used by zoning rules to control development intensity.

A regulation line, set back from the plot boundary or street axis, beyond which a building may not project, controlling street width and frontage character.

A legally binding document allocating land uses, densities, infrastructure corridors, and protected areas within a municipality, to which individual building permits must conform.

The official authorization issued after review of design documentation, allowing construction to begin and confirming the project complies with planning and technical regulations.

A scheduling technique identifying the longest chain of dependent activities, which determines project duration and where delay directly extends completion.

A hierarchical decomposition of the project into manageable packages of work, forming the basis for cost estimating, scheduling, and assignment of responsibility.

An itemized schedule of measured work quantities prepared from drawings, used for tendering, valuation of variations, and interim payment certificates.

The professional oversight of construction to verify conformity with design, specifications, and quality plans, including inspection, testing, and instruction on defects.

The profile of pressure head plus elevation along a pipeline or channel, showing where pressure falls below atmospheric and indicating the risk of cavitation or air entry.

A hypothetical rainfall event of specified depth, duration, and return period used to size drainage and flood protection works for an accepted level of risk.

Temporary storage of surface runoff in tanks, basins, or porous areas so that discharge into receiving water is slowed to a permitted peak rate.

An engineered arrangement of barriers, vents, or fans that keeps escape routes clear of smoke by limiting its spread or extracting it during a fire.

A space enclosed by fire-resisting walls, floors, and doors that limits fire and smoke spread for a defined period, allowing occupants to escape and firefighting to proceed.

A continuous protected path from any point in a building to a place of safety, meeting requirements for travel distance, width, lighting, and door operation.