Civil Engineering
ESE Prelims - Civil Engineering (Paper II) is a 300-mark, 150-question objective paper of 3 hours; each question carries 2 marks, with one-third of those marks deducted for a wrong answer. It tests breadth across building materials, solid mechanics, structural analysis and design, geotechnical and water-resources engineering, environmental engineering, surveying and transportation, so marks come from holding many short, precise facts and definitions rather than from depth in one speciality.
What the paper rewards
- Code-anchored numbers: IS 456 partial safety factors (1.5 for dead plus live load, 0.9 for stability), IS 800 material factors γm0 = 1.10 for yielding and γm1 = 1.25 for rupture, IS 2720 test series for soil.
- Definitions that decide the arithmetic: effective span, effective depth, effective stress, group index.
- Fast, unit-clean substitution into standard formulae under time pressure.
Worked example: effective stress with capillary rise
A sand profile has γ_dry = 16 kN/m³ from 0 to 1 m, the water table at 2 m, and capillary saturation between 1 m and 2 m with γ_sat = 20 kN/m³; below 2 m the sand remains saturated. Take γ_w = 9.81 kN/m³.
At 4 m depth:
- Total stress σ = 1(16) + 3(20) = 76 kPa.
- Pore pressure u = 9.81 × (4 − 2) = 19.62 kPa.
- Effective stress σ′ = 76 − 19.62 = 56.4 kPa.
Now test 1.5 m: σ = 16 + 0.5(20) = 26 kPa and u = −9.81(0.5) = −4.91 kPa, so σ′ = 26 + 4.91 = 30.9 kPa. The suction in the capillary fringe adds to effective stress - this is the standard trap.
Traps that cost marks
- Using γ_sat above the water table and ignoring negative pore pressure in the capillary zone.
- Mixing sagging/hogging sign conventions between slope-deflection and moment-distribution solutions.
- Confusing effective span (lesser of centre-to-centre and clear span plus effective depth) with clear span.
- Unit slips: MPa is N/mm², and 1 kN/m³ ≈ 0.1 t/m³.
- Blind guessing: with one-third negative marking, attempt only after eliminating at least two options.