العربية Sana’a- The Department of Civil Engineering at the College of Engineering at the University of Science and Technology (UST) organized two field visits for fourth-level students on the past Wednesday and Thursday. The first included the construction site of Investor Nasser Aqeel for Trade‘s factory for the production of local marble and granite, and the second covered the Amran Ready-Mix Concrete Plant, as part of the College‘s keenness to enhance the practical aspect and link theoretical knowledge with practical application at work, construction, and production sites.
During the two visits, the students learned about a number of technical and engineering aspects related to industrial projects. The visit to the marble and granite factory construction site included identifying the various components of the project, including storage and production hangars, the locations of saws, the polishing machine, and the gantry crane, in addition to the Jamkha water filtration tanks and their types and role in treating and reusing water.
The practical aspect also focused on the receipt of reinforcing steel for T-shaped strip footings and the tie rods connecting the two ends of the crane track, in addition to learning about surveying work and benchmark points, the mechanism of setting out points, carrying out leveling work, and verifying levels and dimensions and comparing them with the approved design drawings.
In the visit to the Amran Ready-Mix Concrete Plant, the students reviewed the components of the concrete production system, starting from the raw material storage areas and the wet and dry concrete production lines, through to the materials laboratory, including tests for cement, sand, and gravel, and tests of hardened concrete samples to verify quality and resistance.
They also learned about the mechanisms of production quality control, the volume of daily and monthly production, the company’s scope of coverage of the local market, in addition to the central control unit for mix proportions and the types of admixtures used to improve the properties of concrete, increase its workability, and achieve the target resistance.
The two visits were conducted under the supervision and accompaniment of Prof Ziad Al-Jaboubi and Dr Mohammed Al-Amoudi. The students received a detailed explanation from the officials at the factory and the plant. The two visits constituted an important educational opportunity for the students to closely learn about engineering applications at construction and production sites and to apply what they had learned in the Reinforced Concrete, Foundations, Surveying, and Building Materials courses, contributing to enhancing their practical skills, qualifying them for the labor market, and linking the theoretical side with field application.