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Environmental engineering is one of the most popular, complex and fast growing disciplines in engineering. The scope of environment includes issues from public health, aesthetics, and impact of all development activities, pollution control legislation, standards, regulations, guidelines and their enforcement. Traditionally the application of engineering principles for the protection and enhancement of the quality of environment and protection of public health was called as sanitary engineering or public health engineering. Around 1968 this was changed to environmental engineering.

For conceiving environmental engineering, one has to consider the definition of engineering itself. Engineering may be defined as the application, under limits of scientific principles for the planning, design, execution, operation and maintenance of structures, equipment and systems for the development and benefit of the society. Here the word benefit is more important than the development. The so-called development in some cases may not be in real benefit of the society.

The environmental engineer plans, designs, executes, operates and maintains the water, wastewater and solid waste management plants. Clean, bacteriologically safe, potable drinking water protects and enhances public health. Liquid and solid waste management is a necessary step for healthy living. They also deal with air pollution control. The resulting pure cleaner air is conducive to people’s good health and prevents the building and other materials from the harmful effects of air pollution. The environmental engineer cares for the energy requirements of the society and the ways and means to protect the environment against the various pollutions created through the production and consumption of various goods and comfort conditions. It is the duty of environment engineer to assess the environmental impacts of the various development and other activities. In general one has to work to have sustainable and holistic development. Of course there are always constraints of resources, knowledge, human nature, social and racial considerations that limit the achievement of these goals.

Therefore the environmental engineering is defined as the application of scientific and engineering principles, under limits, for the protection and enhancement of the environment that includes the biotic and abiotic both components.

The environment exists in dynamic equilibrium of its biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) elements. The solar energy induced photosynthesis synthesizes the carbon as the plant tissue and we get matter in various forms from the trees. The carnivores, humans and animals consume the edible matter. They convert it into the energy required to sustain their lives. Their excreta comes near to the nature and the natural scavengers, bacteria and others convert it into inorganic matter like nutrients due to the biological decomposition. The roots of the plants, to form the edible matter again, extract these nutrients. Like this the nutrient cycle, material cycle, energy cycle and other cycles like hydrological cycle keep on existing until there is a great shock given by the human beings.

“Nature has enough for satisfying everybody’s need but not for anybody’s greed”. Human beings have lost their natural wisdom in want of power to overcome the nature. Since mid century the word has lost nearly one fifth of the topsoil from its cropland, a fifth of its tropical rainforests and animal species. Rapid industrialization and urbanization has increased carbon dioxide levels to the
point where global climate is being affected. The protective ozone shield is being depleted because of the chlorofluorocarbons. The forest, which is a complete ecosystem, is being converted into dead forests. The biodiversity is reducing everywhere in the world.

Biodiversity gives strength to the ecosystem against crisis. Only a well-diversified community can sustain against the extreme conditions. In quest of comfort conditions and well-secured life we have adopted a system, which is completely away from nature. We have made computers for paper less office work but the energy in making and running the computers is more than the savings made.

Of course there are other advantages of computers in computation, up keeping of data etc. But the materials used in making the computer and the disposal of the obsolete ones are drastically against the environment.

The quest of more and more comfort has fetched us far away from natural environment. The input of energy in building sector is increasing day by day. The requirements of both heating and cooling are becoming more and more energy exhaustive. At present the energy requirement in whole world is mainly met by fossil fuels. Nature has created the coal and petroleum in millions of years and we have exhausted them in hundreds of years. In the last 300 years we have consumed most of the coal and almost all of the petroleum products.

Out of the 1,30,000 MW installed capacity of electricity production in India about 66% is by fossil fuels (coal+ petroleum products), 24% by hydropower, 4% by nuclear means and only 6% by renewable energy resources like solar, wind, biomass including small hydropower plants. Still there is a very large potential of renewable energy resources unutilized but the present availability of fossil fuels and the present high cost of electricity production through R.E.S. has restrained their share to only 6%. With the advancement of technology and scarcity of fossil fuels the cost of RES will come down and there share shall increase, but is it the sustainable development? In modern context the idea of sustainable development immerged in the Earth Summit at Rio-De-Janeiro in June 1992 that let us plan a development in which the generations to come, may not become deprived of the resources which we are using today. To achieve this aim we have to control our present rate of consumption of the available resources like the fossil fuels, ground water and conserve the bio diversity and the natural cycles like the hydrological cycle.

While considering the production, consumption or utilization we have also to consider the other part that is pollution. Mixing of unwanted hazardous elements in anything is known as pollution, like mixing of sewage in fresh body of water, mixing of gases, like oxides of nitrogen, oxides of sulphur etc. in the air, increase of noise level etc. Actually the present trend of living is a serious cause of creating pollution in all spheres of life. Today the prosperity, wealth or living standard of a country is measured in terms of the per capita electricity consumption per year. That way India with its per capita consumption of 350 Kwh per year is considered far behind the U.S. which has around 20 times more than this. The advancement of a society is measured in terms of the measures of comfort like air conditioners, or conveyance like bigger and bigger expensive luxury cars. Taller buildings, more and more precious artificial fabric and so on. Production and maintenance of all these has created so much land, water and noise pollution that has overcome the advantages of all these so called advancements. Thus the challenging aspect of environmental engineering is to make balance between the rapid changes in the field of science, technology, health etc. and the very existence of life. Though environmentalism or the environmental consciousness is ancient the environmentalism became an organized force only in 1960s. It started with the publication of the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson on the pesticide DDT in 1962. Actually the exponential growth of population and the worldwide consumerism imposed a great load on earth’s natural resources and waste management systems.

This text aims at the fundamental, primary knowledge for every one who has a concern about environment. The chapters have been designed to quench the thrust of knowledge of a person, let it be a scientist, an engineer or any one who is concerned about protection of environment and thus a well wisher of society.

This book has been written after gaining 10 years experience of working in the public health engineering department of Rajasthan and 20 years experience of teaching civil engineering students, subjects like environmental engineering, ecology and environmental dynamics, solid waste management etc. Recently environmental engineering has been introduced as a primary course common to first year students of all branches who opt for it. This text is on basic environmental engineering that covers the syllabus of first year semester scheme of the Rajasthan Technical University and other universities. Some portion of the martial presented in this book has bean derived from the work of others, their contribution is greatly ackoweldged. The recommendation of manual of water supply and treatment, manual on Sewerage and Sewage Treatment and manual on Solid Waste Management prepared by the Central public Health and Environmental Engineering organization, Government of India, Ministry of urban development have been closely followed.

I acknowledge my debts to my parents for their blessings, my wife Bharati for her constant support, my daughter Ruchira for her help on computer, my son Saurabh and daughter-in law Surabhi for encouragement. I express my deep sense of gratitude to my teacher Prof. Damodar Sharma, Vice chancellor Rajasthan Technical University, Kota for being a constant source of inspiration for me. I thank Prof. M. P. Poonia Principal Engineering College Bikaner for his valuable suggestions. I thank Dr. A. K. Mathur and other colleagues of my department for their help. I thank Mr. S. Gupta, Managing Director, New Age International Publishers, New Delhi for prompt publication.

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The books in the series have been designed for both independent and tutor assisted studies. For this reason they should prove particularly useful to the “self-starter” and to those wishing to update or upgrade their aircraft maintenance licence. Also, the series should prove a useful source of reference for those taking ab initiotraining programmes in JAR 147 (now ECAR Part-147) and FAR 147 approved organizations and those on related aeronautical engineering programmes in further and higher education establishments.

This book has primarily been written as one in a series of texts, designed to cover the essential knowledge base required by aircraft certifying mechanics, technicians and engineers engaged in engineering maintenance activities on commercial aircraft. In addition, this book should appeal to the members of the armed forces, and students attending training and educational establishments engaged in aircraft engineering maintenance and other related aircraft engineering learning programmes.

In this book we cover in detail the underpinning mathematics, physics, electrical and electronic fundamentals, and aerodynamics necessary to understand the function and operation of the complex technology used in modern aircraft. The book is arranged into four major sections:

1. • Introduction
2. • Scientific fundamentals
3. • Electrical and electronic fundamentals
4. • Fundamentals of aerodynamics

In the Introductory section you will find information on the nature of the aircraft maintenance industry, the types of job role that you can expect, the current methods used to train and educate you for such roles and information on the examinations system directly related to civil aviation maintenance engineering. In addition, you will find information on typical career progression routes, professional recognition, and the legislative framework and safety culture that is so much a part of our industry.

In the section on Scientific fundamentals we start by studying Module 1 of the JAR 66 (now ECAR Part-66) syllabus (see qualifications and levels) covering the elementary mathematics necessary to practice at the category B technician level. It is felt by the authors, that this level of “non-calculator” mathematics is insufficient as a prerequisite to support the study of the physics and the related technology modules, that are to follow. For this reason, and to assist students who wish to pursue other related qualifications, a section has been included on “further mathematics”. The coverage of JAR 66 Module 2 on physics is sufficiently comprehensive and at a depth, necessary for both category B1 and B2 technicians.

The section on Electrical and electronic fundamentals comprehensively covers ECAR 66 Module 3 and ECAR Part-66 Module 4 to a knowledge level suitable for category B2 avionic technicians. Module 5 on Digital Techniques and Electronic Instrument Systems will be covered in the fifth book in the series, Avionic Systems.

This book concludes with a section on the study of Aerodynamics, which has been written to cover ECAR Part-66 Module 8.

In view of the international nature of the civil aviation industry, all aircraft engineering maintenance staff need to be fully conversant with the SI system of units and be able to demonstrate proficiency in manipulating the “English units” of measurement adopted by international aircraft manufacturers, such as the Boeing Aircraft Company. Where considered important, the English units of measure will be emphasized alongside the universally recognized SI system. The chapter on physics (Chapter 4) provides a thorough introduction to SI units, where you will also find mention of the English system, with conversion tables between each system being provided at the beginning of Chapter 4.

To reinforce the subject matter for each major topic, there are numerous worked examples and test your knowledge written questions designed to enhance learning. In addition, at the end of each chapter you will find a selection of multiple-choice questions, that are graded to simulate the depth and breadth of knowledge required by individuals wishing to practice at the mechanic (category A) or technician (category B) level. These multiple choice question papers should be attempted after you have completed your study of the appropriate chapter. In this way, you will obtain a clearer idea of how well you have grasped the subject matter at the module level. Note also that category B knowledge is required by those wishing to practice at the category C or engineer level. Individuals hoping to pursue this route should make sure that they thoroughly understand the relevant information on routes, pathways and examination levels given later.

Further information on matters, such as aerospace operators, aircraft and aircraft component manufacturers, useful web sites, regulatory authorities, training and educational establishments and comprehensive lists of terms, definitions and references, appear as appendices at the end of the book. References are annotated using superscript numbers at the appropriate point in the text.

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