Master of Engineering (MEng)

MEng Civil Engineering

Society needs civil engineers now more than ever, and our courses are ranked Top Five in the UK (QS World Rankings, 2024).

  • Duration: 4 years
  • Year of entry: 2025
  • UCAS course code: H201 / Institution code: M20
  • Key features:
  • Study abroad
  • Scholarships available
  • Field trips
  • Accredited course

Full entry requirementsHow to apply

Meet us

Discover if Manchester is right for you with an online or in-person meeting.

Learn more

Discover more about our new Home of Engineering

Discover

Download our course brochure

Download

Fees and funding

Fees

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2025 will be £9,535 per annum (subject to Parliamentary approval). Tuition fees for international students will be £34,000 per annum. For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

Additional expenses

There is a compulsory field course for Civil Engineering students which incurs a subsidised fee* (approx. £100) that contributes to travel, accommodation and subsistence. You are expected to bring your own wet weather clothing and footwear.

The exact cost and dates of the trip are confirmed at the start of your second year.

* In accordance with current University policy, this fee is restricted to be not more than 1% of the annual tuition fee of the course

Policy on additional costs

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Scholarships/sponsorships

The University of Manchester is committed to attracting and supporting the very best students. We have a focus on nurturing talent and ability and we want to make sure that you have the opportunity to study here, regardless of your financial circumstances.

For information about scholarships and bursaries please see our undergraduate fees pages and check the Department's funding pages .

Course unit details:
Computational Hydraulics

Course unit fact file
Unit code CIVL42002
Credit rating 15
Unit level Level 4
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

Part 1: The Finite-Volume Method - the dominant approach to fluid-flow simulation in general-purpose CFD codes. This section includes practical civil-engineering-type exercises with the major commercial code StarCCM+.

Part 2: Shallow-Water Flows - specialist CFD for civil engineering. Widely used in predicting river, estuarine and coastal flows.

Pre/co-requisites

Unit title Unit code Requirement type Description
Hydraulics 2 CIVL20041 Pre-Requisite Compulsory
Hydraulics 1 CIVL10101 Pre-Requisite Compulsory
Hydraulics 3 CIVL34001 Pre-Requisite Compulsory

Aims

  • To introduce students to the numerical simulation of incompressible fluid flow.
  • For students to understand and be able to choose and apply appropriate discretisation techniques for partial differential equations, particularly those describing fluid flow.
  • To acquaint students with major in-house and commercial CFD (computational fluid dynamics) software and how to apply such software to typical civil-engineering problems, such as wind-loading, ventilation, pollution dispersion, coastal and estuarine flows.

Syllabus

Part 1: The Finite-Volume Method (Dr Apsley)
(1) Governing equations: conservative and non-conservative forms; some exact solutions; common approximations.
(2) Finite-volume techniques: discretisation of standard advection-diffusion problem; time-marching; pressure-correction methods; computer methods for solving matrix equations.
(3) Turbulence and its modelling: Reynolds averaging and Reynolds stresses; basic theory and log law; “industry-type” turbulence models.
(4) 3D geometric techniques (areas, volumes, averages) and presentation of 3D data.
(5) Use of in-house research code STREAM (1 exercise) and commercial code StarCCM+ (2 exercises) for industry-type problems (e.g. wind loading).

Part 2: Shallow-Water Flows (Dr Rogers)
(6) Shallow-water (depth-averaged) approximation and equations; specialist solution techniques.
(7) In-house software example (1 exercise).

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Written exam 50%
Report 50%

Feedback methods

Individual feedback will be posted online after marking, with common problems summarised in class.

Exam - class summary in Blackboard

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
eAssessment 32
Lectures 34
Tutorials 6
Independent study hours
Independent study 78

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
David Apsley Unit coordinator

Return to course details