AU713640B3 - A wall structure - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION PETTY PATENT Invention Title: A WALL STRUCTURE Name of Applicant: FERGANTA PTY LIMITED The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me: 2 The present invention relates to a wall structure and may find especially useful application to the field of noise walls to restrict traffic noise, security walls and indeed walls for buildings and other types of construction.

Prior proposals include arrangements for forming noise walls wherein posts such as of steel are erected in footings usually of reinforced concrete and then precast wall panels are installed and fixed to the posts. This technique may be considered unsightly because of the exposed posts but furthermore installation can be difficult and expensive because on a building site it is necessary to work with high precision in order to locate the panels which are normally attached by bolts. A critical problem is the formation of suitable foundations and precision erection of the supporting posts.

Another approach, of which the present inventor is an inventor, is particularly applicable to noise barriers along highways and is described in Australian petty patent number 684702. That system is characterised by using reinforced concrete boot elements which have respective slots sufficiently greater in dimension than the precast wall panel to be fixed in slots so that there is considerable tolerance for on site work. The precast wall panel is positioned in the slots in the boots, wedges inserted to provide for accurate and correct alignment and then high strength grouting applied to permanently fix the panel in position. The panel has an engineered internal construction with reinforced portions providing the necessary structural characteristics.

The present invention concerns new and useful alternatives to prior proposals and embodiments offer versatility of design and ease of construction to provide a result which can have an attractive appearance.

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a wall structure comprising: a precast concrete beam adapted to function as a footing for the wall structure, the beam having two spaced J:\Speci\300 399\300 349\33338.doc 25/03/99 3 apertures extending upwardly therethrough at spaced locations and adapted to receive reinforcing bars from respective support piers and to be rigidly mounted on the piers where concrete has been poured into the apertures, a precast wall panel having spaced bolt holes adjacent a lower edge, the beam having: a support surface for supporting the wall panel, and an upstanding portion adjacent the supporting surface and having bolt receiving apertures adapted to be aligned with the bolt holes in the panel, whereby the panel is secured in position by bolts with a lower portion abutting the upstanding portion of the beam.

Preferably, the support surface of the beam is inclined at about 300 to the horizontal and intersects the upstanding portion at about 60', the wall panel having a corresponding inclined lower face and the thickness and height of the beam is several times 3 to 4) that of the panel thickness. This arrangement facilitates location and installation of the wall panel.

It will be appreciated that the invention facilitates precision because each wall panel can be precast under factory conditions with small tolerances and, importantly, the structural beam is also adapted to be factory precast and thus forms a footing or base portion for the whole wall structure.

A most advantageous feature of the present invention is that it facilitates erecting a multiplicity of panels into the wall structure on a single beam. Thus, the wall panels could be of the order of 2 or more metres long and 2-6 metres high of reinforced concrete with a selected attractive finish or surface decoration. Factory precasting can ensure a high degree of quality control and because the panel is of limited dimensions and weight, its transportation without damage and its subsequent installation without inconveniently heavy cranes is J:\Speci\300 399\300 349\33338.doc 25/03/99 4 facilitated.

The beam can be a robust reinforced concrete beam and the bolt receiving apertures can be accurately formed so that only a small tolerance is required for the fixing of bolts. The beam is robust and not susceptible, therefore, to damage in transit and during installation.

The beam may be of the order of 10-13 metres long and is arranged to be placed on preformed piers. Typically two piers are sufficient for supporting a beam and its associated wall panels. The piers are usually formed in situ of reinforced concrete leaving starter bars protruding upwardly. This site work is inherently not of particularly high precision and indeed does not need to be because installation of the beam with a suitable crane will include precise positioning of the beam on the piers and final anchoring occurs when reinforced concrete is poured in the apertures of the beam so that a rigid integral structure for receiving all the panels is obtained.

A particularly efficient combination of features in a preferred embodiment of the invention is where the beam is adapted to be anchored to piers spaced approximately 25% inwardly from each end of the beam and a multiplicity of panels are mounted end to end on each beam.

Preferably the wall panels can have respective profiles on the end edges to overlap or interengage.

When the invention is applied to a noise wall along side a highway, the beams can be installed to follow the gradient of the ground and therefore the wall panels can provide a continuous top surface or profile parallel with the ground. If there is any substantial change of gradient between adjacent beams then it is a simple matter to construct a special tapered wall panel at the junction between the two beams.

In a second aspect the invention extends to a method of constructing a wall structure in any one of the forms described above.

By way of exemplification only reference will now J:\Speci\300 399\300 349\33338.doc 25/03/99 5 be made to the accompanying drawings of which: Figure 1 is a schematic elevation illustrating formation of a first embodiment of a wall structure according to the invention; Figure 2 is a cross sectional elevation along line D-D of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a cross sectional elevation along line B-B of Figure 1; Figure 4 is a cross sectional elevation along line C-C of Figure 1; Figure 5 is a sectional plan view taken along line A-A of Figure 1; Figure 6 is a plan view of the beam of Fiaure the the the the iand Figure 7 is a sectional plan view along the lines E-E of Figure 1 when the beam is installed.

Referring first to Figure 1, piers 10 and 11 are formed in situ in the ground 12 from reinforced concrete, each pier having starter bars 13 protruding above the surface of the ground. A precast beam 14 of reinforced concrete is accurately formed and positioned using a suitable crane with square cross section apertures 14 in the beam provided so that there is substantial tolerance with regard to positioning of the starter bars 13.

As best shown in Figures 2 to 4, the beam 14 is generally L-shaped and has a vertical surface 15 and a downwardly inclined lip 16 typically inclined at about 300 to the horizontal to define a step on which the wall panels are supported.

In this embodiment five wall panels 17 are mounted on the beam 14. However, where the panels are of relatively low height, fewer panels may be preferred e.g.

just 2 panels where each is no more than 2m high.

Each wall panel is accurately precast in a mould and incorporates such surface decoration and appearance as is desired. Suitable reinforcing is provided to give the panel rigidity. Profiles of the panel and various points J:\Speci\300 399\300 349\33338.doc 25/03/99 1~1 6 along the panel can be seen from Figures 2, 3 and 4. The beam 14 has a width and a height several times the thickness of the panel at its thickened edge portion.

Thus a stable wall structure can be formed. Each panel is preformed with two or more bolt holes 18 spaced along its base portion in the location of a thickening or strengthening ribs. In an embodiment with longer panels, then 3 bolts would be required. The beam 14 has corresponding apertures 19 for receiving a fixing bolt.

Since the beam is an accurate precast unit and since each wall panel is also an accurate precast unit, only a small tolerance needs to be provided for aligning the bolt holes and bolting the panel securely in position with the lower portion of the rear face of the panel in abutment with the vertical surface 15 of the beam. In practice, it may be preferred to provide the bolt holes 18 as horizontal slots to provide greater tolerances.

As best seen in Figure 5, in this embodiment the panels have respective tongue and groove end faces 20 and 21 for interengaging to provide a continuous structure.

A

small gap in practice is desirable to cope with tolerances on installation and expansion and contraction effects.

J:\Speci\300 399\300 349\33338.doc 25/03/99

Claims (3)

1. A wall structure comprising: a precast concrete beam adapted to function as a footing for the wall structure, the beam having two spaced apertures extending upwardly therethrough at spaced locations and adapted to receive reinforcing bars from respective support piers and to be rigidly mounted on the piers where concrete has been poured into the apertures, a precast wall panel having spaced bolt holes adjacent a lower edge, the beam having: a support surface for supporting the wall panel, and an upstanding portion adjacent the supporting surface and having bolt receiving apertures adapted to be aligned with the bolt holes in the panel, whereby the panel is secured in position by bolts with a lower portion abutting the upstanding portion of the beam.

2. A wall structure as claimed in claim i, wherein the support surface of the beam is inclined at about 300 to the horizontal and intersects the upstanding portion at about 600, the wall panel having a corresponding inclined lower face and the thickness and height of the beam is several times 3 to 10) that of the panel thickness.

3. A wall structure as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, and including two piers spaced inwardly from the ends of the beam by about 25% of the length of the beam, and supporting the beam with reinforced concrete formed by inserting starter bars from the piers into the respective spaced apertures in the beams and pouring concrete into the apertures, and a multiplicity of the wall panels being bolted to the beam in end-to-end arrangement. Dated this 2 5 th day of March 1999 FERGANTA PTY LIMITED By their Patent Attorneys GRIFFITH HACK K:\Speci\300 399\300 349\33338.doc 29/03/99