CA1224906A - Procedure for constructing of elements a wall or an earth sustaining wall - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

The invention relates to a wall or an earth sustaining wall. Elements to be joined to each other by means of tongue-and-groove elements, shaped in their horizontal section like part of an approximately regular figure (i.e. congruent with it-self after rotation through a given angle a) are assembled, course by course, to form a wall. The tongue-and-groove joints of the elements are intercalated course by course on opposite sides of certain vertical lines so that the centres of the regular figures of the tongues and grooves lie on straight lines. The wall corners are formed by changing the direction of the elements by rotating a basic component of the regular figure recurring in the tongue-and-groove (e.g. the side of a polygon) through the central angle of the figure or a multiple thereof.

Description

This invention relates to a s-tructure made of elements of concrete or like material.
Elements of concrete or like material are used to set up walls for constructing houses, fences, earth sustaining walls, etc~ For the purpose of stabili~ing the structure, to increase its strength, to seal it and to facilitate its assembly, one- or two sided groove-and-tongue joints are employed between the elements. Finnish Patent Nos. 54170 and 50448 disclose modes of erection that are applied in the case of earth sustaining walls.
In almost any kind of wall, vertical corners or angula-tions of varying degree are needed. Apart from producing the desired shape of the structure, such angulations may be necessary to increase the rigidity of the wall, or for purely aesthetic reasons .
According to the present invention there is provided a structure comprising building elements joined to each other by means of tongue-and-groove joints having in section the shape part oE a substantially regular figure that is a figure that is con-gruent with itself after rotation through a given angle and assemb-led, course by course, to form a wall, the tongue-and-groove joints of the elements being intercalated course by course on opposite sides of vertical lines ~o that the centres of the regular figures of the tongue-and-groove joints lie on said vertical lines.
With the inventive construction, the following advan-tages are achieved: 1. The act by which angulation is obtained in the wall surface is not different from a straight wall: the instal-lation of elements proceeds according to the same piling principle.

2. The angle is composed of standard elements: no special units are needed. 3. Mechanical shaping of the elements making up an angle i5 rarely required (compare the use of the mason's pick hammer when making a brick wall angulation); the need for shaping is minimal. 4. The angulation is automatically formed at correct ~ 3 location, needing no measuring or sighting, as long as the lowest course has been correctly installed. 5. Even a wall with a yreatly number of angulations can be rapidly built. 6. At the angulation, the part of the element's tongue that is exposed becomes, in the most typical form of the element, the angularly rounded surface of the corner, and this is in harmony with the brick-like configura-tion of the surface itself; this advantage becomes even more accen-tuated if the facade surface of the elements has been bevelled.
7. The grooves and tongues are able, as a result of their shape and their mutual positioning, to transmit e.g. the following loads:-- horiæontal shearing forces in two directions - torsional moment about a horizontal axis in the wall plane - horizontal bending moment.
The invention will now be described in more detail, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-Figs. la ld show the facade of a wall and the horizontal sections, where the formation of angulations is also shown;
Fig. ~ is a hoxizontal section of the tongue;
Fig. 3 shows a bevelled hollow element;
Fig. 4 shows variations of ~he joint polygon; and Fig. 5 shows a method in which, with the aid of auxiliary elements inserted in cavities, the wal~ is anchored in the backing mass.
Figs. la and lb show a straight wall composed of elements using an octagon for their groove-and-tongue configuration, in facade view and in horizontal section. Figs. lc and ld show the same horizontal section at an angle with the folding angle 45 and 90 degrees. In the latter case, one projection has been removed from the groove side; this i5 achieved either by using an insert in the mould or by chipping the projection off from the finished element with a pick hammer.

Fig. 2 shows the tongue, the composition of its polygon of component trian~les and the way in which the tongue portion of the element in the course below is positioned (dotted line) when installed by the present procedure.
Fig~ 3 shows elements on which the corners of the surface left in view have been adjusted with bevels 3 and 4, and through which run cavities 5 lined up on vertical lines L. It is possible to place in these cavities elements which add to the strength of the structure or facilitate its installing, such as pipes, rods or small-sized elements.
Fig. 4 shows horizontal sections of tongue-and groove assemblies where the polygon has been modified from its strict mathematical shape by making the sides curved (Fig. 4a), by pro-viding, within the tongue-and-groove, furrows 7 and ridges ~
(Fig. 4b), and by offsetting the corner point of the groove so that the elements are enabled to subtend a small angle without detriment to the tight fit of the groove and tongue (Fig. 4c).
It is easy with this method to build curved walls.
Fig. 5 shows a wall in which three elements are used, two of them being pro~ided wi-th a cavity 10, in which anchoring element 11 is placed. The anchoring element is tied in place by means of a reinforcement 12 passing around it and in its turn anchored in the earth mass in the way disclosed in the Finnish Patent No. 59448.
The ability of the wall of the invention to form angles is based on the vertical lines L (Fig. la), the requisite angular change being accomplished by rotation about them.
The angular change between elements is achieved with the aid of joint surfaces shaped as approximately regular polygons (Fig. 2).
If the horizontal section of the joint surface is a polygon with n sides, the first angular change that is feasible is

3,. ;~ fÇ~ 9f P

~1 - 360/n clegrees, and -the next are a2 = 2 al, a3 al, and so on.
In the extreme case, n may be inf.ini-te, in which case stepless angulation becomes pO5 sible.
The polygons arching about the same line L are located on opposite sides of the line in each two element cours~s follow-ing upon each other (Fig. 1). In this way an intercalated bond is produced at every line L, which has a.n essential significance regarding the bearing capacity of the wall, particularly at the angulations.

Claims (5)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A structure comprising building elements joined to each other by means of tongue-and-groove joints having in section the shape part of a substantially regular figure that is a figure that is congruent with itself after rotation through a given angle and assembled, course by course, to form a wall, the tongue-and-groove joints of the elements being intercalated course by course on opposite sides of vertical lines so that the centres of the regular figures of the tongue-and-groove joints lie on said verti-cal lines.

2. A structure according to claim 1, wherein wall cor-ners are formed by elements angularly displaced relative to each other by an amount equal to the centre angle subtended by the sides of the regular figure as a multiple thereof.

3. A structure according to claim 1, whereby said sub-stantially regular figure of at least one said element deviates slightly from mathematical regularity, the sides of the figure being slightly offset so as to render possible the angular displace-ment demanded by curvature of the wall, or part of the groove ele-ment being removed in order to provide a fold in the wall.

4. A structure according to claim 1, wherein at least one said element is pierced by a semicylinderical cavity.

5. A structure according to claim 4, wherein semi-cylindrical auxiliary elements which are anchored to the earth by means of reinforcements passing around them are placed in cavi-ties provided in the elements.