CA1299152C - Method and apparatus for pneumatically discharging hydromechanically conveyed hydraulic building material for underground operations - Google Patents

Abstract

Abstract In a method and an apparatus for pneumatically discharg-ing hydromechanically conveyed hydraulic building material for underground operations, in which compressed air is supplied to the wet building material, pumped in a dense stream., in front of a mouth piece serving the discharge thereof and having in particular a nozzle shape, the com-pressed air being gunned out together with the building material, the invention provides for the dense stream of the pumped building material to be supplied to the com-pressed air supplied in a stream, sealed off from the outside air by the wet building material, and thereby be distributed in the compressed air stream and conveyed with the latter to the mouth piece to be discharged there-from.

Description

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DS23-1386-2ll The present inverltiorl relates to a method for pneumatically discharging hydromechanically conveyed hydraulic building material for undergrourld operations. The inventiorl also relates to an apparatus for carrying out this method.
Hydraulic building materials which are used undergrourld are substances with consisterlcies ranging from grar,ular to powderized and having different water/solid factors, which are frequently processed with aggregates of synthetic material or fiber mixtures, among other things, during gunning. The inverltior relates in particular to gun-applied concrete made of these materials, or gun-applied mortar, which in turn is applied several centimeters thick to the stone walls of underworkillgs, in particular of drifts, leaving o~lt the floor, as soon as possible after the roof fall has been WOII, for example by blasting, in order to increase the self-supporting capacity of the surrounding ground. In addition to this roof fall protection when driving rooms in mining and tunrlel constructiorl, the inventive method also serves the purpose of sealing fire and ventilation dams and smoothing walls in order to reduce air resistance, as well as for timbering in general. Activator, which is preferably liquid, may be added to the building material in the interests of early strength, in order to guarantee optimal bearing capacity after as short a time as possible to keep down the convergerlce of the rock stratification, among other things.
The hydromechanical conveyance of the wet building material, in particular in the form of mortar or concrete, is advantageous as compared to dry conveyance, which is also known, in the case of which the necessary mixing water and possibly the activator are added to the building material at the end ca~f ~299~52 of the pipeline, in that -the applied layers have a uni form composition in accordance with a given recipe, which eliminates the fluctuations in the solidity of the applied layers ~esulting from uneven composition of the building 5 material and uncon-trolled addition of water. The inven-tion therefore assumes a previously known method by which the building material is discharged by aid of a mouth piece, provided with a nozzle, of a conveying pipeline or tube assembly acted upon by a pump, and gunned onto the surface to be coated.

In the case of the previously known apparatus, the building material is conveyed hydromechanically in the axial direction of the nozzle. A short distance before the nozzle, com-pressed air is added to the hydromechanically conveyedstream via nozzle channels arranged radially in the mouth piece. The resulting acceleration of the building material is subject to limits, however. For the nozzle device must take the limited compressibility of the wet building material into consideration due to the danger of clogging. The hydro-mechanical conveyance of the building material has an aggra-vating effect on this when the building material, for e~am-ple due to the reduced friction in the conveyor pipe, is conducted in the latter with a relatively large cross-section and cannot be supplied simultaneously by a distri-butor to a number of discharge pipes or tubes. For in such cases the hydromechanically conveyed stream must also be reduced to a smaller cross-section at the mouth piece, which is determined by -the handling of the mou-th piece with the necessary strength of an operator, provided manipula-tors or monitors cannot be used.

Since, regardless of these difficulties, the activator is preferably added only at the last minute due to the danger that the hardening building material might interfere with the paths of hydromechanical conveyance, this is done with /

~;~9~152 one or more nozzles at the end of the hydromechanical conveyance path~ However, this means that the activator does not mix completely and homogeneously with the hydraulic building material. The produced layers are therefore in-homogeneous where the required early strength is not attained. Furthermore, there are also losses of activator liquid which is then carried along by the radially directed air blast and leads to concerltratiorls of noxious substarlces in the atmosphere.
This, along with other causes, may lead ~o rebound losses, i.e. a percentage of discharged building material which does not stick, but falls down. It is true that the percentages ranging from 30% to 40% which are usual in dry methods are not reached by the wet methods, but the quota of the latter has different causes. It depends, among other things, on the adhesive power of the building material, the angle of impact of the building material stream discharged from the mouth piece, and similar parameters. In particular, the systematic changes in the supporting capacity of the substratum hit by the gunned building material constitute one of the most important causes for rebounding. For regardless of the force of impact, for example, on a rock surface, the resistance of the substratum changes in the course of the application of the gunning layer and is generally lower the more the applied layer thickness increases. The early strength of the building material thus plays as much of a part in this connection as the quantity of building material discharged in each particular case. But the known apparatus does not allow for any control of the speed of impact or any use of activator to avoid excess rebound losses, at least not to the necessary extent.
The method of the present invention is based on the known scheme for applying hydraulic building material in underground operations, namely pumping the material through a conveying ~Z99~5~2 pipeline and gunning it from a nozzle onto the surface to be coated. With the present method, this is achieved in such a way that it can be better controlled, and in particular, offers the possibility of achieving higher economy while sparing the atmosphere. Further, the applied layers of building material are made more effective with the use of activators, and the new method also provides the conditions necessary for reducing systematic rebound losses that were a problem with prior application methods.
According to one aspect to the invention, there is provided a method for pneumatically discharging hydromechanically conveyed hydraulic building material for underground operations, compressed air being supplied to the wet building material, pumped in a dense stream, in front of a mouth piece serving the discharge thereof and having in particular a nozzle shape, the compressed air being gunned out together with the building material, characterized in that the compressed air stream is a turbulent air stream and the dense stream of the pumped building material is added to the compressed air supplied in a stream, sealed off from the outside air by the wet building material, the dense stream thereby being distributed in the compressed air stream and conveyed along with the latter to the mouth piece and discharged therefrom.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for carrying pneumatically discharging hydraulic building material comprising a mouth piece mounted on a conveyor pipeline of a hydromechanical conveying system for discharging gunned concrete or gunned motor onto the stone walls of underworkings, the mouth piece forming the end of a pneumatic conveying pipe, the end of which opposite the mouth piece is closed and provided with a compressed air inlet which adapted to generate turbulence in the air stream passing therethrough and in that the mouth piece has between the compressed air inlet and the mouth piece a lateral pipe outlet into which the conveyed pipeline or tube assembly opens.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method wherein building material is supplied to a conveying air stream in such a way that the dense stream of the building material is divided up and the resulting building material particles are accelerated in such a way that they remain suspended in the conveying air stream. This conveying air stream 12~9~L5Z

containing the building material in a density dependent, on the one hand, on the air speed and air quantity, among other things, and, on the other hand, on the quantity to be conveyed, can be discharged at the mouth piece without any danger of clogging, and may also be constricted in the case of nozzle-shaped mouth pieces and thus discharged at an increased speed which essentially depends upon the quantity of compressed air when the cross-section and quantity being conveyed are given. On the other hand, the breaking up of the dense stream in which the building material is hydromechanically conveyed leads to an enlargement of the free building material area, which in turn offers favourable conditions for improving the inclusion of an activator, if used.
The invention thus offers the advantage of causing an essential reduction of the weight to be manipulated at the mouth piece and of discharging the building material in a loosened state, thus favoring an even distribution of the building material on the particular substratum and thereby causing a considerable reduction of rebound losses. The breaking up of the dense stream by means of the compressed air stream does not have any detrimental consequences for the building material because this process, insofar as it leads to a demixing of the building material, is revoked during impact. The air consumption is kept within tolerable limits because the resulting pneumatic conveying path is limited to the mouth piece and is relatively short.
With the improved method, it is possible to introduce activators into the compressed air stream before it is mixed with the dense stream of building material. The distribution of the activator in the compressed air stream, in particular, its atomization in the air stream, leads to a considerable increase in the number of activator particles, thereby accordingly increasing the probability than an activator particle meets a building material particle due to the relative speed of these particles resulting from the addition of the dense stream. This allows for a considerable reduction in the amount of activator used while at the same time obtaining a considerable improvement in the effectiveness of the activator.
This effect, which is desirable not only from the point of view of an economical use of activators, but also in view of the distribution of the building material particles in the l~991S'~

conveying air stream, which should be as even as possible, can be reinforced by generating a turbulent compressed air stream. The turbulence of the compressed air stream can also contribute to increasing the density of the building material in the conveying air stream, thereby reducing the quantity of compressed air necessary for discharging the building material.
Preferably the compressed air stream and the dense stream intersect one another at an angle ranging from an acute angle to 90. This considerably increases the relative speeds of the building material and compressed air, as opposed to the axial supply of the dense stream, so that the separation of the building material and the distribution of the resulting particles in the conveying air stream takes shape more favorably.
The velocity of the discharge can be adjusted by the flow control valves which are provided in the air stream. This allows for a reduction in the rebound losses, which up to now have increased disproportionately quickly, for systematic reasons, when the layer thickness increases. The reduction of the conveying air stream allows the pumps used for hydromechanical conveyance, which is usually designed as a reciprocating pump but occasionally as a spiral pump, to work evenly with the given quantity to be conveyed but the quantity and speed of the building material contained in the impinging gunning stream can still be adapted.
It has been found that if the conveying air stream is constricted after the air stream is mixed with the dense stream, and thereafter the mixture is expanded, the building material will be accelerated as it is discharged from the end of the hydromechanical conveying pipe from its relatively low speed to the considerably higher pneumatic conveying speed, and preventing sedimentation of synthetic material.
The reaction time required by one or more additives to the conveyed concrete to take effect, is of varying length depending on the additive. This reaction time must be sufficiently long. On the other hand, it must not exceed a certain period because otherwise the tendency to clogging is increased disproportionately. By selecting an appropriate length of the discharge pipe and an appropriate reduction, the reaction time can be predetermined.

The details, further features and other advantages of the invention can be found in the following description of embodiments of an apparatus suitable for performing the above method, with reference to the figures in the drawing. These show:

Fig. 1 a schematic and cut~off view of the construc-tion of a mouth piece according to the inven~
tion, Fig. 2 a modified embodiment of the invention viewed according to Fig. 1, Fig. 3 an embodiment of the invention modified further, viewed according to Figs. 1 and 2, Fig. 4 a variant of the embodiment according to Fig.
3, 20 Fig. 5 a further variant of the embodiment accorqing to Figs. 3 and 4, Fig. 6 a schematic side view of the compressed air delivery in a mouth piece according to the invention, Fig. 7 a modified embodiment of the invention viewed according to Fig. 1, 0 Fig. 8 an embodiment modified further with respect to the view in Fig. 7, Fig. 9 a further embodiment of the compressed air delivery viewed according to Fig. 6, Fig. 10 a modified embodiment of the compressed air A

~;~9~152 delivery viewed according to Figs. 6 and 9~, and Fig. 11 an embodiment further modified, viewed accor-ding to Figs. 6, 9 and 10.

Mouth piece 2 shown in Fig. 1 is located on the end of a conveyor pipeline 3 of a known hydromechanic conveyor system for gunned concrete, the details of which are not reproduced here, the system being shown schematically at 4. Mouth piece 2 is screwed by aid of an annular flange 5 onto matching annular flange 6 of conveyor pipe 3, a tube connector being located between pipe 3 ~shown cut-off) and a stationary conveyor pipeline.
Mouth piece 2 consists of a T-shaped pipe, the verti-cal part of which is formed by a section of pipe 7 exhibiting flange 5 and branching off at right angles to pipe 8, which is narrower by comparison, of the mouth piece. Pipe 8 is connected by flange 9 to a cor-responding flange 10 of a nozzle 11, out of which the building material emerges in accordance with arrows 12.

At the opposite end, a compressed air connection 15 is connected by aid of a flange 14 to a matching flange 15' of pipe 8. The details of the compressed air connection 15 can be seen in the view of Fig. 6.

The compressed air supplied at 16 then enters a tubular chamber 17, first passing blades 18 of a control device 19. These blades generate angular momentum followed by turbulence in the air stream, which is indicated by arrows 20 in the figures.

A further pipe 21 is attached concentrically in tubular chamber 17, the front end of this pipe 21 being provided ~299~52 with a conical seal 22 protruding beyond control dev~ce 19. The conical seal has several openings 23, 24 on its conical surface, through which a preferably li~uid acti-vator can penetrate. The conical seal is generally equipped in practice with high-pressure atomizing noz-zles for liquid activators.

According to the view in Fig. 1, the compressed air is supplied via a connection piece 25 with blockage and control unit 26 in accordance with arrow 27. The ac-tivator is also supplied to pipe 21 via a connection piece 28, a blockage and control unit 29, in accordance with arrow 30.

In operation, a reciprocating pump continuously deliv-ers building material 4 consisting of a hydraulic sub-stance whose consistency ranges from granular to pow~erized water, sand 31 and aggregates 21, through connection piece 7 into pipe 8. The extremely turbulent compressed air stream following control device 19 carries along the activator penetrating through openings 23, 24, distribu-ting it in a form ranging from mist to drops over the entire clear opening of pipe 8. Building material 4 is added to this turbulent compressed air stream in accor-dance with the hydromechanical conveyance at the openingof connection piece 7. At the same time the compact stream is broken up and separated into particles which are kept in suspended distribution in the compressed air stream. The building material particles carried along by the stream reach nozzle 11 and are discharged by same in accordance with arrows 12. In free flight they cross the distance to a surface (stone surface), on which they settle down in the form of an uninterrup-ted layer.
According to ~he embodiment of Fig. 2, pipe section 7 ~ .

~29~52 and flanged pipe 3 are not arranged at right an~les, but at ar, acute arlgle to the pipe. This ~avors the hydromechar,ical conveyance by reducing supply resistance, ar,d may therefore have a favorable effect under certain circumstances.
According to the view of Fig. 3, the cross-section of mouth piece pipe 8 is reduced behind the opening of pipe section 7 by a stationary plate, the baffle plate of which is shown at 38.
This baffle plate COJIsists of a weir limited by the circular walling of the pipe, the edge of the weir exhibiting a rour,d inside surface 39. Baffle plate 38 creates a cross-sectional reduction restricting the compressed air stream 40, whereby turbulence which favors the separation of dense stream 41 through pipes 3 ar,d 7 comes about additionally on surface 39. Some of this turbulence is shown schematically at 42.
The embodiment according to Fig. 4 uses, instead of the disk shape of baffle plate 38, a plate 43 with a trapezoidal cross-section in order to counteract sedimentation in its turbulent region.
This tenderlcy is counteracted even more by the embodiment according to Fig. 5, because here the cross-section of plate 44 in nozzle pipe 8 exhibits a bulge 45 on which conveyirlg air stream 46, which forms following the opening of pipe 7, is accelerated.
In the embodiment according to Fig. 7, an adjustable baffle plate 38 is displacable in the cross-section of nozzle pipe 8 in the direction of double arrow 36 that is the direction of pipe section 7 by aid of a regulating device 47. This results in the possibility of setting up an adjustable aperture 48 in the pipe 8 which the conveying air stream must go through immediately following the opening of pipe 7. Such an adjustable plate 38' allows mouth piece 2 to be adjusted to accommodate different compositions of building material, such as different water/solid factors.

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129~152 In the embodiment according to Fig. 8, a telescopic pipe 49 displaceable in pipe 7 is used instead of an adjustable plate 38' to adjust the cross-section of the aperture 48 in nozzle pipe 8. The telescopic pipe 49 forms the extension of pipeline 3, which may be axially displaced and adjusted in pipe 7 by aid of an annular adjusting device 50. A seal 51 seals off the casing of pipe 49, preventing compressed air of compressed air stream 40, or conveying air stream 46 in mouth piece pipe 8, from escaping from the nozzle. The axial adjustability of telescopic pipe 49 makes it possible to alter the cross-section of aperature 48 in a particularly easy manrler. Furthermore, pipe 8 has a multi-part design in the view of Fig. 8, consisting of pipe sections 52, 53 and nozzle 54. This means that not only flanged nozzle 54 can be removed, but also the following pipe 53, which makes it considerably easier to remove clogs and service mouth piece 2.
In operation, both the quantity of activator may be controlled, by blockage and control unit 29, and the guantity of compressed air, by blockage and control unit 26. The supply of compressed air may be controlled via control unit 26 in such a way that the speed at which the conveyirlg air stream at 12 is discharged may be slowed down in accordance with the constructior of the layer.
The additives, in particular activators, added to the hydraulic building material being conveyed are frequently contaminated. In many cases the additives may be inhomogeneous.
When relatively large quantities of such additives must be conveyed, clogging often occurs. According A

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to the view in Fig . 9, compressed air connection 15 is provided for these circumstances and exhibits a stationary piston 56. Piston 56 has a reduced portion 59, which exhibits a connection 60 for the supply of additive on the outside. The reduced portion has a hollow design, the cavity continuing into piston 56, as shown at 63. ~adial-ly oriented cross bores 61, 62 open out into parallel air channels 57, 58, which are acted upon by the compressed air supplied at 16, the stream of which is thereby sepa-rated into several different streams. In this manner,relatively broad flow channels may be realized for the additive without any possibility of the additive and the air stream being insufficiently mixed. For the additive is introduced into the turbulent air stream via radial cross bores 61, 62.

In many eases it is also necessary to introduce more than one additive, whereby the additives are inténded to be combined only in the air stream. Embodiments of a com-pressed air conneetion 15 with sueh a design are shownin Figs. 10 and 11.

Aeeording to Fig. 11, piston 56 has a eylindrieal design.
It eloses off a ehamber 70 of pipe 71 whieh forms the eompressed air eonneetion. However, there are a number of axial ehannels 57, 58 in piston 56 which correspond to the design in the embodiment aeeording to Fig. 9.
The additive is supplied in the embodiment aeeording to Fig. 10, however, at two plaees, i.e. via eonneetions 64, 65 and eross bores 66, 67, to the air stream divided up into different streams in axial channels 57, 58.

A modified embodiment, which is shown in Fig. 11, also has two eonneetions for additives, which are shown at 68 and 76. Connection 76 acts upon an axial channel whieh arrives at a dead end at the above-described conical seal lZ9~

22 with openings 23 and 24. ~he further connection 68 supplies parallel channels 72, 73. The latter act upon cross bores 74, 75 in piston 56, thereby supplying the particular additive to air channels 70, 71, into which the main air stream introduced at 16 is divided.

One or more additives can only take effect in the con-crete material being conveyed after a reaction period which depends upon the conditions of the particular case.
This results in the sojourn time of the concrete, which is already mixed with the additives, being as long as possible, but not too long, in the entire apparatus.
Under these circumstances, a mouth piece provided on a tube has the advantage that it makes it possible to de-termine the reaction time by means of the length of thetube and the rate of flow. A tube also has the advantage that the gunning apparatus proper does not need to be carried or handled, but only the much lighter replaceable tube, in which the concrete is conveyed to the mouth piece in the tunnel stream as described.

In order to realize the necessary length of tube, on the one hand, and not to extend the sojourn time too long, on the other, the speed of the concrete may he increased be-fore the mouth piece. This is accomplished expedientlyby a discharge pipe or a discharge tube having a smaller cross-section than the concrete inflow. Such a design also has the advantage that extremely small quantities of concrete may also be processed because the discharge tube has a relatively small cross-section.

If the mouth piece is provided wïth a nozzle, the usual conversion af pressure to speed takes place in the nozzle.
In case such an increase of speed is not required at the discharge, the nozzle may be dispensed with.

Claims (23)

1. A method for pneumatically discharging hydromechanically conveyed hydraulic building material for underground operations, compressed air being supplied to the wet building material, pumped in a dense stream, in front of a mouth piece serving the discharge thereof and having in particular a nozzle shape, the compressed air being gunned out together with the building material, characterized in that the compressed air stream is a turbulent air stream and the dense stream of the pumped building material is added to the compressed air supplied in a stream, sealed off from the outside air by the wet building material, the dense stream thereby being distributed in the compressed air stream and conveyed along with the latter to the mouth piece and discharged therefrom.

2. The method according to claim 1, in which an activator, which is preferably liquid, is added to the building material before the mouth piece in order to accelerate the hardening of the building material, characterized in that the activator is distributed in the compressed air stream before the dense stream is added.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the compressed air stream and the dense stream are united at an angle ranging from acute to 90°.

4. The method according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the discharge speed of the conveying air stream is controlled by the addition of compressed air to the compressed air stream.

5. The method according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the conveying air stream is constricted after the compressed air stream and the dense stream are united, and then expanded before being discharged.

6. The method according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the conveying stream is discharged through a discharge pipe or a discharge tube, the length and reduced cross-section of which serves to produce a thin stream and to determine the reaction time of one or more additives via the conveying speed of the thin stream.

7. An apparatus for carrying pneumatically discharging hydraulic building material comprising a mouth piece mounted on a conveyor pipeline of a hydromechanical conveying system for discharging gunned concrete or gunned mortar onto the stone walls of underworkings, the mouth piece forming the end of a pneumatic conveying pipe, the end of which opposite the mouth piece is closed and provided with a compressed air inlet which is adapted to generate turbulence in the air stream passing therethrough and in that the mouth piece has between the compressed air inlet and the mouth piece a lateral pipe outlet into which the conveying pipeline or tube assembly opens.

8. The apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that the compressed air inlet has a pipe chamber with a control device whose blades generate the turbulence in the compressed air stream.

9. The apparatus according to claim 7, characterized in that a pipe is arranged concentrically in the pipe chamber to supply activators, the inner end of this pipe being provided with a seal having openings for introducing the activator into the compressed air stream.

10. The apparatus according to claim 7, characterized by a plate behind the opening of the pipe outlet into the mouth piece for constricting, in a fixed or adjustable manner, the conveying air stream in part of the cross-section of the mouth piece pipe.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, characterized in that said plate is a baffle plate.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10, characterized in that a telescopic pipe which is displaceably arranged and sealed off in the pipe outlet of the mouth piece pipe serves as said plate.

13. The apparatus according to claim 7, characterized in that the air stream is distributed in the pipe chamber over a plurality of axial channels having radial openings through which the additive reaches the air stream.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, characterized in that the axial channels and the radial openings are formed in a piston which closes off the pipe chamber.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, characterized in that the piston exhibits a constructional unit having a pipe piston with a reduced cross-section in which an axial opening is formed for centrally supplying additive to the radial openings.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, characterized in that the pipe piston has a concentrically inner opening which closes off in a dead end with a conical seal having bores and in that one or more, concentrically outer axial channels serve to supply one or more additives to the radial openings.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, characterized in that the radial openings in the piston end at outside connections for one or more additives.

18. An improved method for pneumatically discharging hydromechanically conveyed hydraulic building material from a nozzle wherein, upstream from the nozzle the building material, which is pumped toward the nozzle in a dense stream, is combined with an activator for accelerating the hardening of the building material and also united with a compressed air stream so that the building material and activator are entrained in the air stream and conveyed thereby to the nozzle for discharge therefrom, the improvement comprises the steps of:
causing the air stream to be turbulent when it encounters the dense stream of building material; and distributing the activator to the turbulent air stream before it encounters the dense stream of building material.

19. The improved method according to claim 18, wherein the activator is a liquid.

20. The improved method according to claim 18, characterized in that the dense stream of building material and the turbulent air stream are combined at an intersection angle ranging from acute to 90°, both streams flowing toward the apex of the intersection angle.

21. The improved method according to claim 18, and further comprising the step of:
controlling the rate of flow of the compressed air stream to the dense stream in order to determine the rate of discharge of building material from the nozzle.

22. The improved method according to claim 18, and further comprising the steps of:
first constricting the cross-sectional area, upstream of the nozzle, through which the conveying air stream passes; and then expanding the cross-sectional area, upstream of the nozzle, through which the conveying air stream passes.

23. The improved method according to claim 18, wherein the activator and building material have a reaction time, and further comprising the steps of:
passing the conveying air stream through a discharge pipe, upstream from the nozzle; and controlling the reaction time by varying the length and cross-sectional area of the discharge pipe.