EP0029400A1 - Apparatus for protecting buildings and civil engineering constructions against water and moisture - Google Patents

Abstract

1. A device to protect buildings and civil engineering works from water and moisture, comprising a periheral system of tubes (16) situated on the outside of the building or works to be protected and a system of tubes (10) that is present below the building or works to be protected, the two systems (10, 16) being connected together by tubes passing through the external walls (1 to 4) or their foundations (8), each system consisting of perforated tubes (11) sunk into a drainage material (15) and enabling water to be collected by emersion and then to be drained off, characterized in that the system of tubes (10) that is present below the building or works is a geometrical lattice system that is present below the whole surface of that building or of those works, the said lattice system (10) being connected to tubes of the external peripheral system (16) by tubes pasing approximately horizontally through the external walls (1 to 4) or their foundations (8), such that the lattice system (10) that extends below the whole surface of the building or of the works, and the external peripheral system (16) are on the same plane, these systems being laid on an excavated base (9) at a slight slope so that their plane is slightly inclined to the horizontal to enable water to be carried away by gravity to the lower point in the whole of these systems (10, 16).

Description

The present invention relates to a process for protecting buildings and civil engineering works against water and humidity, as well as equipment specially intended for the implementation of this process.

The experience acquired in this field shows the very great difficulty that there is in effectively protecting buildings and works of public works constituting buried constructions from water and humidity.

To achieve this protection, the most common method currently consists of opposing a "dam" to water, covering the base of the walls and the paving with waterproof coatings. This process is very expensive and it remains imperfect, in particular in the following two aspects: '- Frequent cracks and crossings made for fluids (water, gas, electricity pipes) cause discontinuities in sealing. -The very principle of "dam" leads to a trapping of water, while it would be desirable to allow its flow.

We can thus observe, in current constructions, "backwashing" of water by capillary action, which are the cause of deterioration of the surface coatings, but also of unpleasant odors and a feeling of discomfort.

• Lé colluvionnement :Les sols où la présence de l'eau est le plus à redouter sont généralement les sols argileux, ceux qui se trouvent au voisinage de rivières ou d'étangs et soumis aux influences des nappes phréatiques, et enfin les sols dits " rapportés ", que l'insuffisance de leur compactage rend particulièrement vulnérables aux infiltrations d'eaux et qui présentent ainsi de graves dangers pour l'édification des constructions. Le ruissellement de l'eau dans ces sols provoque ce qu'il est convenu d'appeler le " tri " des fines" ou "colluvionnement ":l'accumulation aux points bas des sables et limons qui y sont entraînés et déposés par l'action de l'eau occasionne, à plus ou moins longue échéance,le colmatage ou l'ensablement des tubes de drainage et d'évacuation des eaux, ce qui provoque leur accumulation et réunit du même coup les conditions donnant lieu à l'apparition des phénomènes de capillarité.
• 2.La capillarité et ses conséquences:Dans tout milieu favorable où elle se trouve plus ou moins emprisonnée, l'eau possède une propriété phénoménale de progression dans toutes les directions. C'est essentiellement un agent mouillant, et dans son infiltration elle entraîne, avec elle, les éléments alcalins introduits notamment dans l'élaboration des chaux et ciments, d'où des détériorations à la surface des carrelages. L'eau trouve également dans les constituants.du béton, ou des agglomérés de ciment et terre cuite, des éléments extrêmement favorables à sa progression. De plus, la capillarité a pour conséquence des pressions hydrostatiques ou tensions superficiellesde l'eau, qui lui permettent de manifester, en surface,des forces très élevées. A ce sujet, il suffit de noter qu'en hydrostatique, on démontre que la masse d'un gramme d'eau,réduite en une couche de 1/20000 de millimètre d'épaisseur, serait pourtant capable de supporter une charge de 3300 tonnes 1

To fully understand the origin of these unpleasant effects and the nature of the problems to be solved, it is necessary to take into consideration the natural phenomena which occur, and which are of two kinds:

• Colluviation: The soils where the presence of water is most to be feared are generally clay soils, those which are in the vicinity of rivers or ponds and subject to the influences of groundwater, and finally soils called "reported ", which the insufficiency of their compaction makes particularly vulnerable to water infiltration and which thus present serious dangers for the construction of constructions. The runoff of water in these soils causes what is known as "sorting" of fines "or" collu ": the accumulation at the low points of the sands and silts which are entrained there and deposited by the action of water causes, in the more or less long term, the clogging or the silting up of the drainage and evacuation tubes of water, which causes their accumulation and at the same time brings together the conditions giving rise to the appearance of capillarity phenomena.
• 2. Capillarity and its consequences: In any favorable environment where it is more or less trapped, water has a phenomenal property of progression in all directions. It is essentially a wetting agent, and in its infiltration it carries with it the alkaline elements introduced in particular in the preparation of lime and cements, whence deterioration on the surface of the tiles. Water also finds in the constituents of concrete, or agglomerates of cement and terracotta, elements extremely favorable to its progression. In addition, capillarity results in hydrostatic pressures or surface tensions of the water, which allow it to manifest, at the surface, very high forces. On this subject, it is enough to note that in hydrostatic, it is demonstrated that the mass of a gram of water, reduced to a layer of 1/20000 of a millimeter thick, would however be capable of supporting a load of 3300 tonnes 1

The present invention aims to remedy the drawbacks of current protection methods, and this not by direct and punctual improvements of these methods, but on the contrary by taking the opposite view of these methods and by proposing a global solution of the problem, taking account of the phenomena highlighted above. Thus the object of the invention is to provide a new process which, instead of opposing a dam to water, on the contrary facilitates the free circulation of it under buildings or works, by preventing it from accumulate or stagnate there, this in particular by avoiding colluviation and by controlling the capillarity of my to avoid the appearance of water on the surface of the paving.

To this end, the protection process which is the subject of the invention consists in providing, under the entire surface occupied by the building or the structure to be protected, a mesh network of capture by emergence and evacuation of water, this network being formed of interconnected tubes having series of perforations, which not only form a mesh present under the entire surface of the building or structure but also pass through the external walls or their foundations, said network being embedded in the lower part of a draining layer made of crushed or similar stones.

Thanks to this process, the progression of the waters is "chicanée" and slowed down by the innumerable interstices and the labyrinth structure of the layer of crushed stones, and it is carried out slowly and in a well distributed way, without causing the formation and accumulation of sands and silts. Preferably, the bottom of the excavation on which this carpet of crushed stones rests as well as the meshed collection network is in very slight cant to allow an oriented flow and to avoid stagnation, the water being collected and evacuated at the "low point" by wall crossings. If the film of water suddenly thickens, it is immediately channeled by the collection tubes of the mesh network, which have more of a "safety" function than a permanent channeling function. Upwelling to the surface, and the resulting deterioration, are thus effectively avoided, all the more since the mesh structure of the network avoids the risks of clogging or silting up and their consequences. This last aspect is obviously very important because the water collection and evacuation network is made definitively inaccessible and invisible, once the building or structure has been completed, so that the process must maintain its efficiency permanently and indefinitely. . In this regard, the plurality flow paths, resulting from the mesh structure, allows the network to maintain its efficiency even in the case (unlikely given the action of the layer of crushed stones) of clogging or silting up of one or more tubes.

Preferably, and depending on the natural terrain and the depth of the buried parts of the building or structure under consideration, the mesh collection network is extended, outside and beyond the wall crossings, by interconnected tubes extending in vertical planes parallel to these walls.

By eliminating the current sealing systems or "crawl spaces", the process which is the subject of the invention is very economical, all the more so since the equipment necessary for its implementation is extremely simple, and the special provisions for take during construction are very limited: it is enough to provide reservations for the passage of the network tubes, through the external walls or walls, and possibly the split walls. According to a particularly simple and rational mode of implementation of the method, the collection network has square or rectangular meshes, and it is produced from sections of perforated tubes interconnected by means of cross and / or T fittings. special connectors are only necessary to make the connection between any external tubes, parallel to the vertical walls, and the rest of the network. We can choose tubes and fittings whose characteristics facilitate the assembly, transport and installation of the mesh network, in order to take into account not only economic imperatives, but also the fact that the workforce employed on construction sites is generally unskilled.

• Figure 1 est une vue en plan, très schématique,d'un bâtiment protégé contre l'eau et l'humidité grâce au procédé selon l'invention;
• Figure 2 est une vue en élévation des parties inférieures de ce bâtiment;
• Figure 3 en est une vue partielle, en coupe verticale et à plus grande échelle, montrant plus en détail le réseau maillé de captage;
• Figure 4 représente, encore à plus grande échelle, un détail de tube et un raccord appartenant à ce réseau maillé.

In any case, the invention will be better understood, and other features of detail will be highlighted, with the aid of the description which follows, with reference to the appended schematic drawing representing, by way of non-limiting example, an embodiment of this method:

• Figure 1 is a very schematic plan view of a building protected against water and humidity by the method according to the invention;
• Figure 2 is an elevational view of the lower parts of this building;
• Figure 3 is a partial view, in vertical section and on a larger scale, showing in more detail the mesh collection network;
• Figure 4 shows, still on a larger scale, a detail of a tube and a fitting belonging to this mesh network.

Figures 1 and 2 show, in an extremely schematic manner, a rectangular building with its elevation walls or walls 1, 2, 3, 4 and a cross wall 5, this building constituting a construction buried in the ground. the natural level is indicated in 6. In Figure 3 appear, in more detail, the foundations with cleanliness concrete? and sills 8, above which the elevation walls or walls 1 to 4 are erected.

According to the invention, there is disposed on the excavation bottom 9 a mesh network designated as a whole by 10, appearing in plan view as a grid (see FIG. 1). As shown more precisely in FIG. 3, this mesh network 10 is constituted by tubes 11, interconnected by means of cross connectors 12 and having series of perforations 13. This network, the square meshes of which may have a side of between approximately 0.60 m and 1 m, extends not only over the entire surface of the bottom of the excavation 9, but also crosses the sills 8 by reservations 14 provided for therein. It is understood that similar reservations must also be provided at the base of the cross wall 5.

Preferably, the excavation bottom 9 and the mesh network 10 are slightly cant, the wall 1 corresponding for example at the highest side and the wall 3 at the lowest side, the side where the drainage will obviously take place.

As shown in FIG. 3, the mesh network 10 is embedded in the lower part of a draining layer 15 resting on the excavation bottom 9 and made up of crushed stones, in the form of carefully determined aggregate. The total thickness of this layer 15 can be approximately twice the diameter of the perforated tubes 11 of the mesh network 10.

In addition, as shown in the left part of FIG. 3, as well as, more schematically, in FIG. 2, there is provided, outside the side rails 8, a vertical extension of the mesh network 10, with other perforated tubes 16 and other connections 17 forming plies which extend in vertical planes parallel to the walls 1 to 4. The shape and the height of these plies of tubes 16 which complete the basic network 10 are determined according to the profile of the terrain. natural 6, as shown in Figure 2.

Special fittings 18, with four end pieces not located in the same plane, are also provided on the edge of the mesh network 10, for the connection of the latter to the plies of vertical outer tubes.

Finally, a paving 19 is placed above the layer of crushed stones 15 in which the mesh network 10 is embedded.

The progression of the water is baffled and braked in the "hedgehog" formed by the layer 15, so that the flow of water takes place slowly towards the low point resulting from the slight slope mentioned above. If the quantity of water increases suddenly, it is captured by emergence in the mesh network 10, through the perforations 12 of the tubes 11, and channeled in these tubes which evacuate it. This prevents the film of water from thickening and causing damage to the pavement 19 and to the covering of this pavement. It should be noted that the "wall crossings" at the level of the beams 8 allow a free circulation of water under the building, avoiding any stagnation. Furthermore, the external vertical layers, formed by the tubes 16, play a similar protective role vis-à-vis the walls 1 to 4 and their bases.

On the low point side, a collector (not shown) collects all of the water collected, and transports it, for example, to the rainwater network or to an installation capable of using this water (heating).

FIG. 4 represents a tube end 11 and a cross connector 12 of the mesh network 10. The tube 11 is corrugated and its perforations 13 are formed by. slots made in the annular grooves of the tube: The connector 12 has, on its four end pieces, internal notches 20 which ensure the snap-fastening of one end of the tube 11. The tubes and connectors are advantageously made of plastic, and preferably at least the tubes 11 extending in one direction are flexible: the mesh network 10 can then be "pre-assembled" and form a sort of net, wound for its transport and storage, and then this roll is simply unwound on the excavation bottom 9, so that the laying operations on the site are simplified to the extreme. According to another characteristic illustrated in FIG. 4, perforations 21 are also provided on the fittings 12 of the mesh network, more particularly in the corners of these fittings, where there is the risk of water stagnation.

It goes without saying that the invention is not limited to the sole form of implementation of this method described above, by way of example and with reference to the drawing; on the contrary, it embraces all the variants relating to the same principle, and this concerns, in particular, the field of application of the invention, which is in no way limited to the protection of buildings with paving on an excavation background. Thus the process which is the subject of the invention can be implemented, without appreciable modification and with the same results, in the case of buildings with an armed raft and a peripheral wall, the latter being crossed by the tubes of the mesh network, and also, more generally, in the case of the underwork of various civil engineering works, for example for the foundations of bridge piers. Likewise, one would not depart from the scope of the invention by modifications and adaptations of detail of the material intended for its implementation, for example by providing two series of internal notches 20 on each end piece of a fitting 12, for better attachment of the ends of the corrugated tubes 11.

Claims (9)

1.- Process for protecting buildings and civil engineering works against water and humidity, characterized in that it consists in providing, under the entire surface occupied by the building or structure to be protected, a mesh network (10) of catchment by emergence and evacuation of water, this network being formed of interconnected tubes (11) having series of perforations (13), which not only form a mesh present under the entire surface of the building or of the Ouvraga, but still pass through the outer walls (1 to 4) or their foundations (8), said network (10) being embedded in the lower part of a draining layer (15) made up of crushed stones or the like. 2.- Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the excavation bottom (9) on which rest the layer of crushed stones (15) and the mesh collection network (10) is slightly cant. 3.- Method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the mesh collection network (10) is extended, outside and beyond the wall crossings (1 to 4), by interconnected tubes (16 ) extending in vertical planes parallel to these walls (1 to 4). 4.- Method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the collection network (10) has square or rectangular meshes, and is made from sections of perforated tubes (11) interconnected by means of cross and / or T fittings (12). 5.- Method according to all of claims 3 and 4, characterized in that special fittings (18), with four tips not located in the same plane, are further provided on the edge of the mesh network (10), for the connection of the latter to the plies of vertical outer tubes (16). 6.- Equipment intended for the implementation of the process according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it comprises, for the production of the mesh network, corrugated tubes (11), the perforations (13) being constituted by slots made in the annular grooves of these tubes (11). 7.- Equipment according to claim 6, characterized in that it further comprises fittings (12) comprising, on their ends, internal notches (20) which ensure the retention by snap-fastening of one end of corrugated tube (11 ). 8.- Equipment according to claim 7, characterized in that perforations (21) are also provided on the connections (12) of the mesh network (10), more particularly in the corners of these connections. 9.- Material according to any one of claims 6 to 8, characterized in that at least the tubes (11) extending in one direction are flexible, so as to allow the winding of the mesh network "pre-assembled ", and its installation by simple unwinding on the excavation bottom (9).

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