EP0043762B1 - Structure gonflable avec ouverture - Google Patents

Structure gonflable avec ouverture Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0043762B1
EP0043762B1 EP81401051A EP81401051A EP0043762B1 EP 0043762 B1 EP0043762 B1 EP 0043762B1 EP 81401051 A EP81401051 A EP 81401051A EP 81401051 A EP81401051 A EP 81401051A EP 0043762 B1 EP0043762 B1 EP 0043762B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
tubes
inflatable
wall
attached
constituted
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired
Application number
EP81401051A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP0043762A1 (fr
Inventor
Claude Chenon
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
EUROPEENNE D'ETUDES ET D'ESSAIS D'ENVIRONNEMENT Ste
Original Assignee
EUROPEENNE D'ETUDES ET D'ESSAIS D'ENVIRONNEMENT Ste
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by EUROPEENNE D'ETUDES ET D'ESSAIS D'ENVIRONNEMENT Ste filed Critical EUROPEENNE D'ETUDES ET D'ESSAIS D'ENVIRONNEMENT Ste
Publication of EP0043762A1 publication Critical patent/EP0043762A1/fr
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0043762B1 publication Critical patent/EP0043762B1/fr
Expired legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
    • E04—BUILDING
    • E04H—BUILDINGS OR LIKE STRUCTURES FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSES; SWIMMING OR SPLASH BATHS OR POOLS; MASTS; FENCING; TENTS OR CANOPIES, IN GENERAL
    • E04H15/00—Tents or canopies, in general
    • E04H15/20—Tents or canopies, in general inflatable, e.g. shaped, strengthened or supported by fluid pressure
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
    • H01Q1/00—Details of, or arrangements associated with, antennas
    • H01Q1/08—Means for collapsing antennas or parts thereof
    • H01Q1/081—Inflatable antennas
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
    • H01Q1/00—Details of, or arrangements associated with, antennas
    • H01Q1/42—Housings not intimately mechanically associated with radiating elements, e.g. radome
    • H01Q1/427—Flexible radomes
    • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
    • E04—BUILDING
    • E04H—BUILDINGS OR LIKE STRUCTURES FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSES; SWIMMING OR SPLASH BATHS OR POOLS; MASTS; FENCING; TENTS OR CANOPIES, IN GENERAL
    • E04H15/00—Tents or canopies, in general
    • E04H15/20—Tents or canopies, in general inflatable, e.g. shaped, strengthened or supported by fluid pressure
    • E04H2015/201—Tents or canopies, in general inflatable, e.g. shaped, strengthened or supported by fluid pressure with inflatable tubular framework, with or without tent cover
    • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
    • E04—BUILDING
    • E04H—BUILDINGS OR LIKE STRUCTURES FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSES; SWIMMING OR SPLASH BATHS OR POOLS; MASTS; FENCING; TENTS OR CANOPIES, IN GENERAL
    • E04H15/00—Tents or canopies, in general
    • E04H15/20—Tents or canopies, in general inflatable, e.g. shaped, strengthened or supported by fluid pressure
    • E04H2015/202—Tents or canopies, in general inflatable, e.g. shaped, strengthened or supported by fluid pressure with inflatable panels, without inflatable tubular framework
    • E04H2015/204—Tents or canopies, in general inflatable, e.g. shaped, strengthened or supported by fluid pressure with inflatable panels, without inflatable tubular framework made from contiguous inflatable tubes

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to an inflatable structure with opening also known as an inflatable radome opening.
  • an inflatable structure with opening also known as an inflatable radome opening.
  • such a structure is intended to protect radar installations and more particularly their antennas, often large, against atmospheric and climatic damage.
  • a radome is not only intended to protect a radar or its antenna, and although having kept its original name where the term radar appears, the radome is intended to ensure the protection of any equipment above which it is erected.
  • the radome when the radome is intended to protect a radar antenna for example, it must exercise this role without having any influence, which would generally be detrimental, on the electrical performance of the antenna.
  • Radomes have been the subject of numerous studies which have been published. We may cite as state of the art chapter 14 devoted to radomes in the book by Merril I. Skolnik "Radar Handbook published in 1970 by McGraw-Hill Inc.
  • the invention relates to an inflatable radome opening generally constituted by a structure made of a solid, light fabric, without metallic material, single or double wall under which there is a certain pressure, used on the one hand to erect the radome on the site where the antenna to be protected is located and on the other hand to help ensure its maintenance once erected.
  • This inflatable structure can be reinforced by an inflated structure disposed on the first. Used for many uses including for the protection of radar antennas, such a structure which has, as has been said, qualities of lightness, economy and significant interior space without support, however has a related drawback the need to maintain its watertightness, leading to the use of an airlock for access.
  • the radiation beam will have to pass through the thickness of the fabric in which it is made, and for certain precise measurements that it is necessary to make certain disturbances may emerge which must be avoided. Under these conditions, to perform such measurements, it must be possible to remove the part of the inflatable structure located in front of the antenna. To this end, the manufacturers of radomes have been led to "open a window in the structure and to have a" removable curtain in the path of the waves.
  • the opening of a window having the result of tending to balance the external and internal pressures, causes a modification of the mechanical stability of the radome and we have been led to make the non-working part of the radome more rigid by a structure in double sided.
  • the invention therefore aims to produce a radome with an inflatable structure with an opening, of the type described above but in which the drawbacks mentioned with regard to the structure of the prior art are avoided.
  • the invention relates to an inflatable structure with opening and of substantially hemispherical shape, constituted by an inflatable wall and also inflatable tubes arranged along meridians, and comprising a fixed part and a movable part or curtain for masking the opening, characterized by the fact that, in the fixed part determined by the superposition of a spherical top part forming a visor on a portion of a spherical crown (AB), the tubes, substantially cylindrical forming a beam, are fixed to the wall by their lower generatrix along portions of meridians located under the summit part on the one hand and on the crown portion on the other hand, and are arranged so that the tubes, substantially circular cylindrical separated from each other in the lower part of the structure corresponding to the crown portion, meet by ovalizing at the height of a parallel located towards the top of the structure, said parallel delimiting the outline of said spherical top part in such a way that the tubes rest thereon on one another, to develop forces both radial and tangential taken up by the wall to which they are
  • the upper part of the structure from the parallel where the tubes become adjacent to each other is covered with a second wall, forming a cap, fixed to the tubes according to their upper generatrix, constituting a second means of resumption of the radial and tangential forces developed and of cohesion of the whole of the structure towards its summit, or head of the structure.
  • the latter comprises a number of straps fixed on the one hand to the tubes in the upper part of the structure and on the other hand to a central ring of the structure, said straps exerting a force centripetal on the tubes and constituting a third means of resumption of the radial and tangential forces developed as well as of cohesion of the head of the structure.
  • FIG. 1 represents an opening inflatable structure, according to the invention, seen in plan.
  • this structure When it is erected, this structure being substantially a hemisphere appears in the figure as circular.
  • the basic circle 1 represents the projection of the support to which the radome is attached.
  • the attachment of the inflatable structure to the ground or to a support using no particular means which is not already described elsewhere, is not the subject of any particular development in the description.
  • the structure comprises a fixed part 2 extending over an angular sector of the order of 240 ° for example, limited by the rays OA and OB and a movable part or opening curtain of the order of 120 °.
  • the fixed part comprises, here located outside the inflatable wall of the structure, a certain number of elements or tubes 5, inflated after the positioning of the radome, which form a network of pneumatic reinforcement beams and which are distributed in meridians in such a way that at the base, that is to say towards the ground they are clearly separated and only become adjacent to each other at a certain height above the ground or the support, following parallel 6.
  • the basic structure with the tubes which meet and rest on each other more and more as they approach the summit, is covered by an additional wall, constituting a spherical cap which reveals a central ring 8 to which are attached straps not visible in Figure 1, fixed by another end to the tubes.
  • the spokes 9 visible on the cap 7 represent the weld lines of the tubes to the cap, along their upper generatrix.
  • FIG. 2 represents the opening inflatable structure according to the invention, closed, seen in profile. It will be noted in this figure that the tubes opening onto the movable part 3 of the structure are stopped at the parallel 6 and closed, forming a visor 10 for protecting this movable part.
  • FIG. 3 represents the structure according to the invention with its curtain lowered, front view and
  • FIG 4 the structure seen from the front with the curtain raised.
  • FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 it can be seen that the tubes 5 follow the spherical shape of the structure.
  • the radome When the radome is large, that is to say that its top is more than 8 to 10 meters above the ground or the support on which it is fixed, it is difficult if not impossible to make the tubes in one piece.
  • a tube of great length hardly embraces a curve and if it is fixed to the sphere, it tends either to break, or to tear from the wall to which it is fixed.
  • tubes of more limited length are then defined, of the order for example of 1.50 to 2 m which are fixed to each other by their ends. These ends have an elliptical section, intersection of a cylinder and an oblique plane.
  • connection sections are represented by 15, 16, 17 and can be determined with sufficient precision in the diametrical planes of the sphere in which they are located so that the complete resulting tube matches the shape of the wall on which it is fixed without prejudicial stresses being exerted on the seams and / or welds.
  • the radial dimension of the tubes which moreover corresponds to the thickness of the structure; the width of the elements, given the increasing pressures they exert on each other as they approach the top of the structure where the meridians, on which they are arranged, meet , decreases. This results in radial and tangential forces which do not cause disorder in the structure as would the junctions working in tearing. Under these conditions, the connections of the tubes to each other and to the inner wall of the structure on which they are placed, not being stressed by destructive forces, do not undergo dangerous forces and the assembly has good mechanical strength which is not altered by opening a window.
  • the tubes 5 are on the one hand fixed by welding to the lower wall 2 of the structure in its fixed part, by their lower generatrix , and on the other hand to the additional wall 7 by their upper generatrix.
  • This spherical cap thus constitutes a second means of resumption of the developed radial and tangential forces and of reinforcement of the whole of the structure.
  • the grouped tubes 5 are interrupted and closed by a fabric bottom allowing them to be keep inflated.
  • these tubes are ten in number and they form a kind of visor providing a protective function.
  • the rigidity of the entire structure can be increased.
  • FIG. 6 represents what constitutes a third means of recovery of the developed forces and of reinforcement.
  • tubes 5 located on either side of the top S of the structure, the tubes 50, 51, 52 and 53, the tubes 50 and 51, and 52, 53 being symmetrical to each other by relative to the top S.
  • straps 16, 160 which are fixed at points 17.170 for the tube 50 are continued by thin cables 18, fixed to a ring 8 close to the top S.
  • the same device is visible for the tube 51 symmetrical with the tube 50 where the straps 19, 190 are fixed to the side walls of the tube 51 at points 20, 200 where only point 20 is visible.
  • These straps 19, 190 can also be fixed to end cables 21, which are fixed to the ring 8.
  • Such an elementary device is repeated for all the tubes ending near the top of the structure, the assembly of which constitutes a third means of recovery of developed and reinforcing forces, the straps exerting a centripetal force on the tubes.
  • each of the means described is sufficient to ensure the stability and rigidity of the entire radome. It is no less clear that a structure comprising all of the means described has increased stability and rigidity greater than that of a structure according to the invention comprising only one or two of these means.
  • the curtain 3 of the structure which masks the opening which is formed therein and which raises makes it possible to make the precise measurements necessary for the open air, is made of a flexible fabric cut into spindles, as it appears for example on the Figure 3, spindles whose width is reduced towards the top.
  • Figure 7 shows schematically how this curtain is fixed and can be operated.
  • the curtain is fixed to a semi-circular arch 22 movable around a diameter 23 located in the equatorial plane E, the fixed points of the rotation being the ends 24 and 25 of diameter 23.
  • This arch is connected to light cables in nylon for example, which are wrapped around the drum of a small electric winch for example, which allows the curtain to be raised when the arch is pulled up.
  • An intermediate cable can be provided which during the lifting allows the curtain to fold completely and without it partially falling back into the opening which it unmasks.
  • FIG. 8 schematically represents an example of an inflation installation used with the radome according to the invention.
  • a booster 28 connected to a ramp 26 of circular shape limited however to the angle of the sector of the fixed structure, ie in the example chosen 240 °.
  • This ramp 26 comprises supply points 27 in number equal to the number of tubes fixed to the internal wall of the structure. In the example described there are about twenty tubes. At the supply points 27 are provided three-way valves allowing the tubes to be inflated independently and avoiding problems when one or more tubes have leaks or are simply punctured.
  • tubes forming the visor 7 are inflated independently.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Architecture (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Fluid Mechanics (AREA)
  • Civil Engineering (AREA)
  • Structural Engineering (AREA)
  • Details Of Aerials (AREA)
  • Forms Removed On Construction Sites Or Auxiliary Members Thereof (AREA)
  • Blow-Moulding Or Thermoforming Of Plastics Or The Like (AREA)
  • Air Bags (AREA)
EP81401051A 1980-07-04 1981-06-30 Structure gonflable avec ouverture Expired EP0043762B1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
FR8014913A FR2486313A1 (fr) 1980-07-04 1980-07-04 Structure gonflable avec ouverture
FR8014913 1980-07-04

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0043762A1 EP0043762A1 (fr) 1982-01-13
EP0043762B1 true EP0043762B1 (fr) 1985-04-03

Family

ID=9243860

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP81401051A Expired EP0043762B1 (fr) 1980-07-04 1981-06-30 Structure gonflable avec ouverture

Country Status (7)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0043762B1 (no)
DE (1) DE3169665D1 (no)
DK (1) DK296581A (no)
ES (1) ES267751Y (no)
FR (1) FR2486313A1 (no)
NO (1) NO155419C (no)
PT (1) PT73316B (no)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE4330224A1 (de) * 1993-09-07 1995-03-09 Deutsche Aerospace Radom für Radaranlagen

Families Citing this family (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CA2022854C (en) * 1989-10-02 1995-06-06 Bary Robert Bertiger Multiple beam deployable space antenna system
US5479743A (en) * 1994-07-28 1996-01-02 Queen; Lorne Inflatable emergency shelter
GB0023187D0 (en) * 2000-09-21 2000-11-01 Lindstrand Balloons Ltd Inflatable enclosures
US10965015B2 (en) 2018-05-03 2021-03-30 W. B. Walton Enterprises, Inc. Portable protective enclosure for communications devices

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US2908919A (en) * 1956-06-06 1959-10-20 Garrett Corp Arctic shelter life raft
FR1163844A (fr) * 1956-07-24 1958-10-01 Ariel Soc Radome
GB1187654A (en) * 1967-05-11 1970-04-15 Steinthal And Co Inc M Inflatable Structures
US4036244A (en) * 1973-05-08 1977-07-19 Tension Structures Co. Vertical arch shelter

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE4330224A1 (de) * 1993-09-07 1995-03-09 Deutsche Aerospace Radom für Radaranlagen

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
PT73316A (fr) 1981-08-01
ES267751U (es) 1983-04-01
FR2486313A1 (fr) 1982-01-08
ES267751Y (es) 1983-10-16
DE3169665D1 (en) 1985-05-09
DK296581A (da) 1982-01-05
NO155419C (no) 1987-03-25
NO155419B (no) 1986-12-15
PT73316B (fr) 1982-09-01
NO812282L (no) 1982-01-05
FR2486313B1 (no) 1984-05-11
EP0043762A1 (fr) 1982-01-13

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