EP0179691A1 - Process to suppress raising damp in walls - Google Patents

Abstract

The method permits reversal of the capillary action which, within walls, is responsible for the water rising. It consists in inserting thermocouples (7) into cavities or slits (6) drilled into the masonry (3), and injecting hygroscopic cement to which insecticidal or bactericidal products, or fungicides are added. <IMAGE>

Description

The present invention relates to a method for treating the humidity of walls. This process treats the rising humidity coming from the ground and which begins with a phenomenon of capillarity, soon amplified by the well known fact (Reuss ₁ 908) of the establishment of a natural pile in the masonry between the dry part and the part wet.

Hence the ingenious idea of interposing on the route of these lifts a metallic obstacle whose role is to reverse the direction of the current and therefore to stop the pump effect. The moisture is thus returned to the ground.

With or without an external energy source, various methods have been used.

The processes which require a connection to an external source of electric current bear the drawback of electro-erosion, hence rapid deterioration possible.

The so-called passive processes themselves are not immune to EDM when copper anodes are used, and the use of other metals does not protect them from the causes of failure that constitute the variations of geomagnetism and the very important variations of potential possible at the same point of the ambient air, which can at the limit undergo inversions in the zones of low height above the ground. Likewise, these processes remain sensitive to the sometimes intense fields created by electrical conductors circulating at various heights on and in walls, by household and audio-visual devices.

Due to the obligation to earth electrical installations, so-called "stray current" phenomena occur, capable of reversing the polarity in certain wall drying installations:

Thermocouples escape this drawback, in particular in the assembly provided for in the process described

Similarly, in the thermocouples used here, the reverse polarity is likely to occur only for temperatures of the order of 500 to 600 degrees Celsius, which is very far from the conditions of use in buildings treated by the process.

According to the present invention, a surprising result has been obtained by a process which does not require any external energy supply while ensuring a negative pole irreversibly fixed to the ground whatever the surrounding fields, a potential difference sufficient to reverse in any circumstance. the stack effect in the walls and finally by creating a field capable of acting effectively on the diffuse ions in the masonry.

• Il existe une différence de potentiel entre les deux extrémités d'une chaîne ouverte de coducteurs si cette chaîne est dissymétrique. Les deux métaux en contact ne possèdent pas la même proportion d'électrons libres. Pour une température donnée l'un est riche en électrons, l'autre est pauvre. Il va donc y avoir passage d'électrons d'un métal à un autre jusqu'à ce que la surface de séparation entre les deux conducteurs atteigne un certain état électrique (qui pour un température donnée dépend des métaux en contact). A ce moment les électrons ne passent plus ; le métal qui a perdu des électrons s'est électrisé positivement, celui qui a gagné des électrons (aux dépens de l'autre) s'est électrisé négativement et il existe, en conséquence une différence de potentiel aux extrémités. Si la température s'élève, l'agitation électronique est plus grande et la différence de potentiel augmente d'une façon caractéristique selon la nature des métaux en présence. Nous avons formé un thermocouple. Cet effet est du à deux phénomènes d'importance inégale :
• - L'effet Volta:

The method of the invention is based on known physical laws:

• There is a potential difference between the two ends of an open chain of coders if this chain is asymmetrical. The two metals in contact do not have the same proportion of free electrons. For a given temperature one is rich in electrons, the other is poor. There will therefore be passage of electrons from one metal to another until the separation surface between the two conductors reaches a certain electrical state (which for a given temperature depends on the metals in contact). At this time the electrons no longer pass; the metal which has lost electrons has electrified positively, that which has gained electrons (at the expense of the other) has electrified negatively and there is therefore a potential difference at the ends. If the temperature rises, the electronic stirring is greater and the potential difference characteristically increases according to the nature of the metals present. We have formed a thermocouple. This effect is due to two phenomena of unequal importance:
• - The Volta effect:

• - L'effet Thomson : Entre deux points d'un conducteur existe une différence de potentiel de quelques mianvolts si les températures sont inégales.

When two metallic conductors are in contact and in thermal equilibrium, there is a potential difference between them which depends on the nature of the metals and the temperature of the junction. This voltage can be of the order of a volt

• - The Thomson effect: Between two points of a conductor there is a potential difference of a few mianvolts if the temperatures are unequal.

• - cuivre-constantan Type T
• - chrome-alumel Type K
• - chrome-constantan Type E

The process involves the use, for example, of the following thermocouples: - fer-constantan Type J

• - copper-constantan Type T
• - chrome-alumel Type K
• - chrome-constantan Type E

• - extérieur et négatif : noir
• - positif : jaune (Normes NF E 18001 de 1958)

The reference colors are French:

• - exterior and negative: black
• - positive: yellow (NF E 18001 standards of 1958)

This compliance ensures the reproducibility of thermocouple effects. It is quite obvious that the thermocouple must resist the environment. As a result, the thermocouples used undergo a coating of plastic, or varnish or coatings most suited to this same environment, and they can be linked together.

Thermocouples before their introduction into masonry do not require electrical measurements of the potentials prevailing in the walls (Figure 3). They are introduced in holes drilled obliquely to the foundations at distances varying from 25 to 50, on average 40 cm, or else in vertical grooves. They are then sealed by plugging the hole (by filling or under low pressure) with hygroscopic cement. This cement, depending on the circumstances, may be added with insecticide, bactericide or fungicide products.

The cement increases the speed of the contact, ensures its maintenance and contributes to reinforcing the resistance of the masonry.

Thus installed, the thermocouple permanently ensures the establishment of an electromagnetic field. This field, at a point A whose distance to the thermocouple (assumed to be reduced to a wire F) is equal to r, is given by the formula (1 being the linear load):

The field distribution around the thermocouple is cylindrical.

The potential V, at the distance r from a full cylinder D of radius a carrying the volume charge p is given by the formula: V = Va (1 + 2 ln (r / a)

for r> a

this as a function of the potential at Va the surface of the cylinder.

The diffuse ions inside the masonry are in solution in a polar solvent, water, whose molecules have a permanent electric moment. The solvent molecules line up along the ion field lines and move to the region where the field is most intense. They thus tend to clump around the ion, which is said to be solvated. The dipole, aligned along a field line, is drawn along this field line towards the region where this field is most intense, taking with it its crown of polar solvent, here the water of the wall. This training process is much higher than the inter-dipole forces, called Van der Waals, which are of the order of l / r ⁷ .

The described method places the electronic transfer in the majority of the cases, in a system which is strongly influenced by the principle of exclusion of PAULI. Because of their great mobility, the electrons form around the positive ions a screen which instantly adapts to their movements. In general, the transfer by external sphere is avoided according to which two ions share the same ligand during the electronic transfer in favor of the transfer by internal sphere which takes place during the collision between two complexes.

Insensitive to EDM due to its coating, each time the temperature increases (heating, sunshine, hot water pipes, etc.) the thermocouple increases the potential differences between the anode and the cathode, and its efficiency on the ionic solutions of the wall increases correspondingly

Here is a process which rests on well established physical bases, insensitive to external influences which are the cause of failures in other forms of intervention against the humidity of the walls. Its activity is maintained by the thermocouple virtually indefinitely, which significantly accelerates the drying process of the walls, without however endangering the solidity of the masonry as in the brutal supply of external electrical energy.

The constitution of thermocouples in bars of various sections, tubes, bundles of rods or wires, network, allows it to adapt to all the problems to be solved.

The thermocouples inserted into holes or slots dug to the foundations, are contained entirely in the masonry and do not need to be connected to probes at ground level. They can be used on all types of walls, thin, thick or very thick, in the exterior and interior walls. As in basements and cellars. They can be connected to measuring devices.

• La figure 1 représente le stade initial d'entrée d'eau dans les murs, par capillarité et osmose
  • No. 1 - terrain humide
  • No. 2 - sous-sol
  • No. 3 - mur et fondation
  • No. 4 - voies de pénétration de l'eau par capillarité et osmose.
• La figure 2 représente une coupe en élévation d'un mur implanté dans le sol :
  • No. 1 - terrain humide
  • No. 2 - mur ayant déjà subi l'entrée d'eau par capillarité
  • No. 3 - voie d'ascension de l'eau dans le mur par l'effet de la différence de potentiel entre la partie haute et la partie basse du mur.
• La figure 3 représente le mode le plus courant d'implantation du thermocouple dans le mur.

The practical embodiment of the present invention will be explained more clearly in the description which follows, without limitation, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

• Figure 1 represents the initial stage of entry of water into the walls, by capillary action and osmosis
  • No. 1 - wet ground
  • No. 2 - basement
  • No. 3 - wall and foundation
  • No. 4 - routes of water penetration by capillary action and osmosis.
• Figure 2 shows a section in elevation of a wall implanted in the ground:
  • No. 1 - wet ground
  • No. 2 - wall that has already undergone capillary water entry
  • No. 3 - path of ascent of water in the wall by the effect of the potential difference between the upper and lower part of the wall.
• Figure 3 shows the most common method of installing the thermocouple in the wall.

• No. 1 - terrain humide
• No. 2 - trou foré dans le mur jusqu'aux fondations
• No. 3 - thermocouple.

The thermocouple field will inhibit the functioning of the humidity pump effect by deriving the potential difference:

• No. 1 - wet ground
• No. 2 - hole drilled in the wall to the foundations
• No. 3 - thermocouple.

RESULTS: On walls of various thicknesses and types of construction, the humidity level, which varied from 13.5 to 16.8% by weight, was reduced to rates of 1.5 to 3.6% in the time between ₃ and a half months and four months by simply ensuring a "breathing" of the wall and good ventilation. We draw attention to the fact that this process, depriving the termites of water and driving them out by injecting insecticides mixed with the filling mortar, constitutes an excellent and inexpensive means of combating these insects, whose area of action harmful continues to spread in FRANCE.

Claims (6)

1. Process for treating the rising humidity of the walls, characterized in that it consists in the use of thermocouples introduced into holes or slots in combinations of these two cavities in the masonry, oblique or vertical, dug up to foundations. 2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the thermocouples are isolated and / or connected to each other, possibly connected to measuring devices, without any connection to telluric probes and are contained entirely in the walls. 3. Method according to claims 1 and 2, characterized in that the thermocouples are protected against electro-erosion by plastics, varnishes or other suitable coatings. 4. Method according to claims 1, 2 and 3, characterized in that it can be used on all types of walls regardless of their thickness, thin, thick or very thick. 5. Method according to claims 1, 2, 3 and 4, characterized in that thermocouples of the type are used: a) fer-constantan Type J b) copper-constantan Type T c) chrome-alumel Type J d) chrome-constantan Type E (Standards NF E 18001 of 1958), or any other composition of thermocouples. 6. Method according to claims 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, characterized in that the thermocouples can be in the form of: - bars full of various sections - networks - tubes - bundles of chopsticks - bundles of wires.

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