GB2196357A

GB2196357A - Construction of vaults

Info

Publication number: GB2196357A
Application number: GB08623445A
Authority: GB
Inventors: James Graham Malcolm
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1986-09-30
Filing date: 1986-09-30
Publication date: 1988-04-27
Also published as: GB8623445D0

Abstract

The floor, roof and/or walls of a vault are constructed of reinforced concrete, Fig. 2, wherein spaced parallel arrays of rods 15, 18 are separated by generally sinusoidally shaped tie members 20. An alternative wall construction is also disclosed (Fig. 4) in which the reinforcement consists of a first set of spaced mutually parallel rods (34) running upwardly at an angle from the vertical and a second similar set 35 running crosswise of the first set at the opposite angle to the vertical. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Construction of vaults The present invention relates to the construction of vaults for the secure storage of valuables or other materials for which security is required.

Such vaults are conventionally constructed with of such vaults conventionally contain, in addition to structural reinforcement, steel members of various kinds intended to make it more difficult to cut through the walls or roof, e.g. using an explosive charge.

There are a number of systems of such security reinforcement (as opposed to structural reinforcement) available. They include spirals of steel reinforcement, cut steel plate twisted to present protruding sharp tangs and bent and folded expanded metal sheet.

All of these systems require also the use of steel rod or bar as structural reinforcement in the concrete and the security reinforcement does not contribute significantly to the task of structural support. All these systems require the use of materials other than conventional reinforcing rod which are available from only one supplier and/or require special equipment for their manufacture.

In addition, the applicant has previously designed a vault in the walls and floors of which steel rod reinforcement is used both as structural and as security reinforcement. In such an arrangement, each of the walls, floor and roof may be provided with two spaced parallel layers of reinforcement, in each of which there are two sets of mutually parallel spaced reinforcing rods, which sets run at right angles to one other. In the walls, these will run vertically and horizontally.

It is desired to provide a vault having improved security characteristics in which the principal reinforcement serves both for security reinforcement and structural reinforcement and can be provided by essentially conventional reinforcement materials.

Accordingly, the present invention provides in a first aspect a vault having a floor, roof and/or walls comprising concrete cast over an assembly of metal reinforcement rods, wherein said assembly comprises first and second arrays of reinforcement rods, each array comprising a first set of spaced, substantially mutually parallel rods and a second set of spaced, substantially mutually parallel rods running crosswise of and adjacent the first set said arrays lying in spaced parallel planes and being interconnected by rod tie-members each having or consisting of a generally sinusoidal portion and being arranged together to run sinuously through the assembly alternately passing over and curving around rods in a set of rods in the first array and rods in a set of rods in the second array.

The construction specified above is preferred for the floor and roof of a vault according to the invention and may be employed for the walls also. Preferably however, the walls are constructed differently and in accordance with a second aspect of the invention.

The invention accordingly provides in a second aspect a vault having walls each comprising concrete cast over an assembly of metal reinforcement rods, wherein the said assembly comprises an array of reinforcement rods, which array extends through substantially the whole area of the wall and consists of a first set of spaced, substantially mutually parallel rods running generally upwardly at a substantial angle from the vertical and a second set of spaced, substantially mutually parallel rods lying adjacent to and running crosswise of the first set at a similar, but opposite, angle to the vertical.

"Arrays" of reinforcement rods such as are referred to above are usually termed ''reinforcement mats" in vault construction.

A vault according to the first aspect of the invention preferably has walls constructed as described in connection with the second aspect of the invention.

In such a preferred vault construction, the reinforcement assembly in the walls preferably comprises a second array of reinforcement rods lying parallel to and spaced from the first said array.

The said substantial angle to the vertical is preferably from 15 to 45 , e.g. about 25".

Most preferably, the angle is approximately 27".

Preferably, rod tie-members of L- or Ushape are provided extending through the thickness of the assembly of reinforcement in each said wall.

Preferably, such tie-members run in the thickness of the wall at a substantial angle to the horizontal, for instance from 10 to 30 , e.g. about 17".

Preferably, at the foot and/or top of each said wall, rod starter-members are provided projecting from the floor and/or roof which each comprise a generally U-shaped member in which the upper part of the legs of the "U" are bent out of the plane of the "U" to lie mutually coplanar and at an angle to the plane of the "U" substantially equal to the angle said first and second sets of reinforcement rods in the said walls make to the vertical, said upper parts of the legs of the "U" in such starter-members lying adjacent with and continuing the line of the rods of said first and second sets of rods in each array of the wall thereby to interconnect said arrays.

Preferably, at corners where two said side walls join, V-shaped corner reinforcement rods are provided for each of the said first and second sets of rods, each of which corner rods has one arm which lies alongside a rod of a said set in a first of said walls and a second arm which lies alongside a rod of the other set in the other of said walls.

The angle of the said "V" will depend upon the angle to the vertical made by the sets of reinforcement rods in the walls. Preferably however the arrangement is such that an angle of 36.9 will be appropriate. This will generally correspond to an angle of 27 to the vertical for the main reinforcement rods of the walls.

Preferably, the rod tie-members of the floor and/or roof have the form generally of at least somewhat more than one and a half periods of an approximated sine wave, commencing and ending somewhat above the base line of the sine wave. Such tie-members may be several sine wave periods in length.

A layer of expanded metal mesh may if desired be positioned between the first and second sets of reinforcement rods making up any or each array of reinforcement in the roof, floor and/or walls.

During construction, the metal reinforcement members may be tied together using for instance wire in order to construct the framework of reinforcement prior to covering with concrete.

The invention will be illustrated by the following description of a preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a section through the floor and lower portions of two walls of a vault showing the internal reinforcement pattern of the floor, Figure 2 is a section through the floor of Figure 1 taken at right angles to the section line of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a plan view of a tie-member as used in the floor of Figures 1 and 2, Figure 4 is an internal elevation showing the internal layer of reinforcement in a wall of the vault of Figure 1, Figure 5 is a detail of the circled portion of Figure 4, Figure 6 is a perspective view of a startermember as used in the wall shown in Figure 4, Figure 7 is a section through the width of the wall shown in Figure 4, Figure 8 is a detail of the section shown in Figure 7, Figure 9 is a perspective view of the arrangement of reinforcement at the corner formed between two walls of the vault, and Figure 10 is a plan view of a corner reinforcement member as shown in use in Figure 9.

Figure 1 shows in section the floor 10 of a vault 1. Left (11) and right (12) side walls extend upwardly from the floor. The floor contains an assembly 13 of steel reinforcing rods or bars. The assembly comprises four main sets of reinforcing rods arranged in two spaced, parrallel arrays. An upper array 14 comprises a first set of rods 15 running at right angles to the plane of the diagram and a second set of rods 16 running parallel to the plane of the diagram, i.e. at right angles to rods 15. The rods 15 directly overlie the rods 16 and are tied thereto at crossing-points by metal wire.

The second array 17 similarly comprises a set of rods 18 running transversely to the plane of the diagram and a set of rods 19 running parallel to the plane of the diagram, i.e. at right angles to the rods 18. Between the sets of rods 18 and 19 is arranged a sheet of expanded metal mesh. The rods are tied together through the mesh at crossingpoints by wire.

The assembly is completed by tie-members of steel reinforcing rod each of which has the form shown in Figure 3. These are arranged as shown in Figures 1 and 2. Each tie-member 20 (Figure 3) is generally sinusoidal in form and corresponds to rather more than one and a half periods of a sine wave, the outer "legs" of the tie-member extend beyond the lateral mid-line of the member so that tiemembers of this kind may be arranged overlapping in sequence as shown in Figure 2.

Of course, one could instead employ tiemembers which are longer than 1-1/2 periods, for instance 2-1/2 or 3-1/2 periods long.

Assemblies of the tie-members 20 therefore extend in parallel planes through the reinforcement assembly of the floor as shown in Figure 1. As shown in Figure 2, the sinuous path adopted by the tie-members 20 in any one plane is staggered with respect to those in adjacent planes.

As shown by the ghost iines in Figure 3, reinforcement rods 16 and 19 lie within the bight of the bends in the tie-members 20 and they are secured thereto by tying with wire.

As best seen in Figure 4, the reinforcement in the walls of the vault is arranged in a crosswise fashion at an angle to the vertical. The reinforcement assembly in the walls comprises, once again, four principal sets of reinforcement rods in two arrays which are parallel and spaced from one another. A first array 30 (Figure 7) comprises first (31) and second (32) sets of mutually parallel reinforcement rods, those of set 31 lying at an angle across those of set 32. Similarly, the second array 33 comprises a first set 34 of reinforcement rods and a second set 35. Once again, the rods within each of the sets lie parallel and spaced from one another and run crosswise with respect to those in the other set.

The array 33 of reinforcement rods, i.e. the interior of the two arrays in the wall, is seen in Figure 4. As can be seen, the rods in each set run at an angle of approximately 27 off the vertical whereby the two sets cross at an angle of substantially 54 .

As shown in Figure 7, a layer of expanded metal mesh 36 is provided between the sets of rods 34, 35 and between the sets of rods 31, 32. The rods in the two sets of each array are tied to one another at crossingpoints by metal wire.

At the base of the wall, the arrays 33 and 32 are connected and initiated by startermembers 37 of the kind shown in Figure 6.

As can be seen from Figures 5 and 7, these are arranged in the wall in two sets 37a and 37b.

Each starter-member is of reinforcing rod and is generally U-shaped, upper arm portions 38 of the U being bent out of the plane of the U through an angle of approximately 27" to lie coplanar with one another.

As shown in Figures 5 and 7, the bight of the U of each starter-member lies in the width of the wall and the upper portions of the arms 38 run incline to the vertical to align with the rods of the arrays 30 and 33. In the set of starter-members 37a, the arms 38 run upwardly left to right and in the set of startermembers 37b, the arms 38 run upwardly right to left, in the view shown in Figure 5.

As shown in Figure 2, the bottom run of the bight of the U of each starter-member lies at the level of the set of reinforcing rods 18 in the bottom of the floor and is overlain by reinforcing rods 19. The starter-members are tied to the reinforcing rods 19 and 18 with wire.

The reinforcement of the walls is completed by tie-members 39 of reinforcing rod which are L-shaped or U-shaped and extend through the thickness of the wall. As best seen in Figure 8, the tie-members 39 extend through the thickness of the wall at an angle to the horizontal of approximately 17". They are arranged in pairs in which the shorter arms of each of the two tie-members lie alongside one another and the longer arms lie generally parallel so as to form a composite U-shape member. Pairs lie in the wall with their longer arms running alternately upwardly and downwardly away from the shorter arms. As seen in Figure 8, the shorter arms of the L-shaped tiemembers lie outside the arrays of rods 30 and 33.

As an alternative to the use of pairs of Lshaped tie-members, one may instead use Ushaped tie-members.

At the corners where two walls join, a special arrangement of reinforcing rods is needed to connect the angled reinforcing rods 31, 32, 34, 35 in one wall with those in another. For this purpose, the V-shaped corner members 40 as shown in Figure 10 are used arranged as shown in Figure 9. In each of the two arrays 30, 33, corner members 40 are present tied to the ends of the rods 34 and 35 and extending around the corner to the next wall where in a similar manner they are tied by wire to the ends of similar rods in a corresponding array in that wall. Naturally, corner members 40 which in a first wall are connected to rods 34 rising from the floor from right to left will, in the adjacent wall connect to rods in the other set in that array, i.e. rods falling to the floor from right to left.

The arrangement of reinforcement shown is adequate to provide not only structural reinforcement sufficient to support the roof and the loads which may be applied to it and to provide the reinforcement in the floor necessary to spread the weight of the vault to the foundations, but also to provide the level of structural strength needed for security.

The reinforcement bar used may be of conventional type only needing to be bent to the special shapes described above and to be arranged as described.

Whilst the invention has been described with reference to preferred characteristics of the particular embodiment illustrated, many modifications and variations thereof may be made within the scope of the invention. For instance, the walls may be constructed generally in the same manner as the floor and roof.

Alternatively, starter-members 37 may be included at the top of the reinforcement of the walls as well as at the bottom.

Instead of the reinforcement rods being tied to one another by wire in the traditional way, they may be tack welded at crossing points.

Claims

1. A vault having a floor, roof and/or walls comprising concrete cast over an assembly of metal reinforcements rods, wherein said assembly comprises first and second arrays of reinforcement rods, each array comprising a first set of spaced, substantially mutually parallel rods and a second set of spaced, substantially mutually parallel rods running crosswise of and adjacent the first set, said arrays laying in spaced parallel planes and being interconnected by rod tie-members each having or consisting of a generally sinusoidal portion and being arranged together to run sinuously through the assembly alternately passing over and curving around rods in a set of rods in the first arry and rods in a set of rods in the second array.

2. A vault having walls each comprising concrete cast over an assembly of metal reinforcement rods, wherein the said assembly comprises an array of reinforcement rods, which array extends through substantially the whole area of the wall and consists of a first set of spaced, substantially mutually parallel rods running generally upwardly at a substantial angle from the verical and a second set of spaced, substantially mutually parallel rods lying adjacent to and running crosswise of the first set at a similar, but opposite, angle to the vertical.

3. A vault according to the first aspect of the invention having a floor and/or roof constructed as defined in Claim 1 and walls as constructed as defined in Claim 2.

4. A vault as claimed in Claim 3, wherein the reinforcement assembly in the walls pre ferably comprises a second array of reinforcement rods laying parallel to and spaced from the first said array.

5. A vault as claimed in any one of Claim 1 to 4, wherein said substantial angle to the vertical is from 15" to 450.

6. A vault as claimed in Claim 5, wherein said angle is approximately 27".

7. A vault as claimed in any one of Claims 2 to 6, wherein rod tie-members of L- or Ushape are provided extending through the thickness of the assembly of reinforcement in each said wall.

8. A vault as claimed in Claim 7, wherein such tie-members run in the thickness of the wall at a substantial angle to the horizontal.

9. A vault as claimed in Claim 8, wherein said angle to the horizontal from 10 to 30".

10. A vault as claimed in any one of Claims 2 to 9, wherein at the foot and/or top of each said wall, rod starter-members are provided projecting from the floor and /or roof which each comprise a generally U-shaped member in which the upper part of the legs of the "U" are bent out of the plane of the "U" to lie mutually coplanar and at an angle to the plane of the "U" substantially equal to the angle said first and second sets of reinforcement rods in the said walls make to the vertical, said upper parts of the legs of the "U" in such starter-member lying adjacent with and continuing the line of the rods of the said first and second sets of rods in each array of the wall thereby to interconnect said arrays.

11. A vault as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 10, wherein at corners where two said side walls join, V-shaped corner reinforcement rods are provided for each of the said first and second sets of rods, each of which corner rods has one arm which lies alongside a rod of a said set in a first of said walls and a second arm which lies alongside a rod of the other set in the other of said walls.

12. A vault as claimed in any one of Claims 1 or 7 to 9, wherein the rod tie-members of the floor and/or roof have the fbrm generally of at least somewhat more than one and a half periods of an approximated sine wave, commencing and ending somewhat above the base line of the sine wave.

13. A vault substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.