GB2372050A - Building construction for forming retaining walls, flood barriers etc. - Google Patents

Abstract

The building construction comprises a plurality of building elements 20, each element comprising an elongate body in the geometrical form of a prism of constant cross-section, with the building elements being laid in layers with their longitudinal axes mutually parallel. The building elements preferably have an axial length that is greater than two times their greatest cross-section and may have circular or non-circular cross-sections. The building elements may comprise an aggregate bonded with a bonding material and the aggregate may comprise sand or finely divided stone or gravel and the bonding material may comprise lime sand mortar or a synthetic resin. The building elements may include a coloured material and be formed by moulding or continuous extrusion. The building construction may be used to form the wall of a flood barrier where the building elements are arranged in several superimposed layers, with successive building elements being displaced relative to previously laid elements in the direction of their longitudinal axes whilst keeping the axes parallel. Sealing inserts 22 may be provided in gaps 21 between the building elements which are formed from elastomeric materials and which have a cross-section that corresponds to the gaps and dimensions, when uncompressed, are larger than the gaps.

Description

BUILDING CONSTRUCTIONS This invention relates to building constructions, for example for the construction of free standing or retaining walls.

It is current practise to construct walls using stone or concrete blocks, or ceramic bricks. It is necessary to provide a firm concrete or other foundation or footing to support the weight of the wall, since subsidence of the ground below the wall may cause eventual collapse of at least part of the wall. Further, a skilled stonemason or bricklayer is required to erect the wall to ensure that bricks or blocks are properly bedded and keyed by mortar. Mortar free (dry stone) construction requires skills which are not widely available. The construction of such a wall is a time consuming and thus often expensive task.

In many cases however, it is desirable to be able to construct walls or barriers quickly, for example to erect flood barriers in an emergency, or for unskilled workers to be able to erect walls or barriers which will be stable over an extended time span even without use of foundations or prepared footings and may follow the notarial contours of the terrain.

It is an object of the invention to provide a building construction which will enable walls or other barriers to be erected quickly, by unskilled labour, and without prior preparation of the site or building of foundations.

According to the invention, a building construction comprises a plurality of building elements, each building element comprising a bar or billet in the geometric form of a prism of consistent cross-section, and said building elements being laid in layers with their longitudinal axes mutually parallel.

The building elements are preferably elongate, that is having an axial length greater than two or three times their greatest cross-sectional dimension (e. g. diameter or major axis).

The cross-sections of the building elements are advantageously circular, although other cross-sections are possible, notably elliptical, hexagonal, square or rectangular, octagonal, or triangular.

Some cross-sections are well adapted to use in building barriers such as flood barriers, whilst others may be more suitable in ornamental use, such as dividing walls or retaining walls for use in gardens.

The building elements are preferably of concrete, that is aggregate bonding with a sand and lime mixture.

Alternative materials include synthetic materials, for example resin or other plastic material bonding a mineral filler of fine aggregate, sand or the like.

The composition may include colouring materials for use in especially in gardens, to for example impart a resemblance to tinted stones such as red granite or blue or green slate.

The building elements may be moulded, or be continuously extruded, being cut into desired lengths as the extrudate emerges from the extrusion orifices. In an emergency situation, the elements may be moulded using locally available aggregate and sand with lime.

In constructing a flood barrier, the work can be carried out quickly, as it is not necessary to prepare foundations or other footings, but simply begin laying the construction elements on the ground. Preferably, the elements are laid at an angle of about 45 to the expected direction of water flow. By lengthening or shortening the off set between adjacent elements, the line of the resulting wall can be diverted for example to follow a sinuous river bank, without altering the orientation of the elements.

Once a wall of this kind has been built, it can be landscaped into a permanent bank by laying a path on top of the wall, and covering the landward side of the wall with an earth bank to hide the concrete building elements. If in future, flooding threatens to overflow such a flood bank, the bank can be raised by adding further tiers of constructions elements on top of the bank. If the bank is overflowed the path may be washed away, but the wall itself will remain firm and not be breached, so that the main bulk of flood water will still be retained.

Where the construction elements are, as preferred, circular in cross section, the gaps between the elements are preferably sealed by using rubber or similar material substantially triangular sectioned inserts in the gaps.

The inserts may extend the full length of the elements, and be of a cross-section slightly greater than the gap so that the elements compress the inserts, thus providing an effective seal. Cement or mastic may be used to seal the gaps alone or in combination with such sealing elements.

The construction elements of the invention may be used in conjunction with corner elements, or providing abrupt right-angle, or obtuse angle bends in the wall. These corner elements, may be constructed from flat concrete or stone slabs, shaped as triangular or wedge shaped elements. Ornamental walls may be combined with terminal pillars built from superposed blocks, and may be capped with similar flat slabs or coping stores.

Some preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein : Figure 1. is a perspective view of a small part of wall forming a building construction according to the invention; Figure 2. is a sectional view of the construction fragment shown in Figure 1. ; Figure 3. is a perspective view of an insert for use in filing gaps between building elements in Figures 1. and 2. ; Figure 4. is a diagrammatic plan view showing how building elements may be laid parallel to each other yet define a sinuous structure, in constructions for example of a flood barrier; Figure 5. Is a transverse sectional view of a completed flood barrier forming a building construction according to the invention; Figure 6. is an elevational view of a garden wall, forming a building construction according to the invention; Figures 7. and 8. are plan views of alternative corner arrangements; and; Figures 9., 10., 11. and 12. show fragmentary cross-sections of building constructions using building elements to different, non-circular cross-sections.

A building construction according to the invention is shown in a perspective view in Figure 1. which shows a small part of a wall or the like.

The wall comprises a large number of building elements 20, in the form of concrete cylinders which are laid in tiers with their axes parallel, nested so that the cylinders alternate, each successive tier resting in the hollows between cylinders in the tier below. The gaps 21 between the cylinders are triangular with concave sides in cross-section, and are occupied by inserts 22, in the form of rubber or other elastomeric strips as shown in Figure 3. The strips 22 are somewhat larger than the gaps 21, so that the insert strips 22 are compressed by the weight of the upper cylinders resting on the strips 22.

A major advantage of the use of circular cross-section cylinders is that it is possible to follow the contours of the terrain in which the wall is built, and allow for settling of the ground without distortion to the structure.

Figure 4. shows in diagrammatic form how parallel building elements 20 can be arranged to construct a wall such as a flood barrier 23 which follows a sinuous corse without changing the orientation of the elements 20. The flood barrier 23 is arranged along a bank of a river 24, with the elements 20 set in an angle of about 450 to the general direction of the flow of the river, In Figure 5., a flood barrier bank 23 is shown, built of several tiers of building elements 20 upon an unprepared site simply by laying the building elements directly under ground without building any foundations or preparing any other footing. The top of the bank is covered with gravel to form a foot path 26, and the rear face of the bank is earthed up by a deposit of earth 27 to form a rear slope which covers the building elements 20 both for cosmetic visual amenity reasons, and to provide a body which will help to absorb any water which seeps through the bank 23.

If the flood bank 23 should be overflowed, the footpath may be washed away, but the wall of elements 20 will remain firm so that the bank will not be breached, as it is likely with flood banks comprising earth only.

Also, in an emergency, additional tiers of elements 20 may be built on top of the bank 23 to raise it should flood levels threaten to rise sufficiently to overflow the bank.

Figure 6. shows an alternative structure according to the invention in the form of a garden wall 30 which may be a free standing wall, or a retaining wall. The main part of the wall is constructed from superimposed tiers of cylindrical concrete building elements 31, arranged as described in Figure 1. sealing inserts however are not provided in the gaps between the elements and the exposed ends of the elements 30 may be rounded. The wall is capped with flat coping slabs 32, and at each side is provided an ornamental pillar 33, comprised of superposed rectangular slabs. In order to tie the pillar in with the wall, alternative tiers of elements 30 may end with an element 30 which has a metal sheet 34 extending therefrom, with an edge moulded into the element 30, and the sheet 34 extending between superimposed slabs forming the end pillow 33.

Figures 7. and 8. are plan views illustrating alternative corner arrangements for walls which are structures according to the invention. In Figure 7., wall parts 35 and 36, built from elements such as described in connection with Figure 1. and 6. above, abut a corner composed of superimposed wedge-shaped slabs which combine to form a right angle bend. The superimposed slabs form alternating layers of three slabs 37 (full radial lines in Figure 7. ) and of two slabs 38 (single broken radial line in Figure 7.). In an alternative, the corner is formed from a stack of triangular slabs 39 (edge shown by oblique dotted line in Figure 7.).

In Figure 8., an obtuse angle bend is formed from a stack of specially shaped slabs 40.

Finally, Figures 9., 10., 11. and 12. show cross sectional views of small parts of walls or the like constructed from elements having cross sections other than circular.

These may be used in particular for ornamental walls.

Figure 9. hexagonal cross sectional construction elements 50 are shown, producing a honey combed pattern which leaves half shaped voids at the top and bottom which may be filled by half section elements, or left open.

In Figure 10., elements 51 of rectangular sections are shown. These may be stacked in off in the same manner as set bricks, or as shown, leaving gaps 52 between the elements for ornamental effect.

Figure 11. shows the use of octagonal sectioned elements 53 with diamond shaped gaps 54 which may be filled with profiled elastomeric strips of appropriate cross section, or left void for decorative effect.

Finally, Figure 12. shows how triangular sectioned elements 55 may be used to construct a wall.

The construction elements are preferably dimensioned so as to be capable of handling by two persons, typical dimensions for a circular cross sectional cylinder of concrete being diameter 15cm and length 90cm. In use as a flood barrier, the building elements are preferred to the usual emergency provision of sand bags, as they do not become waterlogged or rupture.

Constructions which can be made further include swimming pools and water channels such as canals. In these cases the wall constructions may be supplemented by an impervious lining membrane of e. g. plastics or the like, which is supported by the wall construction.

Claims (12)

1. A building construction comprising a plurality of building elements, each element comprising an elongate body in the geometrical form of a prison of constant cross section, said building elements being laid inlayers with their longitudinal axes mutually parallel.

2. A building construction according to claim 1, wherein the building elements have an axial length greater than two times their greatest cross sectional dimension.

3. A building construction according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the building elements are of circular cross-sections.

4. A building construction according to any preceding claim wherein the building elements comprise an aggregate bonded with a bonding material.

5. A building construction according to claim wherein the aggregate comprises sand or finely divided stone or gravel, and the bonding material comprises a lime sand mortar or a synthetic resin material.

6. A building construction according to claim 5 wherein the building elements include a colouring material.

7. A building construction according to claim 5 or 6 wherein the building elements are produced by moulding or by continuous extrusion.

8. A building construction according to claim 2 wherein the building elements are of non-circular cross section.

9. A building construction according to any proceeding claim comprising a wall of flood barrier comprising said building elements arranged in several superimposed layers.

10. A building construction according to claim 9 wherein said wall or barrier are constructed by displacing successive building elements relative to previously laid elements in the direction of their longitudinal axes whilst maintaining said axes parallel.

11. A building construction according to any preceding claim, wherein sealing inserts are provided in gaps between the building elements said inserts being of elastomeric material and having a cross section corresponding to that of said gaps.

12. A building construction according to claim 11 wherein said inserts are when uncompressed of lesser dimension than the respective gaps, whereby said inserts are compressed within the gaps to ensure an effective seal.