US3357194A - Liner plate - Google Patents

Description

C. L. FISHER Dec. 12, 1967 LINER PLATE 2 Sheets$heet 1 Filed May 27, 1965 I NVE N TO R Omsrowml. 55/155 ATTORN EY$ C. L. FISHER Dec. 12, 1967 LINER PLATE 2 Sheets Filed May 27, 1965 Sheet 2 TUNNELL NG D RECT ON x f 1 TUNNELLING DIRECTION INVENTOR Cme/sro uee L. Hal/2,

ATTO R N EYS BY M2 42,

United States Patent 3,357,194 LINER PLATE Christopher L. Fisher, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, as-

siguor to Armco Steel Corporation, Middletown, Ohio, a corporation of ()lzio Filed May 27, 1965, Ser. No. 459,306 6 Claims. (Cl. 61-45) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Prefabricated ring and lagging liner plate for lining tunnels, caissons, and the like.

In constructing tunnels, arches or the like, a suitable opening is excavated and as excavation proceeds, the interior must provide support in order to prevent caveins, and carry the weight bearing on the tunnel. The most common practice of supporting a tunnel is called in the art the ring and lagging method, in which a plurality of structural supports (known as rings) are placed at certain intervals with lagging or covering material spanning the spaces therebetween. The rings may be wooden beams or, in more recent constructions, steel structural members. The lagging can then be any suitable material such as wood, light steel plates, or the like.

Inasmuch as all the above elements must be positioned and secured in place from the inside of the tunnel, the art has developed various types of tunnel liner plate having either two or four inwardly extending flanges provided with bolt holes. In both types of liner plate, the flanges are formed along the longitudinal edges of the sheet so that when a plurality of liner plates are secured together to form a ring, the flanges will form a circumferential seam. In such a construction, the flange serves as the ring, while the other portion of the liner plate serves as what might be called the lagging.

Tunnel liner plates of this construction are in many cases unsatisfactory because the flanges make it impossible to compactly store or transport the plates. It has also been found in actual practice that such plates can often be difficult to install both because of difiiculties in aligning bolt holes in the flanges and because of the problem of dirt or other material getting caught between adjacent flanges.

From the manufacturers standpoint, it is desirable to provide as much strength as possible with as little steel as possible, for obvious reasons. In the prior art liner plates noted above, the formation of the flanges causes certain manufacturing problems as well as increasing the quantity of material necessary to cover a given area.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved liner plate which requires less weight of material in relation to strength to cover a given area, and hence is cheaper to both manufacture and sell.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a tunnel liner plate which is easier to produce from the standpoint of manufacturing operations involved.

Still a further object of the invention is to provide a tunnel liner plate which is more easily installed by a workman from within. 7

And still another object of the invention is the provision of a tunnel liner plate which is in fact stronger for a given amount of material than any liner plate heretofore available.

The study of soil-structure interaction which indicates that the weight of material carried by the tunnel can be borne by the composite action between the tunnel liner and the soil surrounding it, has permitted use of much thinner, lighter material than was previously thought possible. However, this composite action is not available during the construction of a tunnel when the liner is sur- 3,357,194 Patented Dec. 12, 1967 rounded by an irregular void space. In a typical construction, these voids are eventually filled by the process known as grouting, inwhich a hardenable slurry is pumped through the wall of the tunnel liner to fill the space thereabout. But, before this grouting operation takes place, the advantage of the composite action of the soil-structure interaction is not available and in some cases it may be necessary to provide additional support until the grouting operation is completed.

It is, therefore, still another object of the invention to provide a tunnel liner :plate which permits the easy installation of additional supports if needed. The additional supports used in conjunction with the tunnel liner plate of this invention are readily removable after the grouting operation has been completed if this is desirable.

It is still another object of the invention to provide a more flexible tunnel lining system. That is,'one in which a contractor can choose between various sizes-(thicknesses) of material with various structural supporting members to meet his particular needs. This also means that if greater forces are encountered than preliminary calculations predicted, it is possible for the contractor to provide additional support for the structure already in place.

Various other objects and advantages of this-invention will become apparent to the skilled worker in the art as this specification proceeds. Reference will be made from time to time to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. lshows a longitudinal cross section through a tunnel constructed in accordance with the instant invention.

FIG. 2 is a transverse cross sectional view through a single liner plate according to this invention.

. FIC 3 is a plan view of a liner plate according to this invention.

FIG. 4 is a transverse cross sectional view on an enlarged scale showing several plates according to this invention as joined and a portion of the tunnel wall.

FIG. 5 is an exploded view with parts in section showing one way of securing the horizontal seam together.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the hook-bolt and wedge-washer for inside fastening of the circumferential seam. 1

FIG. 7 is a cross sectional view showing the use of the above elements to form a circumferential seam.

Ring and lagging thinking generated the idea that concentrating all bolts (horizontal and circumferential) near the circumferential seams would give a stronger ring effect when the plates were assembled. A flat section with or without bolts between these circumferential seams could be considered the lagging or covering portion.

Briefly considered, therefore, the present invention-contemplates a tunnel liner plate which is generally rectangular in plan view and arcuately curved along its longitudinal axis. In transverse cross section, the liner plate of this invention includes a generally flat portion, while the longitudinal edges, as will be described hereinafter, are designed to-concentrate the bolts in a circumferential seam, and without using inwardly extend ing flanges.

Referring now in more detail to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a tunnel in the process of being constructed. The direction of tunneling is indicated by the arrow. The walls of the tunnel have been indicated at 10 and the liner plate of this invention installed inside have been generally indicated at 11. As will be seen in the righthand portion of the figure, the space 12 between the exterior surface of the liner plate 11 and the tunnel wall 10 has been filled with grout so that the full advantages of soil-structure interaction may be realized. In the left-hand portion of this figure, the grouting has not yet been performed and, accordingly, an additional tem- 3 3 porary structural support shown generally at 13 has been utilizedi As generally indicated above, these additional supports may be removed after the grouting has been completed if it is felt that such additional support is not necessary.

Turning now to FIG. 2, the transverse cross section of the liner plate 11 will be described in more detail. As will be apparent from examining the drawing, the plate includes a substantially flat central portion 14 with the corrugations 15 and 16 located on each side of it. It will be noted that the portion 14 has a very slight crown. This is simply to facilitate forming the arcuate curve of the plate and performs no structural function. The outer free edges-of the corrugations 15 and 16 terminate, respectively, in the fastening flanges 17 and 18.

The transverse cross section will be so designed that the liner plate will have a neutral axis indicated by the line 19. It will be observed that the flat central portion 14 is spaced on one side of the neutral axis, that the neutral axis passes through both the corrugations 15 and 16, and that the flange 18 is spaced inside the neutral axis while the flange 17 is spaced outside the neutral axis. As will become apparent hereinafter, the spacing of these flanges with respect to the neutral axis is a very important facet of this invention. Throughout the remainder of this specification, the word inside or outside will be used to refer to the inside and outside of the liner as it is placed in position in the tunnel. Similarly, the phrase leading edge flange or trailing edge flange will be used with reference to the tunneling direction. The tunneling direction has been indicated by the arrow in this figure and it will be seen that the leading edge flange 17 is disposed outside the neutral axis, while the trailing edge flange 18 is disposed inside the neutral axis.

FIG. 3 shows the liner plate of this invention in plan view. It will be noted that the leading edge flange 17 is provided with a plurality of substantially round holes 20 while the trailing edge flange 18 is provided with a plurality of elongated or slotted holes 21. When a plurality of plates are placed in overlapping edge to edge relationship, theholes along the leading and trailing edges will form a circumferential seam.

Still referring to FIG. 3, it Will be seen that each of the corrugations 15 and 16 includes a pair of longitudinally aligned bolt holes 22-22 near each transverse edge. By referring briefly back to FIG. 2, it will be seen that the holes 22-22 are located in that portion of the corrugation 15 or 16 which is disposed inside the neutral axis of the cross section of the plate. The joint effected by the holes 22-22 in effect form the horizontal seam of the tunnel liner, but it will be observed that these bolts are in effect concentrated closely adjacent those bolts which form the circumferential seam. As indicated earlier, this concentration of bolts in the circumferential seam provides a stronger ring eifect when the plates are assembled.

Referring at this time to FIGS. 6 and 7, one method of effecting the circumferential seam will be described. As explained earlier, it is necessary that the f-astenings be applied from the inside of the liner structure. To this end, it has been found desirable to utilize the bolt 24 having the off center head 25 at its upper end, and the wedge- Washer having the base portion 26 and the upstanding portion 27. The inner surface of the portion 27 is cylindric al and substantially perpendicular to the base 26, while the outer portion of the Wedge 27 is sloped as shown in the figureJReferring to FIG. 7, it will be seen that the bolt, wedge-washer assembly is placed through a pair of aligned openings 21, 20. When the nut 28 is tightened, it will force the wedge-washer into the holes, which in turn will force the head 25 of the bolt into engagement with the fastening flange.

In FIG. 5, one method of effecting the horizontal seam has been shown. This includes the double nut bar 30 with the threaded openings 31 and 32 and the spring clip 33. The spring clip 33 may be engaged in a pair of openings 22-22 to hold the double nut bar 30 against the outside of the plate with the openings 31 and 32 aligned, respectively, with the bolt holes 22-22. When the next adjacent plate is in proper position, the bolts 34 and 35 may be passed through the aligned holes and into the openings 31 and 32, respectively, to effect the horizontal seam.

FIG. 4 shows in transverse cross section how a plurality of liner plates 11 will be joined together. In view of the relative disposition of the fastening flanges 17 and 18, it will be seen that the successive tunnel liner rings nest within each other. That is, a stove pipe construction is obtained' This has been found in practice to be a great improvement in tunnel liner construction inasmuch as it insures axial alignment of the liner plates, and makes it easier for the workman to align and install the individual plates. That is, only a rotational correction is necessary to align the bolt holes.

It will also be recalled that the leading edge flanges 17 is provided with substantially round bolt holes, while the trailing edge flange is provided with the elongated bolt holes. There are several reasons for this construction. In the first place, this insures a firm grip for the head 25 of the bolt in the round hole 20 which will always be outermost. Secondly, it will be recognized that the endrnost holes 20 will be joined when two liner plates are placed in end to end relation. The use of round rather than slotted holes will insure the maintaining of an accurate circumferential dimension at the leading edge of the tunnel liner.

As indicated earlier in this specification, the concentration of bolts and fastening flanges along the circumferential seam can in effect he considered a ring, while the portion of the liner plates (the flat surface 14) can be considered as lagging or covering. It has also been discovered that this central, flat portion 14 is very useful as a base for additional supporting members. By way of example, such additional supporting members can be in the form of channels, I-beams, or H-beams if necessary. These beams would be formed into ring-like structural members which can be removably set up within the tunnel liner. A number of such structural members are shown in FIGURE 4 at 40. (In FIGURE 1, a slightly different cross sectional structural member was earlier indicated at 13.)

The presence of the corrugations 1S and 16 on opposite sides of the central portion 14 serve to keep the structural member 40 from tipping or moving to either side. As indicated before, the structural members can be easily set in place when additional strength is required and just as easily removed completely or placed in another location at a later time. The structural members are also favorably located to take up a minimum of space inside the tunnel.

In some cases, the liner plate of this invention may be made in a reversed configuration so that the structural members can be located outside the liner plates. That is, in the embodiment described thus far, the flat central portion 14 of the liner plate is disposed outside the neutral axis of the plate. In the reversed" configuration, the central portion will be disposed inside the neutral axis of the plate (the corrugations will of course also be reversed).

It is believed that the foregoing constitutes a full and complete disclosure of the instant invention. While it has been described in terms of an exemplary embodiment, no limitations are to be inferred except as set forth in the claims that follow.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A prefabricated ring and lagging liner plate comprising a generally rectangular sheet of material arcuately curved along its longitudinal axis, said sheet in transverse cross section having a substantially flat central portion, of

substantial width, a corrugation on each side of said central portion, each said corrugation being substantially narrower than said fl'at central portion, and a fastening flange on the outer edge of each said corrugation, said fastening flanges having diflerent radii of curvature and being substantially parallel to said flat central portion, said sheet in transverse cross section also having a neutral axis passing through said corrugations.

2. The liner plate claimed in claim 1 wherein said central portion is spaced outside said neutral axis, and wherein one of said fastening flanges is disposed on one side of said neutral axis and the other of said flanges is disposed on the opposite side of said neutral axis.

3. The liner plate claimed in claim 1 wherein said central portion is crowned.

4. The liner plate claimed in claim 1 including a plurality of substantially circular bolt holes along the fastening flange of said sheet having the longer radius of curvature and a plurality of elongated bolt holes along the other fastening flange of said sheet.

5. The liner plate claimed in claim 1 including bolt holes along the transverse edges of said sheet, all said bolt holes being located in a portion of said corrugations disposed inside said neutral axis.

6. The liner plate claimed in claim 1 wherein the portion of each said corrugation which is disposed inside said neutral axis includes at least a pair of longitudinally aligned bolt holes near each transverse edge.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 971,558 10/1910 Porter 138-173 X 977,944 12/1910 Feldt 138173 X 2,148,783 2/1939 Spaulding 6145 2,217,292 10/ 1940 Proctor 6145 2,536,758 1/1951 Macleod 138-173 X 2,841,297 7/1958 Washabaugh 61-45 X DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, Primary Examiner.

2O DONALD L. TAYLOR, Assistant Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. A PREFABRICATED RING AND LAGGING LINER PLATE COMPRISING A GENERALLY RECTANGULAR SHEET OF MATERIAL ARCUATELY CURVED ALONG ITS LONGITUDINAL AXIS, SAID SHEED IN TRANSVERSE CROSS SECTION HAVING A SUBSTANTIALLY FLAT CENTRAL PORTION, OF SUBSTANTIAL WIDTH, A CORRUGATION ON EACH SIDE OF SAID CENTRAL PORTION, EACH SAID CORRUGATION BEING SUBSTANTIALLY NARROWER THAN SAID FLAT CENTRAL PORTION, AND A FASTENING FLANGE ON THE OUTER EDGE OF EACH SAID CORRUGATION, SAID

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