Classifications

• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E01—CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS, RAILWAYS, OR BRIDGES
  • E01C—CONSTRUCTION OF, OR SURFACES FOR, ROADS, SPORTS GROUNDS, OR THE LIKE; MACHINES OR AUXILIARY TOOLS FOR CONSTRUCTION OR REPAIR
  • E01C19/00—Machines, tools or auxiliary devices for preparing or distributing paving materials, for working the placed materials, or for forming, consolidating, or finishing the paving
  • E01C19/46—Machines, tools or auxiliary devices for preparing or distributing paving materials, for working the placed materials, or for forming, consolidating, or finishing the paving for preparing and placing the materials, e.g. slurry seals
• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E02—HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING; FOUNDATIONS; SOIL SHIFTING
  • E02B—HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING
  • E02B3/00—Engineering works in connection with control or use of streams, rivers, coasts, or other marine sites; Sealings or joints for engineering works in general
  • E02B3/04—Structures or apparatus for, or methods of, protecting banks, coasts, or harbours
  • E02B3/12—Revetment of banks, dams, watercourses, or the like, e.g. the sea-floor
  • E02B3/121—Devices for applying linings on banks or the water bottom
• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E02—HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING; FOUNDATIONS; SOIL SHIFTING
  • E02D—FOUNDATIONS; EXCAVATIONS; EMBANKMENTS; UNDERGROUND OR UNDERWATER STRUCTURES
  • E02D3/00—Improving or preserving soil or rock, e.g. preserving permafrost soil

Definitions

• the invention relates to the forming and installing of a ballasted mat for stabilization of the ground.
• Typical applications of the invention are: Prevention or control of scour along submarine pipelines and also ballasting of these, shore and river bank protection, prevention of shoaling up of navigational channels, stabilization of the ground tinder roads, prevention of land slides, and the like.
• the mat-producing machine is mounted either on a vehicle, e g supplied with caterpillars fit for moving on land, or on a surface vessel or on a platform supplied with movable legs by means of which the platform can "walk", or on a underwater vehicle, e g supported on and driven forward by longitjxlinally extending rotating tubes supplied with screw threads on their outer surfaces.
• the sheet material used for forming the mat preferably is provided in two opposite rolls, each having the proper width, or alternatively, in more, shorter rolls.
• the material from either roll is fed through a system of parallel, adjacent rollers which spread out the sheets and by means of brakes control the speed of laying the mat.
• a continuous mat containing vertical parallel compartments like those of a ribbed eider down is formed.
• Particulate-matter forming ballast is simultaneously fed through pipes or hoses between the seaming devices into the compartments of the mat.
• the lower ends of the hoses or pipes are below the seaming devices, but above the ground, so that the weight of the ballast continuously pulls the mat down to the ground, as the mat-forming machine is continuously advanced.
• the compartments of the mat are closed by seaming crosswise the end of the section in a horizontal line below the lower ends of the hoses or pipes.
• a parallel seam a little distance above this first seam is produced to close the foremost end of the next section of mat to be produced, and finally the mat is cut between the two seams.
• Fig. 1 is a plan view of the mat-forming system of the present invention and shows the system mounted on a surface vessel and continuously forming and laying the mat over the pipeline,
• Fig. 2 is a cross-section taken along the line I-I in Fig. 1 and shows the pipeline covered by the mat.
• Fig. 3 is an enlarged cross-section taken along the line II-II in Fig. 1 and shows a schematic cross-section of the mat-forming and -laying system
• Fig. 4 is an enlarged cross-section taken along the line III-III in Fig. 3
• Fig. 5 is a cross-section taken along the line IV-IV in Fig. 3 of the com ⁇ pleted mat
• Fig. 6 is a cross-section of an alternative shape of the mat
• Fig. 7 is a schematic cross-section of a submarine barrier involving use of the present "type of mat.
• FIG. 1-6 of the drawings there is depicted an apparatus 16 of the present invention for forming and installing a ballasted mat 15 over a pipeline 1.
• 16 is mounted on a sea going vessel which may be in the form of a barge out over the side of which 16 is overhanging, or in the form of a barge supplied with a moonpool through which 15 can pass on its way to the seabed, or in the form of two barges 17 coupled together by means of beams 18 an the over- and/or underside of 17.
• the vessel 17 may be moved forwards by means of winches 21 pulling the vessel along the warps 19 which are anchored to warp anchors 20.
• the vessel 17 may include compartments for storing a particulate ballast material 3 and sheet material 2 utilized in forming the mat 15. Both kinds of material may transported from shore to the vessel by supply boats 24 and unloaded by a crane 23.
• the ballast material 3 may comprise any suitable weighty particulate material such as stones, pebbles, sand, pieces of concrete and the like.
• the grain size must be larger than the size of any perforation of the sheet material 2, but smaller than about 1/3 of the diameter of the hoses or pipes 8. Otherwise the ballast material may get stuck in the hoses or pipes.
• the sheet material 2 may be a continuous, woven or extruded sheet consisting for instance of plastic or natural fibres resistant to the eroding and deteriorating factors of the environment. Alternatively, it nay be a net, in which the mesh width is smaller than the grain size of the ballast material 3.
• the net may be made of plastic, natural fibres, aluminium or steel which may be galvanized and/or coated with plastic.
• the two layers of sheet 2 forming the mat 15 may be made of the same material or two different kinds of material, they may have different mesh widths and other differences.
• the straight sheet 30 may be a coated steel wire mesh or a strong plastic net, e g reinforced with aromatic polyamide, and the buckled sheet 31 may be a thinner or weaker net made for instance of plastic.
• the rolls 10 supported on bearing rollers 13 feed the sheet material 2 to the seaming devices 4 via a suitable number of rollers, for instance three: 5, 6 and 7.
• the functions of the rollers are to stretch out the sheet in its transverse direction and to control the speed of laying of the mat. If for instance the sheet material is a plastic net and therefore is very elastic, its width has a tendency to contract because of the longitudinal drag force due to the weight of the ballast 3.
• one of the rollers, e g 7, on its surface may be supplied with two screw threads 25. Either thread occupies half of the length of the roller 7, and the two threads have opposite directions of pitch.
• the surface of the roller 7 turns in the direction 32 against the direction 33 of movement of the sheet 2, and when 7 rotates, either screw thread tends to stretch out the sheet 2 in direction away from the middle of the roller 7 toward the outer end of the thread.
• the surfaces of the rollers 6 and 5 turn in the same directions as the direction of movement of the sheet 2.
• the surface of at least the roller 5, which carries the weight of the suspended length of the mat 15, has a high frictional resistance, obtained for instance by means of the raised edges of longitudinally extending slits cut in a steel plate cylinder making up the surface of 5.
• the roller 6 may be supported in slide bearings and by means of spring or rubber means continuously pressed against 5.
• the weight of 15 thereby is carried by the rollers 5; and by brake means acting on the periphery or the axle of 5, the speed of descending the mat can be controlled.
• guiding merrbers 11 make the two sheets meet, so that the sheets can be seamed together in each line between the upper and lower parts of each guiding member 11.
• the members 11 may be vertical plates, as shown in the drawing, and should have thickness corresponding to the width of the seaming devices 4.
• the guiding edges of the me ⁇ bers 11 are placed in line with the centerlines of the hoses of pipes 8, cf. Fig. 6, or asymmetrically as shewn in Fig. 3. In the latter case the seams of the mat, Fig. 5, become less strained by the ballast during and after laying of the mat.
• the guiding members 11 are mounted slidably on horizontal beams 35, so that their mutual spacing can be regulated in accordance with the desired thickness of the mat.
• the seams may be continuous, so that completely separated tube-like compartments between the two sheets 2 are formed. Aternatively, the seaming process may be stopped at intervals, while the sheets continue on their way downwrards, whereby the resulting connections between the ccnpartments are left open. The intervals may be staggered between neighbouring seams.
• seaming together of the two sheets 2 is effected by means of well-known seaming devices 4.
• These devices may be in the form of heating means, if plastic sheet material is being utilized.
• seaming means may be in the form of any suitable apparatus for sewing, stapling or gluing the sheets together, so that sufficiently strong joints are produced with lasting qualities for the environment within which the mat will be placed.
• the well-known seaming devices 4 schematically shewn in Fig. 3 may be appropriate.
• Each device includes an electrically heated melt of polyester which is pumped . through a nozzle so that a squirt 34 is formed.
• the lower row or parts of the guiding members 11 are placed so far below the seaming devices 4 that the melted polyester gets time enough to harden before it readies the lower row or parts of the guiding members.
• the crosswise seaming of the end of each section of mat appropriately may be done by means of stapling means.
• hoses or pipes 8 lead the ballast material 3 into the continuous compartments formed between the two sheets 2.
• ballast material 3 may be obtained by means of a well-known distribution plant 9, 12, 13 and 14.
• 9 is a horizontal tank to the perforated bottom of which the hoses or pipes 8 are attached.
• a conveyer belt 12 on bearing rollers 13 transports the ballast material 3 from a filling station at the end of the belt, and a car 14 on tracks,driven by the belt 12, moves to and fro and distributes the ballast material over the entire length of the tank 9.
• an uneven distribution is desirable.
• the net openings allowing for flow through the centre portion of the mat may be kept open.
• Such uneven distribution may be obtained by regulating the supply of ballast material frcm the filling station and/or from the car 14, and/or by closing more or less the centre hoses or pipes 8.
• the speed of laying the mat 15 must be correlated with the speed of the sur face vessel 17 and with the speed of supply of the ballast material 3. This correlation may be obtained by manual regulation. Alternatively, the said three speeds may be correlated by means of mechanical couplings 22 between the winches 21 and the rollers 5 and the conveyer belt 12, or between two of these three components, only. 6. Industrial Applicability
• the mat 15 normally is placed directly on the ground above or under water. Besides this way of applying the mat, it may be used for construction of a barrier on land or in a body of water. Exa ⁇ ples are: Road or railway construction, sea or river dikes, submarine barriers for coastal protection or prevention of siltation in water ways, and the like.
• the core of the barrier may be solid and consist of fill material such as sand, gravel or other granular material. Or it may consist of a shell-formed structure 37 forming at least part of the desired cross-section of the barrier,cf. Fig. 7.
• the surface of the barrier is made up of a the ballasted mat 15. In submarine barriers the mat protects the core against undermining and adds weight to prevent removal of the barrier due to waves and currents.
• the structure 37 may consist of concrete, plastic, wood or metal.
• the sy ⁇ rnetrical side portions of 37 may be hinged or rigidly interconrnected, and their lower edges may be interconnected by horizontal ties 38.
• the structure 37 may be a continuous plate, which may be provided with apertures allowing for vertical flew of water.
• the structure may be made up of separate or interconnected transversely extending supporting ⁇ s ⁇ bers perpendicular or oblique to the longitudinal direction of the barrier.
• the structure 37 may be attached to the mat 15, before the mat is laid

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Structural Engineering (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Civil Engineering (AREA)
• Environmental & Geological Engineering (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Ocean & Marine Engineering (AREA)
• Architecture (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Agronomy & Crop Science (AREA)
• Soil Sciences (AREA)
• General Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Mining & Mineral Resources (AREA)
• Paleontology (AREA)
• Revetment (AREA)

Priority Applications (2)

Applications Claiming Priority (4)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=27260799

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (3)

Cited By (4)

Citations (11)

• 1980
  • 1980-11-12 JP JP50001481A patent/JPS56501888A/ja active Pending
  • 1980-11-12 WO PCT/DK1980/000068 patent/WO1981001432A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1980-11-12 EP EP19800902231 patent/EP0039716A1/en not_active Ceased

Patent Citations (11)

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