WO1984001791A1

WO1984001791A1 - Plantwall usable as sound barrier

Info

Publication number: WO1984001791A1
Application number: PCT/DK1983/000098
Authority: WO
Inventors: Henning Jensen; Per Willumsen
Original assignee: Henning Jensen; Per Willumsen
Priority date: 1982-10-27
Filing date: 1983-10-26
Publication date: 1984-05-10
Also published as: NO842582L; EP0124551A1

Abstract

A plantation wall serving as a noise suppression wall consisting of two parallel walls spaced apart (1A, 1B). The walls consist of wattle or network with openings not too small for the penetration of roots, twigs or stalks of plants. The space defined by the walls is filled with sphagnum or any material, preferably in crumbled or granulated form, suitable to support roots of plants. The material is to be composed of comparatively light or very light, mainly hygroscopic components of non mouldering kind, which material should be able to absorb water from the ground. The mixture comprises such growth substrates as peat litter, sphagnum, etc. which in crambled form may represent 1/10 to 1/4 of the mixture, in lumped form 1/4 to 1/3, in long-fibered, including eventual entangled forms 1/3 to 1/2. The rest of the mixture i.e. 1/4 consists of threaden or wollen material which in itself not necessarily is a growth promoting material. The plantation wall may be shaped as to be movable. The design of the preferred transportation means hereto is described.

Description

Plantwall usable as sound barrier

The present invention relates to a plantation wall serving as a noise suppression wall.

It belongs to the state of the Art to provide noise suppression walls of hard material shaped as real and proper walls or as earth banks, around f .i. gardens or built-up areas, to provide protection against the din from traffic vehicles or from other noisy undertakings or enterprises, such as noise from machinery, etc.

However, noise suppression bulwarks are also wanted at other places, f.i. between exhibition stands or in open-plan offices. Unto today at such places it is of importance that the walls eaily and quickly can be moved about. But, hereby the problem is encountered that it is necessary to use walls in shape of simple screens. These naturally can be used to carry prints, notice boards or the like. But, the ornamental effect becomes somewhat monotonous.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a wall of the kind mentioned within the ingress and where the wall is able to yield a better sound suppression without being too heavy and where the ornamental effect is improved even if this somewhat may be on reduced terms in relation to the mentioned notice board utilisation possibility but, where on the other side in relation to ornamental effect a break with the well known pattern is attained. This purpose is attained according to the present invention in that the noise suppression wall consists of two in spaced relationship onto supporting means secured and mainly in parallel run wattle or netting walls with not too small but for plant roots and twigs and stalks penetratable openings defining spaces filled with sphagnum or other suitable material, preferably material in crumbled or granulated condition, able to receive vegetation roots.

A wall shaped in this way is not all too heavy and it is easy to get it covered by growing plantation, such as a vegetation consisting of ivy or of twining plants, and it possesses an ornamental effect in comparison with the mentioned well known noise suppression wall arrangements. With a wall thickness of about 40 cm, which not includes the additional thickness due to the plants, an attenuation of the size of 12 to 15 dB is attained when sphagnum is used as fill material between the nettings of the wall. In case of sphagnum it is found that mesh sizes of the netting of the wall can be of about 5 to 10 cm when using ivy as a vegetation on the wall.

The height of the sound suppressing wall can easily be accomodated and such a sound suppressing wall it is easy to manufacture modular.

An especially simple execution of the supporting means is presented according to the present invention in that the supporting means consist of pillar shaped supporting parts positioned within the sphagnum or within the other mentioned type of material which pillar shaped supporting parts carry the nettings of the wall directly or by means of spacing providing means. By means of this execution f.i. these supporting means may serve to suppport drain tubings positioned within the sphagnum which tubings may serve to water the vegetation. It is thus found that at in-door use a watering once per week in this way is sufficient. Here-through an especial advantage by the use of the present noise suppressing wall at exhibitions as a sound attenuating screen between stands is attained f.i. thereby that exhibitions scarcely dure more than one week at a time so that a watering not has to be carried through during the duration of the single exhibitions.

The sound suppressing wall in shape of a plantation wall can either be stationary or semi-stationary positioned in that the supporting means, whether these as described are provided within the sphagnum or are positioned out side the sides of the wall, are shaped able to be stuck down into receiving holes within a supporting base. A roller and lift-up cart described in the following can be used to lift up and move such complete noise suppressing wall elements in assembled condition. Respectively the plantation wall may shaped fastened unto rollable base parts so that they simply can be rolled away for use elsewhere.

A special execution has the lower part of the supporting means or of the netting wall provided with openings to receive one or more transportation means usable to move the sound suppressing wall in shape of a plantation wall, which transportation means f.i. can be a fork-lift truck, handcart chassis or the like. The transportation means can hereby also be used for other purposes. A transportation means which is especially suited for the transportation of the as sound suppressing means shaped plantation wall and where the transportation means can be positioned beneath thewail, beneath alined along as well as across in proportion to the wall, is according to the present invention characterized in that the transportation means possesses a double Z-shaped platform body having between the flange portions of the Z-shape a spacing sublength which corresponds to the width of the plantation wall or to the spacing between the receiving holes within the supporting base of the wall enabling a gripping beneath the plantation wall in acrosswise direction in proportion to the width-direction around the sides of the netting wall or enabling a gripping into the receiving holes within the supporting base of the wall. Respectively or together with the mentioned receiving holes the as sound suppressing means shaped plantation wall can possess eyelets in the lower portion of the plantation wall making it possible to receive a lift-up means, as f.i. a lift-up means provided with wheel or wheels. This form of execution especially aims at a rollable lift-up means which simply consists of a cranked lever which at the cranked portion carries a roller wheel and with the shortest branch of such a cranked lever at the end carrying a grip means to grip into the mentioned eyelets of the plantation wall so that this wall by the aid of two persons and two such lift-up means fairly easy can be moved to another place The sound suppressing wall according to the present invention can to obtain a better holding upon the fill material and also to obtain a generally more rigid structure at the bottom be confined either in that way that at the lower portion the netting of the wall is bend to form a bottom netting or in that way that the bottom directly consists of a tight bottom plate.

The described solution according to the present invention is furthermore of such a kind that stainless steel with advantage can be used as material without the manufacturing price becomes too high. It comprises the advantage that it namely is possible to use rather large mesh sizes for the nettings of the walls.

Further developments have their background in that practical experience has shown that it is possible to obtain a better noise suppression and furthermore that the plantation wall can be used also under dry conditions and that it is possible to obtain better cooliness over the total surface area of the plantation wall and that vegetation, also without watering, in this way also can gro upon the top of the wall when the plantation wall is high and that this also applies to plantation walls having a height of several meters. Furthermore, it is also possible to obtain that substrate material parts, whereupon the vegetation is growing, become less liable to a falling together due to rain when compared to a plantation wall which consists of sphagnum as growth substrate which material is mentioned as a possible growth substrate in connection with the plantation wall according to the above mentioned Danish patent application no. 4750/82.

This improving further development according to the present invention is attained in that the substrate for the receiving of the plant roots consists of in it self not to mould reducing and comparatively light or even very light constituents which mainly are hygroscopic and partly com prise a growth substrate as peat-moss litter, sphagnum, etc. so that this constituent in crumbled condition forms 1/10 to 1/4 of the mixture and in lumped form about 1/4 to 1/3 of the mixture and in long-fibred, included possible entangled long-fibred, form about 1/3 to 1/2 of the mixture and that the rest part of the mixture, that is roughly 1/4 of the mixture, consists of thread- or woollen material which in it self not is a growth promoting material, such as mineral , rock or glass wool, etc. Experience shows, as explained in more detail later in connection with an execution according to the present invention, that such a plantation wall behaves as self sucturial to water or moisture in the underlaying ground. Advantageously the plantation wall may be positioned in a smaller along the length of the wall run excavation in such ground in which way the contact to moisture carrying ground parts is improved.

Practical experiments further have shown that also the close surroundings of the surface of the ground benefit from the presense of the plantation wall as plants are grown easier at these surroundings than else at the close surroundings at a rigid wall or at a plantation wall belonging to the state of the Art. But, what essential is, that a temperature measurement carried out by means of a thin thermometer detector shows that the plantation wall when it is larger than a certain minimum height comprises two separate cool zones being present over each other within the wall which shows the self sucturial effect of the plantation wall very clearly and which later is described in more detail.

To keep such a plantation wall in position especially in sidewards direction it has been found that these mentioned attained capabilities not are due to degradation, what else would be the case, if the plantation wall according to the present invention comprises only one, at about 1/3 to 2/3 of the height of the plantation wall within the plantation wall in lengthwise direction arranged internal lengthy supporting means which preferably is connected to the earlier mentioned vertical supporting means or to other carrying means.

Executions according to the present invention are described as follows in more detail with reference to the drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 with portions of the wall broken away to better illustration of the single parts shows an as sound suppressing wall shaped plantation wall according to the present invention, fig. 2 in side view shows a wall of netting shaped according to the present invention, fig. 3 shows a horizontal cross section through that which is viewed in fig. 1, fig. 4 in side view shows anas sound suppressing wall shaped plantation wall according to the present invention comprising openings or holes and eyelets for the providing of grip from a transportation means, fig. 5 illustrates a roller cart transportation means having a double Z-shaped platform body, and fig. 6 shows a transport means shaped as a cranked lever comprising a roller wheel.

Fig. 7 illustrates a cross section through a closely to 3 meters height above the ground tall plantation wall manufactured by means of a mixture according to the present invention and where curves in the drawing show isothermals measured within such a plantation wall, and fig. 8 shows in longitudinal cross section the middle of the plantation wall which is illustrated in cross section in fig. 7 and where the longitudinal cross section is made at the one end of the plantation wall and where curves in the drawing show isothermals in a similar way as the measured isothermals of fig. 7.

In fig. 1 of the drawing a sound suppressing wall shaped as a plantation wall according to the invention is illustrated whereby the sound suppressing wall consists of two mutually parallel run netting walls 1A, 1B which by means of spacing means 3 and 4 are supported by means of as vertical at the topend closed pillar shaped supporting rods 2 which are stuck into receiving holes 7 in a supporting base that here is illustrated as a supporting base moulded into concrete and positioned in the earth 8. A fill material, preferably crumbled or granulated and suited to receive vegetation roots, as f.i. sphagnum, is filled between the two netting walls 1A, 1B. A vegetation 6 , f.i. consisting of ivy, has been planted in this material, which material thus could be sphagnum.

In side view a modular shaped netting wall 1 is shown in fig. 2 of the drawing. The sizes of the mesh could in this case with ivy as the vegetation and with sphagnum as fill material be f.i. 5 cm ^χ 10 cm.

In fig. 3 of the drawing a cross section of that which is shown in fig. 1 is illustrated. Sphagnum 5 is arranged between the netting walls 1A, 1B. The netting walls 1A, 1B are maintained in position by means of spacing means 3 and supporting means 2 which here in cross section are tube shaped. At the end the plantation is confined by means of bent netting wall material at 10.

In side view such an as sound suppressing wall shaped plantation wall with vegetation 6 and netting wall (walls) 1A, 1B is illustrated. At the bottom area U-shped openings or holes 11 and eyelets 12 are provided which serve to receive different transportation means and possibly also further suppporting means. In fig. 5 of the drawing a rollar vehicle for trans portation according to the present invention is shown. The rollar cart is provided with a double Z-shaped platform body adapted to grip into the openings or holes 11 gripping into one at a time or into two of them simultaneously. The rollar cart which has wheel 17 possesses two upper platform body surfaces 15, 16 and two vertical suppporting surfaces 13, 14 which form the flanqe portion of the Z-shape and also a lower connecting surface plate shaped portion 12 connecting the flange portions. In fig. 6 of the drawing finally a cranked shaped lever 19, 18 is shown having a rollar wheel 20 at the cranked portion of the lever. The shortest branch 18 of the lever is at the end provided with a grip means , here shown as a dowel, to grip into one of the eyelets 12 positioned at the as sound suppressing wall shaped plantation wall (see fig. 4).

It is understood that in the drawing not shown drain tubings which possesss side holes of small size could be positioned within the material 5 and possibly could be an integral portion of the suppporting means and which tubings at a suitable place has an end portion leading to the outside or being provided with a funnel shape where through water for the watering of the vegetation can be let in. A valve can prevent untimy running our of water from the watering means so that the water only fairly slowly can leak out through the drain openings.

Fig. 7 shows a cross sectional view through a plantation wall been made by the use of a material 5 suited to receive the roots of the plants which roots are enclosed between netting walls 1 and where the sides with netting belonging to the plantation wall are designated with 1A and 1B whereas the upper side of the netting of the plantation wall is designated with 1C and the end face of the netting is designated with 1D. The plantation wall is errected upon a ground 8 and the plantation wall is in the drawing shown digged a short distance down into the ground as depicted by numeral 21. The plantation wall may on the other side also be errected movable.

The material or substrate to receive the roots of the plants is mixed as delineated in claim 1 and roughly the average mixing value has been chosen. Such a plantation wall excels by a better sound suppression than the plantation wall according to the mentioned Danish patent application is able to yield and furthermore the plantation wall vicinity is characterized by a certain muteness in relation to reflected sound waves, that is that the coefficient of sound reflectivity for sound waves directed towards the plantation wall is very small. A sound suppression of the size of 35 dB or more for an about 40 centimeters thick plantation wall such as the one shown in fig. 7 in cross section is easily attained.

For such a plantation wall as illustrated in fig. 7 and having a length of 12 meters and being situated in half-open surroundings upon a ground of not rather large moisture contents after a dry period of 2 months here in Denmark with practically no rain at all and without the plantation wall having been watered at evening the centigrade temperatures given in fig . 7 were measured. The plantation wall carried furthermore neatly growing plants, i.e. growing evenly at the foot of the wall as at the top of tha wall, and during the warm afternoon a cooliness was present at the vicinity of the wall showing lower temperature at the vicinity of the wall than at a more far distance from the wall. Also at the foot of the plantation wall and at a rather large distance away from the wall the ground carried more growing vegetation than it was the case more far away from the wall. The temperature measurements giving the isothermals shown in the drawing were made by means of a thin thermo element detector of the thermo electric type (NiNiCr-thermo element detector) of which only the outmost millimeters were laid free in respect to the isolation material which else surrounded the detecting element. The measurement result shows that moisture zones clearly are present within the plantation wall and indicate the presense of evaporation. At this wall two over each other positioned cool zones are present, whereas else only one single cool zone should have existed close to the ground level.

Claims

C L A I M S

1. Plantation wall serving as a noise suppression wall c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n t h a t the noise suppression wall consists of two in spaced relationship unto supporting means secured and mainly in parallel run wattle or netting walls (1A, 1B) with not too small, but for plant roots and twigs and stalks penetratable, openings defining spaces filled with sphagnum or other suitable material (5) , preferably material in crumbled or granulated form.

2. Plantation wall serving as a noise suppression wall according to claim 1 c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n t h a t the supporting means consist of pillar shaped supporting parts (2) positioned within the sphagnum or within the other mentioned type of material (5) which pillar shaped supporting parts (2) carry the nettings of the wall (1A, 1B) directly or by means of spacing providing means (3 , 4) .

3. Plantation wall serving as a noise suppression wall according to claim 1 or 2 c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n t h a t the mesh openings of the nettings of the wall are as large es possible, f.i. each having the size of about

50 to 100 cm² mesh opening area.

4. Plantation wall serving as a noise suppression wall according to claim 1, 2 or 3 c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n t h a t the supporting means (f.i. 2) are shaped able to be stuck down into receiving holes (8) within a supporting base.

5. Plantation wall serving as a noise suppression wall according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4 c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n t h a t the supporting means (f.i. 2) are secured in or are shaped able to be stuck down into receiving holes within one or more base parts being provided with wheels, with rollar wheels or with other transportation means.

6. Plantation wall serving as a noise suppression wall according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n t h a t the lower part of the supporting means or of the netting wall (1A, 1B) is provided with openings (f.i. 11) to receive one or more transportation means usable to move the sound suppressing wall in shape af a plantation wall, which transportation means f.i. can be a fork-lift truck, handcart-chassis or the like.

7. Plantation wall serving as a noise suppression wall according to claim 6 c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n t h a t a transportation means to move the as sound suppressing wall shaped plantation wall is provided with a double Z-shaped platform body (12, 13, 14, 15, 16) having between the flange portions (13, 14) of the Z-shape a spacing sub length (length of 12) which corresponds to the width of the plantation wall or to the spacing between the receiving holes (11) within the supporting base of the wall enabling a gripping beneath the plantation wall in acrosswise direction in proportion to the width-direction around the sides of the netting wall (1A, 1B) or enabling a gripping into the receiving holes (11) within the supporting base of the wall.

8. Plantation wall serving as a noise suppression wall according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n t h a t the as sound suppressing means shaped plantation wall possesses eyelets (12) in the lower portion of the plantation wall making it possible to receive a lift-up means, as f.i. a lift-up means (18, 19,

20) provided with wheel or wheels.

9. Plantation wall serving as a noise suppression wall according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n t h a t the substrate (5) for the receiving of the plant roots consists of in it self not to mould reducing and comparatively light or even very light constituents which mainly are hygroscopic and partly comprise a growth substrate as peat-moss litter, sphagnum, etc. so that this constituent in crumbled condition forms 1/10 to 1/4 of the mixture and in lumped form about 1/4 to 1/3 of the mixture and in long-fibred, included possible entangled long-fibred, form about 1/3 to 1/2 of the mixture and that the rest of the mixture, that is roughly 1/4 of the mixture, consists of thread- or woollen material which in it self not is a growth promoting material, such as mineral, rock or glass wool, etc.

10. Plantation wall serving as a noise suppression wall according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 c h a c t e r i z e d i n t h a t the plantation wall comprises only one, at about 1/3 to 2/3 of the height of the plantation wall, within the plantation wall in lengthwise direction arranged internal lengthy supporting means which preferably is connected to the earlier mentioned vertical supporting means or to other carrying means.