Patent Application
20240368876
The present patent application claims priority to Russian patent application RU 2023111646 filed May 4, 2023.
The invention relates to the field of construction, namely to permanent formworks, and is a scalable, modular, periodic, beam-node permanent formwork for casting reinforced concrete, including underwater, and forming flat and volumetric concrete structures, including volumetric trusses, isolated from the corrosive effects of the external environment.
The prior art discloses temporary and permanent formworks for the formation of concrete structures of the “wall” type and various methods for joining such walls to each other (corner, tee, crosspiece), the formworks being made of steel, plywood, foams, glued-pressed boards, etc.
For example, RU 2029840 C1 (published Feb. 27, 1995) discloses a block of a permanent formwork, which includes formwork plates connected to a spatial reinforcing lattice frame made of tubular elements. The lattice nodes are configured as spherical elements connected to the formwork plates, in which sockets with internal threads are formed, and tubes are equipped with tips located along their longitudinal axis and having a threaded cantilever protrusion for placing the spherical elements in the sockets.
RU 138426 U1 (published Mar. 20, 2014) discloses a decorative permanent formwork which is configured as spatially positioned flat elements that at least partly limit the outer contour of a manufactured object. These flat elements are bonded together to form a space therebetween to accommodate fittings and fill with a liquid-flowing solidifiable material. These flat elements are made of sheet steel and implemented as fragments of the outer contour of the manufactured object, with some of which being configured to fasten with the fittings to form a part of the surface of the manufactured object after the solidification of the liquid-flowing material.
The prior art also discloses temporary and permanent formworks for forming concrete structures of the “round” or “rectangular” column type. For example, RU 2258122 C2 (published on Aug. 10, 2005) discloses a formwork formed by several flat rectangular shields, each of which has a flat inner side and an outer side equipped with transverse ribs formed by C-shaped profiles that are inextricably connected to the shield by their central sections.
The prior art also discloses integral temporary formworks for manufacturing a concrete product of the “flat farm” type, which are widely used for intermediate ceilings and roof structures. For example, RU 2737744 C1 (published on Dec. 2, 2020) discloses a formwork comprising a mold-forming flexible support shell in the form of a closed awning, the base of which is laid on a deck mounted on auxiliary beams, and the upper forming part of the awning is made with a relief surface corresponding to the molded structure and comprising intersecting channels for the reinforcement of ribs installed in them to form a honeycomb surface of the structure.
All of the above-mentioned types of the formworks are unsuitable for casting concrete underwater due to the great difficulties with their installation and dismantling in water, as well as the rapid destruction of the formwork material in salt water. In addition, the prior art formworks are unsuitable for casting concrete into a wet (flooded) formwork and require preliminary removal of water from the inner volume of a mold—by using cofferdams, caissons, temporary dams and other expensive methods. In addition, the known formworks are unsuitable for forming a volumetric truss.
Majority of the prior art widespread formwork systems for products of the “wall” type are not designed to be moved in assembled state and require installation of elements strictly “in situ”. Such formwork systems, as a rule, are unsuitable for assembly on the shore, followed by the transfer of a fully finished concrete formwork into the water. The work of assembling the formwork under water is extremely expensive and dangerous. The vast majority of such formworks cannot be easily removed from a hardened concrete product underwater, and they are left underwater, which causes significant environmental damage.
To form a structure of desired size and shape, as a rule, it is necessary to use an assortment of elements of various sizes and shapes, which complicates the manufacture, logistics and use of such formworks, especially in the case of permanent systems.
One of the technical problems solved by the present invention is to create a formwork system that allows one to fabricate a concrete product with optimal wave resistance and corrosion-proof properties.
The solution to this problem is to create a three-dimensional truss, which is an optimal structure (base) for the underwater part of the majority of hydraulic structures in terms of strength-material consumption and strength-cost ratios. The openwork 3D truss also provides minimal resistance to waves and does not lead to erosion of the bottom soil.
Another problem is that when it is required to manufacture a monolithic product (without a cold seam) of high height, continuous batch casting technologies should be used (when the next layer of concrete is poured after the previous one just begins to set). But continuous batch casting is impossible under water, and it is required to concrete the entire product at once. Most of the prior art formwork systems are designed for casting a column of fresh concrete with a height of no more than 3 meters. When casting a higher column, undesirable deformations of the formwork (and, therefore, the concrete product) occur, for example, a surface with overlays.
The proposed technical solution provides for the possibility of watertight connection (or several ones), including in the lower points of the concreting cavity, to a concrete pump by means of a concrete pipeline, which makes it possible to perform pressure casting of concrete “from bottom to top” at a distance of up to 80 meters from the shore, with minimal human involvement.
The technical result of the present permanent formwork consists in the possibility of using it for the construction of reinforced concrete 3D trusses in the tidal zone and underwater in inshore areas of reservoirs (from 1 to 12 meters deep) by eliminating deformations when filling the formwork with concrete and during its operation, as well as by insulating concrete from the corrosive effects of salt water, biological destruction. The shell of the present formwork also significantly reduces the adhesion of concrete to ice, which significantly increases the service life of concrete products in the conditions of the sea or freezing reservoirs.
The claimed technical result is archived by the construction of the permanent formwork comprising nodal connecting elements (NCEs) and pipes, wherein the nodal connecting elements are configured as hollow volumetric bodies having a set of pipe sockets oriented at angles to each other. The set of pipe sockets comprises a first subset of pipe sockets that are plugged, and a second subset of pipe sockets in which the pipes are installed.
In one embodiment, the set of pipe sockets further comprises a third subset of pipe sockets, and the formwork further includes external rods made of a metal or composite material and installed in the third subset of pipe sockets of the nodal connecting elements at an angle to the second subset of pipe sockets.
In one embodiment, the set of pipe sockets of the nodal connecting elements comprises at least one pipe socket configured to be connected to a concrete pump to fill the permanent formwork with concrete.
In one embodiment, the permanent formwork includes reusable removable frames fixed on the nodal connecting elements.
In one embodiment, the nodal connecting elements are made of one of polyethylene, PVC, polypropylene, metal, and fiberglass.
In one embodiment, water, gas or sewer pipes are used as the pipes.
In one embodiment, the pipes are made of one of polyethylene, PVC, polypropylene, metal, and fiberglass.
In one embodiment, the pipes are fixed in the second subset of pipe sockets of the nodal connecting elements by using one of welding, tube-locking, gluing, bell connection, and fixing by screws, anchors, or rivets.
In one embodiment, at least one of the pipes has a wall having a window made therein.
In one embodiment, the second subset of pipe sockets of the nodal connecting elements comprises pipe sockets arranged coaxially so as to provide through placement of the pipes.
In one embodiment, the third subset of pipe sockets of the nodal connecting elements comprises pipe sockets arranged coaxially so as to provide through placement of the external rods.
The design of the described permanent formwork allows one to create an openwork 3D concrete truss by forming a cavity to be filled with concrete, including the hollow pipes and the hollow nodal connecting elements, which in the final product perform the function of a shell protecting the concrete truss from interaction with the environment (water, ice, pollution, etc.), thereby preventing the early destruction of the structure. Initially (from the factory), all pipe sockets/sleeves in the NCEs are plugged and holes are drilled only in those pipe sockets/sleeves where the pipes, the rods are inserted, or where the concrete pump is connected. Unused openings (pipe sockets) in the NCEs remain plugged in order to preserve the tightness of the mold.
Further, the invention is explained with reference to the figures, which show the following.
3D model No. 1—the claimed formwork in general form.
3D model No. 2—exemplary embodiment 1 of the invention.
3D model No. 3—exemplary embodiment 2 of the invention.
The claimed permanent formwork is designed to create an underwater reinforced concrete 3D truss for structures in the coastal aquatoria. The structure, ready to be filled with concrete, includes polymer nodal connecting elements (NCEs) 1, hollow polymer pipes 2 (see
Also, in some embodiments, the formwork may include rods 3 made of metal or composite materials (rods). The rods are not covered with concrete and play the role of external reinforcement. The diameter of the rods is in the range of 12-40 mm, which allows them to withstand a tensile force of up to 150 tons, with a weight of 200-900 g per linear meter, thereby improving the spatial rigidity of the resulting 3D truss.
The structure is beam-angular, all the pipes 2 and the straight rods 3 in the structure begin and end at the nodal connecting elements 1. However, console pipes can be used that go beyond the dimensions of the 3D truss, and L-shaped rods that start with a straight end in the fitting and the bent end is fixed at any point on the pipe.
The nodal connecting element is a hollow volumetric body having pipe sockets 4 oriented at different angles to each other (30°, 60°, 45°, 90°), as well as opposite on different sides of the element (coaxially) with openings providing through passage of the pipe through the openings in the pipe sockets. The pipes of various diameters (50-500 mm) are installed at different angles in one part of the pipe sockets of the nodal connecting elements 3, creating a 3D truss cell, and the other part of the pipe sockets is plugged. The nodal connecting elements are made of polyethylene or PVC or polypropylene or metal (stainless or galvanized steel or aluminum) or fiberglass.
The rods are installed in the openings of pipe sockets 5 of a smaller diameter (12-40 mm), while the pipe sockets 5 can be made coaxially so as to provide through passage of the rods therethrough. The unused openings of the pipe sockets 5 are also plugged.
At the same time, the nodal connecting elements are initially made with the plugged pipe sockets 4 and 5, and some of them are drilled by installers during assembly in various combinations, depending on the position of the NCE in the structure or the design mechanical load on the structure, to ensure complete retention of concrete in the formwork, without leakage through the unused holes.
The pipes 2 can be fixed in the openings of the pipe sockets 4 of the nodal connecting element by welding or tube-locking and/or gluing and/or bell connection and/or fixing by screws, anchors, rivets or by through passage of the pipe through the nodal connecting element with a window in the pipe wall or without such a window.
To fill the flooded formwork with concrete through the bottom point, by displacing water with concrete “from bottom to top”, the nodal connecting elements are made with a pipe socket 6, to which a concrete pump is connected by means of a concrete pipeline. For this purpose, any nodal connecting element in the lower (bottom) part of the formwork could be used.
The nodal connecting elements may have attachment fixtures for external removable (reusable) reinforcement of the formwork structure in order to prevent deformation or destruction of the structure at the time of filling it with fresh (liquid) concrete. Said reinforcement (for example, wood frames) is dismantled and reused on another structure, after the concrete is set and gains a minimum design strength.
The nodal connecting elements may have the same design, which is used for all nodes of the structure. In another embodiment, different nodal connecting elements can be used for different formwork nodes, for example, one set for the middle layers of the structure and another set for the bottom (=upper) layer of the structure. At the same time, each set can include from 1 to 4 different nodal connecting elements.
The present formwork is scalable, i.e., the base distance between adjacent nodal connection elements can be selected by a user arbitrarily and in a wide range due to the possibility of end-to-end installation of pipes in the nodal elements. Selecting the length of the base pipe(s) automatically sets the length of all other pipes. At the same time, changing the cell size of the structure does not require an additional range of specialized formwork elements (as the most wide-known analogues), but only affects the cutting measures of the pipes.
To assemble plurality of different structures, only a few models of nodal connecting elements (or one) will be required, which will be repeated many times in the nodes of the structure. In this case, the nodal connecting element, as a rule, has an excessive number of ports (pipe sockets) for connecting pipes and rods, which allows it to be used in truss nodes with a different required set of pipes (angle, face, side surface, etc.).
The formwork structure is periodic, i.e., the angles between the pipes 2 in several adjacent nodal connecting elements (usually six or eight elements) set the shape of an elementary volumetric cell of the structure, which will be repeated many times in different directions. At the same time, all (or part of) adjacent cells will be equally sized, and the other part will be proportionally sized (each subsequent cell is proportionally larger or smaller than the previous one).
Reinforced concrete with fiber additions or pure concrete is used to fill the formwork with pre-installed reinforcement grids, whips or mesh.
The following are exemplary embodiments of the invention.
Exemplary embodiment 1 relates to the construction of rail slips (wedge winch boatlifts) or roller ramps.
The structure comprises two semi-trusses, one above the other. The lower half-truss (
The main advantages of slips and ramps built using the proposed technology are as follows: the non-settlement of the structure by bottom sediments; concrete saving; durability; the possibility of assembling the structure at a distance from the shore and at depths up to 4.5 meters; the adaptation of the structures to tides with an amplitude of up to 150 cm; a working depth difference (reachable for a trolley) up to 3 meters; the ability to assemble wide (3x frame) slips for ships with a hull length of more than 9.5 meters; the possibility of a blocked assembly of several slips or ramps in order to save the area of the aquatoria and increase the ice resistance of the structure.
The fitting system is designed for ramp lifting/launching of watercraft, without a trolley—on rollers. It is designed for jet skis, motorboats or dinghies.
At the top point of the structure, at the stem level, a manual or electric winch is mounted with a pulling force not less than 50% of the weight of the watercraft, for comfortable lifting of the watercraft onto the ramp and its fixation.
The working (inter-roller) width of the ramp is set during installation, in accordance with watercraft intended to use.
The ramp is mounted on reliable (including stepped) bases, subject to the angle of inclination of the ramp.
The design does not have horizontal transverse or diagonal beams in the upper tier of fittings, which ensures compatibility with PWC V-hulls and boats.
Each fitting has two U-shaped attachment points for a thick-walled “roller” pipe with a diameter of 65 mm with the possibility of axial rotation. A concrete pipe flange is provided in each fitting.
Soft plastic rollers with a diameter of 150-200 mm can be mounted on the roller pipe in pairs (at least 3 pairs per fitting in the upper tier of the ramp). The rollers must have a “floating” angle of ascent to adapt to the lines of the boat's hull.
External reinforcement is carried out by means of L-shaped edged rods, with the length of the rods being adjusted “in place”. A hole anywhere in the pipe beam where the bent end of the rod is secured can be used as the “hinge” attachment point. In this case, the straight (shortened) end is fixed in a standard socket on the fitting. This ensures the functionality of the rods (the presence of sufficient leverage and compliance with the direction of load perception) at their low cost and full versatility.
The system is assembled from polypropylene pipes with an outer diameter of 400 mm and 100 mm, as well as polypropylene NCEs.
Exemplary embodiment 2 relates to a formwork for manufacturing reinforced concrete keel blocks for sailing yachts, dinghies or boats (
The manumitting used in the system is suitable for manufacturing both support (BUNK) keel blocks with a soft adjustable stop (fender) and SLING (SLING) keel blocks, as well as “Swedish” (hook) extensions (for vessels based on the keel).
Depending on the chosen design, the supporting column has an inclination from the vertical of 15° towards “on” or “off” the hull of the vessel.
For catamarans and pontoons, designs with a tilt of the keel block legs along the hulls are possible.
Support keel blocks, as a rule, have a screw jack or a rubber (including pneumatic) cushion to evenly distribute the load between the support points.
Long rubberized guides are popular for motorboats and catamarans.
The fitting has an excessive number of interconnections, which makes it possible to manufacture both rectangular keel blocks and “oval” ones (with a different distance between each pair of opposing legs).
The formwork can be either with or without undercarriage (central) supports.
Each fitting has a built-in concrete pipe flange.
The system is assembled from metal or composite thick-walled pipes with a diameter of 50 mm (stainless steel for marine areas; galvanized steel for freshwater areas), metal NCEs and composite rods with a diameter of 30 mm.
Exemplary embodiment 3 relates to a formwork for constructing surface crossings, bathing platforms, sea terraces and other low-load (pedestrian, recreational) areas above the water (
The system comprises 2 series of fittings-extreme (180 degree coverage) and middle (360 degree coverage). The bottom versions of the fittings have additional horizontal ports with a diameter of 160 mm for concreting. The surface version has a platform for screwing internal screw piles and a welded passage with a diameter of 160 for pillars and built-in furniture.
The system is assembled from HDPE or PVC pipes with an outer diameter of 500 mm and 160 mm, metal or composite thick-walled pipes with a diameter of 51 mm (only stainless steel for marine areas; galvanizing is also allowed for freshwater), composite or PVC nodal connecting elements and stainless-steel rods with a diameter of 12 mm or composite rods with a diameter of 40 mm. As a deck, it is possible to use hardwood, composite and stainless lattice decking.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023111646 | May 2023 | RU | national |
