Patent Application
20240084543
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The disclosure relates to retaining wall systems and more particularly pertains to a new retaining wall system for securing a retaining wall by coupling it to an anchor member via a plurality of coupled pieces of rebar.
The prior art relates to retaining wall systems which utilize rebar or rods to secure a retaining wall to a quantity of soil. This includes devices which anchor the wall by setting a plurality of rods at an angle through the quantity of soil and devices which couple the retaining wall to an anchoring member by use of the plurality of rods. However, these devices rely on attaching the rods by fastening them via threaded fastener means to the retaining wall or hooking an end of the rod onto an engaging surface of the retaining wall or an intermediate member. The prior art does not disclose a retaining wall system that relies on encasing a series of coupled pieces of rebar with a filling material inside a channel defined by the retaining wall, nor does it disclose attaching the other end of the rod by encasing it with another filling material inside of an anchoring member. This sort of retaining wall system is advantageous in facilitating the securement of a retaining wall without specialized equipment.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a wall structure formed of a plurality of blocks, each block having a passage that aligns with each passage of the other blocks to define a channel. A rigid anchor member is encased in a quantity of a soil. A plurality of pieces of rebar couple the anchor member to the wall structure. A wall piece of the plurality of pieces of rebar extends through the channel, and a wall fill fills the channel, encasing the wall piece and securing it to the wall structure.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
An anchor member 34 is rigid and is formed of an anchor form 36 and an anchor fill 38. The anchor form 36 is a hollow cylinder, and the anchor fill 38 is positioned within and coupled to the anchor form 36, filling the anchor form 36.
A plurality of pieces of rebar 40 comprises a wall piece 42, an anchor piece 44, and a middle piece 46. The middle piece 46 extends between and is coupled to the wall piece 42 and the anchor piece 44. The middle piece 46 also extends through the block hole 32 of the one block 14. The wall piece 42 is positioned within the channel 30, extending downward and away from the anchor piece 44. The anchor piece 44 extends downward into and is coupled to the anchor member 34. The middle piece 46 is longer than each of the wall piece 42 and the anchor piece 44. Each piece of rebar 40 has a pair of ends 48, each of which is externally threaded.
Each of a pair of couplers 50 is coupled to the middle piece 46 and an associated one of each of the wall piece 42 and the anchor piece 44. Each coupler 50 has a pair of coupler ends 52 and a pair of coupler holes 54. Each coupler hole 54 is positioned at each coupler end 52 and is internally threaded. Each coupler hole 54 is also elongate and is complementary in shape to each end 48 of each piece of rebar 40.
Each coupler 50 has a pair of portions 56, with each portion 56 including an associated coupler end 52 and an associated coupler hole 54. Each portion 56 has a surface 58 opposite the associated coupler end 52 and angled relative to the associated coupler end 52. The pair of portions 56 includes a first portion 60 and a second portion 62, wherein the surface 58 of the first portion 60 is flush with the second surface 58 and is rotatably coupled to the second portion 62. The surface 58 of the first portion 60 remains flush with the second surface 58 when the first portion 60 rotates. The first portion 60 is rotationally positionable such that a central longitudinal axis of the coupler hole 54 of the first portion 60 is positioned along a range of angles to a central longitudinal axis of the coupler hole 54 of the second portion 62, including an alignment angle 64 wherein the central longitudinal axis of the first portion 60 and the central longitudinal axis of the second portion 62 align and the coupler hole 54 of the first portion 60 faces opposite the coupler hole 54 of the second portion 62.
A wall fill 66 fills the channel 30 and couples to the wall structure 12. The wall fill 66 encases the wall piece 42. The wall fill 66 is rigid, securing the wall piece 42 to the wall structure 12. A quantity of a soil 68 encases each of the anchor member 34, the anchor piece 44, and a portion 56 of the middle piece 46 without the wall structure 12. The quantity of the soil 68 also abuts the back side 18 of each block 14. The anchor member 34 secures the wall structure 12 to the quantity of the soil 68.
In use, the quantity of the soil 68 abuts the back side 18 of each block 14 in the wall structure 12 and also encases the anchor member 34, the anchor piece 44, and the portion 56 of the middle piece 46 without the wall structure 12. Any force exerted by the quantity of the soil 68 on the wall structure 12 due to the weight of the quantity of soil and the weight of any structure on the quantity of soil is counteracted by the anchor member 34 securing the wall structure 12 to the quantity of soil.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
