Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02538733 2006-03-07
A RETAINING WALL STRUCTURE
A retaining wall and interlocking members with its making method
[Technical Field]
This invention pertains to a kind of building material, especially relates
to a retaining wall, interlocking members with its making method.
[Technical Background]
Retaining walls are used in a variety of civil engineering, for example to
build embankment protection for highway or shoreline; to build freestanding
walls etc. Typically, such walls are made of sand bags instead of reinforced
structure and then fill or backfill other materials. The strength and
toughness
are most important properties for a retaining wall; a poor-strength and
low-tough wall often results in heavy accident or great loss. So high-strength
retaining wall should be developed to resist atrocious environment and never
cause damage thereby.
A retaining wall structure using current technique is made using wall
units such as sand/soil bags or hard-armored building units such as clay
bricks, with the interlocking members to be positioned between adjacent
courses of wall unit and interconnect them. The interlocking member is a plate
having projections on both sides that protrude into horizontally and
vertically
adjacent wall units. The strata sheets stretch from the in-between of wall
units
to the fillers they hold. The projections of the interlocking members protrude
through the holes of the strata sheet by this way to strengthen the wall
structure upon the reinforced soil.
This technology is such that the interlocking member together with its
projections is configured to protrude fully into the sand/soil bags and
stabilize
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the adjacent courses for the purpose of strengthening the whole wall
structure.
However as the said interlocking member is of configuration of flat plate, it
forms airtight structure between the sand/soil bags, which lead to that
accumulated rainwater cannot be discharged duly and effectively. The soaking
retaining wall is easily eroded and its strength becomes poor, which often
bring about heavy accident.
[Content of the Invention
To tackle the current technical issue of improper drainage for retaining
walls, this invention provides an interlocking member for retaining walls, by
which accumulated water can be drained off duly and effectively.
To tackle the current technical issue of improper drainage for retaining
walls, this invention provides a making method of interlocking member for
retaining walls, by which accumulated water can be drained off duly and
effectively.
To tackle the current technical issue of improper drainage for retaining
wall, this invention provides a retaining wall, by which accumulated water can
be drained off duly and effectively.
A technical solution tackling the first technical issue under this invention:
To provide interlocking members for retaining walls, which comprise main
plate and projections extending from both sides. The said main plate has vent
holes for drainage.
A technical solution tackling the second technical issue under this
invention: To provide a making method of interlocking members for retaining
walls, including:
A. Forming the parallel supporting laths;
B. Fixing supporting strips cross-wise on the up-and-down sides of
the supporting laths;
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C. Forming the projections.
A technical solution tackling the third technical issue under this invention:
To provide a retaining wall, including earthen wall made using flexible wall
units and interlocking members made to interconnect adjacent courses of wall
units in-between. The said interlocking members comprise main plate and
projections extending from the upper and the lower sides respectively of the
plate. The said projections can protrude fully into the said wall units. The
said
main plate has vent holes for drainage.
Relative to current technology, the benefit of interlocking member
invention is that when the interlocking member is applied to retaining walls,
accumulated rainwater can be drained off duly and effectively, because the
interlocking member has vent holes for drainage. The retaining wall is not
easily soaked and eroded so that people and properties are secured.
Relative to current technology, the benefit of making method of
interlocking member under this invention is that the interlocking member is
configured and made so that accumulated rainwater can be drained off duly
and effectively, because it has vent holes for drainage. The retaining wall is
not easily soaked and eroded so that people and properties are secured.
Moreover, its method is simple.
Relative to current technology, the benefit of retaining walls under this
invention is that accumulated rainwater can be drained off duly and
effectively
because the interlocking members have vent holes for drainage. The retaining
wall is not easily soaked and eroded so that people and properties are
secured.
[ Description of Attached Drawings]
Fig. 1 is a plan sketch map of interlocking member under this retaining wall
invention.
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Fig. 2 is a section of the first practical method of interlocking members
under
this retaining wall invention.
Fig. 3 is a sectional view on interlocking members in Fig. 2 being applied to
interconnect sandbags.
Fig. 4 is a section of the second practical method of interlocking members
under this retaining wall invention.
Fig. 5 is a sectional view on interlocking members in Fig. 4 being applied to
interconnect sandbags.
Fig. 6 is a section of the third practical method of interlocking members
under
this retaining wall invention.
Fig. 7 is a sectional view on interlocking members in Fig. 6 being applied to
interconnect sandbags.
Fig. 8 is a section of the fourth practical method of interlocking members
under
this retaining wall invention.
Fig. 9 is a sectional view on interlocking members in Fig. 8 being applied to
interconnect sandbags.
Fig. 10 is a section of the fifth practical method of interlocking members
under
this retaining wall invention.
Fig. 11 is a sectional view on interlocking members in Fig. 9 being applied to
interconnect sandbags.
Fig. 12 is a section of the sixth practical method of interlocking members
under this retaining wall invention.
Fig. 13 is a sectional view on interlocking members in Fig. 11 being applied
to
interconnect sandbags.
[Detailed Practical Steps]
To further illustrate the invention with drawings and practical steps.
This invention provides an earthen wall made using flexible wall units and
interlocking members between adjacent courses made to interconnect wall
units in-between. The said retaining wall is made of two rows of terrace
earthen walls interconnected by interlocking members between them. The
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said flexible wall units are made of sand/soil bags.
Referring to Fig. 1, 2, 3, the said interlocking members comprise main
plate 10 and projections 30 extending from the upper and the lower sides
respectively of the plate 10. The said projections protrude into the said wall
units. What the interlocking members are different from current technology is
that its main plate 10 has drainage vent holes 21, 22. The main plate 10 is of
configuration of gridding frame with drainage vent holes 21
up-and-downwards and drainage vent holes 22 horizontally. The main plate 10
is made of macromolecule material such as HDPE.
The making method of the interlocking members for said retaining wall
including the following steps:
A. Forming the parallel supporting laths;
B. Fixing supporting strips cross-wise on the up-and-down sides of
the supporting laths;
C. Forming the projections.
The said gridding frame comprises the intermediate supporting laths 11
in between and supporting strips 12 cross-wise ranged on up-and-down sides.
The up strips or down strips 12 are parallel ranged and preferably intersect
with supporting laths 11 at 45 degrees. The said projections 30 are cross-wise
ranged on the up-and-down sides of the main plate 10 under this practical
method.
In other practical methods, the projections have many designs. Such as
single sided projections 30 in Fig.4 and Fig.5; Projections 40 in Fig.6 and
Fig.7
are of integrative-molded configuration extending from the upper and the
lower sides respectively of the plate; Projections 50 in Fig.8 and Fig.9 are
cross-wise ranged on both sides of the plate 10 with overhead hooks 51; One
sided projections 50 in Fig.10 and Fig.11. Projections 60 in Fig.12 and Fig.13
are of integrative-molded configuration extending from the upper and the
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lower sides respectively of the plate with overhead hooks.
Under this retaining wall invention, accumulated rainwater can be
drained off duly and effectively in up-and-down, left-and-right directions
because the interlocking members have gridding vent holes for drainage. The
parallel-ranged supporting laths 11 form a sizable intermediate drainage
channel in up-and-down, left-and-right directions. The cross-wise ranged
supporting strips 12 on both sides of the plate forms a drainage channel,
which angled to some extent with intermediate drainage channel. Furthermore,
the intermediate and up-and-down drainage channels interpenetrate with each
other so that water can flow in every direction, which means even if one
direction is blocked up water can flow away in other directions. Therefore,
the
retaining wall cannot easily be soaked and eroded even under storming
conditions so that people and properties are secured. Moreover, the retaining
wall is stabilized and strengthened with high-strength and high-density
material such as HDPE.
Meanwhile, the making method of gridding interlocking members is
simple though high strength and low weight can be realized and it's material
saving due to its gridding frame.
As the gridding main plate 10 are full of vent holes, projections 30, 40,
50, 60 can easily protrude into and fix on the main plate 10 and can be ranged
optionally and assembled in many ways. No need to make plate 10 and
projections at the same time. The range of projections can be adjusted and its
numbers can be increased to meet specific needs. Likewise, the anchor poles
can be added, the said anchor poles can be protruded into the main plate
through the wall units to strengthen the retaining wall to a great extent.
Under current technology, both sides of the interlocking members have
not or only few installing vent holes, so when the interlocking members are
covered by the wall units, it's difficult to protrude anchor poles into those
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installing holes through wall units, which bring about building trouble or is
not
practical. However by using this invention, the anchor poles can be easily
protruded into the main plate without difficulty, because no matter at which
position or in which direction the anchor poles can be protruded into it so it
demands much less building precision and increases the building speed and
successful rate to a great extent.
Furthermore, the main plate is of gridding frame so it's bendable, flexible
and adaptable to different wall structures and not easily being damaged. The
using longevity of the interlocking members under this invention is longer and
more adaptable to environment than current existing technology.
Besides, the main plate of gridding frame is easier to cut and make than
the plane plate of current technology.
Furthermore, the main plate of gridding frame is easier to be connected
with other cantilever fixers, for example, when dilated bolt is fixed on the
wall
with fixed holes for installation, if interlocking members of current
technology
is applied, connection and fixation cannot be made if the places of installing
holes and bolt are ill-matched. However the main plate of interlocking
members under this invention is full of vent holes so it can be well matched
and connected with fixed dilated bolt under not so perfect precision.
Furthermore, the interlocking members under this invention can easily be
cut, so its frame such as length or width can be changed to meet specific
needs of best effectiveness.
Last, besides projections and anchors, other fixers can be easily
connected with the interlocking members by any places without limitation so a
more complicated and higher-performance retaining wall structures can be
made.
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