Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
Field of the Invention
_ _
The invention concerns a br ck preferably made of clav for
use in construction in reinforced concrete and i.n
traditional masonry with a decisive heat insultating
function, light in weight, very strong, and low in cost, to
5 be used as a self-sup~ovting and~oY sealing ant'/or
partitioning elemenr.
Background of the Invent-lon
In residential as well as industrial construction the
structure is commonly enclosed by means of two brick walls
placed at a certain distance from one another (air space).
The space between the two walls is filled with an
15 insulating material. This procedure involves very high
labor costs in the construction of the two parallel walls a
certain distance apart, as well as very high costs for the
necessary insulating material. Moreover, the insulating
materi.al subli.mes over time, that is it becomes depleted,
20 reducing the function of the air space unti.l it is
eliminated, and with it the fwnction of provid:i.ng good
insulation.
It is known tha-t to reduce the weight and improve the
insulation of a construction hrick, the raw material
25 mixture, for example of clay, is treated with combustible
organic materials like sawdust, peat, cork, coal dust and
the like. When the bricks are fired, the~e materials are
~ .
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re'.eased ln gasQolls Eorrr. giving rise inside the brick to an
alveolar configuration which has the due effec~ of
mproving insulation and lightening the brick. I~owever,
hese combustible organic materials cannot be added to i.he
5 mixture beyond a certain degree since increasing the
quantity considerably decreases the moldabiliLy of the
ixtu:re due to the relat.ively high friction of sai.d
materials. Furthermore, increasing the auanti.ty of organic
material incorporated, greatly lowers the pressure
10 resistance since the i.ncorporated material impedes the
nanllral contraction of the raw ma~e-1.al. during 7ryino. This
leads to crac~cs which increase because of the above
rnencioned friction of the incorporated materi.al. Thus,
increasing the c~uantity of material placed in the mix-'ure
15 widens the cracks so much the strength of the product is
seriously reduced.
In order to overcome these problerns and obtain a porous,
that is insulating and light, but high strength brick or
block, Italian patent No. 605,312 proposes incorporating in
20 the raw material (clay, kaolin, clay schjsts and the like)
a compressible material synthetie in nature, molding the
resulting mixture to form the final product, drying it, and
finally firiny it. Since the incorporated material can be
compressed to a smaller volume, it does not prevent
25 eontraetion of the raw material during drying. Crack
formation is thus substantially redueed or even eliminated,
anc7 the compression strength of the product is not
compromised. The systhetic compressible material is placed
in the mixture in the form of pieces made to swell or foam,
preferably in the form of small beads. Fox the material to
be incorporated, Italian patent No. 605,312 proposes a
synthetic material like polystyrene, phenol-plastics,
polyvinyl synthetics like polyvinyl chloride, or
5 polyesters, formaldehyde urea, polyurethane, polyethvlene,
polyisobutylene, latex rubber, silica and cellulose
derivatives like cellulose acetate.
A brick as described has been marked under the name
"Poroton". It is rectangular in shape and subdivided by
10 means of partitions, running along its width into several
chambers parallel to one ano'he- and connected by several
partitions ortr.~gonal to the Eormer, so as to form an
actual lattice. The periphery of the bric~, like all its
partition, has an alveolar structure, as described below,
15 in order to reduce weight and allow good insulation. Such a
brick responds in effect, both in terms of cell-like
structure and of the percent of openings ~maximum 45~),
that is of the empty spaces created in the chambers formec'
by the partitions and the cell-l ~e struc~ure, to the
20 properties listed ~or bricks prepared with cell-like
structure using compressible organic materials. However, it
should be noted that the insulation is a function only of
the cell-like s~ructure and that to obtain said structure,
one must use synthetic compressible material whose cost is
25 not negligible. On the other hand, the quantity of said
material may not, even in this type of brick, exceed a
certain amount, to prevent excessive weakening of khe brick
itself.
In this regard, it should be noted that heat is transferred
. . _
*POROTON is a -trade maxk.
5~
by radlatlon, convenc~lon and conduc-tion. Transmission bv
radiation should be considered negligible, and so it will
not be considered. Transmission by air convection occurs
ve-tically toward the ceiling; the quantity of heat which
5 the air can transmi-t horizontally toward the outside, or
vice versa, is negligible when the chambers are developed
vertically, wi-th as little horizontal development as
possible. Transmission by conduction occurs through solid
bodies (clay, in the present case) horizontally. Therefore,
10 the insultation of a brick is enhanced by reducing the
possibility of hea~ diffus;on by conduction to a minimum.
In the brick in question, however, the various chambers are
connected to one another, from the inside toward the
outside, by several septa which form several actual heat
15 bridges, which facilitate heat transmission by conduction
in this direction with a result of annulling the effect of
the chamber presence, and reducing the insultating effect
which could have been achieved thanks to the cell-like
structure.
20 The latter structure however is random in that it is a
function of the greater or lesser reyularity of the mixing
of the additive with the clay. This obviously leads to the
manufacture of bricks with different insulating capacities.
The aim oE this invention is thus to overcome the
25 inconveniènces mentioned above by proposing a light in
weight but still very strony brick, with low production
costs and, above all, decidedly elevated insultation.
~f~2~
Summa~y of the Inven-.ion
The invention achieves this by realizing a brick,
preferably of clay, characterized by the fact that:
S - said brick consists of one or more sub-bricks;
- each sub-brick has a rectangular peripheral out]ine and
is subaivide~. by means of walls into vertical air chamber,
limited in the direction of the longitudinal axis ancl
extensive in the direction of its transverse axis;
10 - said walls are shaped like arcs of a circle (cores)
alternatively concave and convex in the longitudinal
direction of the brick;
- the centers of curvature of said circles are aligned by
groups of arcs elong l.ines parallel to the longitudinal
15 axis of -the brick;
- to the width of each chamber always corresponds, in the
same longitudinal direction, a larger and respectively
smaller, width of the subsequent chamber;
- the convex sides of the arcs are connected to one another
2~ by rectilinear septa of minimum length, and
- the sub-blocks are connected to one another by
rec-tilinear septa, also of minimum length, and in any case
never coincident with the peripheral outline of the brick,
and never placed in correspondence with the inner cores of
25 the subsequent sub-block, in li.ne with them.
The fundmental concept oE the invention thus resides in the
structural geometry with which heat transmission bridges
have been substantially eliminated, by limiting the
connections between sub-blocks to septa of minimum lenght,
in any case never placed in line with cores in the same
direction, and by reducing ~ a mi.nimum the contact surface
be~ween the convex walls of the chambers. Since the air
chambers in each sub-block must extend as much as possible
5 in the direction of its transverse axis, the curving walls
are of long radius and, consequently, their contact
surfaces are reduced to the minimurn. rrherefore~ the
invention includes connection between the walls by means oF
septa which may be very short since they connecl opposi~e
10 convex walls.
According to the invenl-~.on, the br ck l.S realize~
preferably in clay, with no use of cell-like material.
If a further lightening of the block is desired, already
per se enhanced by the high percentage of openings due to
15 the chambers with circular outlines, the invention proposes
as cell-forming material the final residue in the
preparation of sansa oil, the cost of which is almost
negligible, as can be imagined.
The struc,ural geometry also enhances acoustic inertia. In
20 fact, the vibratory energy hitting the exposed wal.1 should
then restart from longer walls and always different
distances, since a rectilinear wall is always opposite a
curved wall, and a concave curved wall is always opposite a
convex one.
25 Finally, it should be observed that, according to -the
invention, the structural geometry consists of arcs and
segments of a circle arranged so as to absorb compression
loads in an optimal way. In fact, the resultants of all the
forces acting on the arcs of the sub-block are distributed
alo,g he alcs de?end ng on -! he~- height and the
connectillg sepla be~ween the opposite convex walls of -the
ind_vidual chambe~~s are placed ln =he poin-ts where the arcs
breac. Ttit- briclc acco;-ding to the lnvention can be used as
5 a conven~.onal br'ck to make a masonry having a desired
height anG length.
Brlef descfiption of the drawings
10 The objec. oE the inven'.ion will be described below wi~h
-eferer,c~ to p--eferrecl emhodilent-s shown by an exernpli-
fica~- ve anQ nor.-llt.1i~ing way in the at'.ached drawings in
wnlch:
15 Figure 1 is a plan v ew of a fifsc embodiment of a brick
according to the invention consisting of three sub-blocks;
Flgure 2 is an axorlomeLïic view of bri.cks of F'igure 1 laid
w;.th Its open.nss on a vertical plane
Figure 3 is an axonometric view analogous to that of figure
2 with bric`ks lald with its o~enings on a horizontal plane;
and
25 Figure 4 is a plan v:i.ew of a second embodimen-t of a brick
according to the invention consisting of four sub-blocks.
Detailled DescriPtiOn of the Drawings
~ . ... .. . _ _ _ . _ . . _ . _
In Figure 1 a first embodiment of the brick according to
the invention consists in the present case of three sub-
bricks generally indicated as 1, 2, 3, where S indicates
the width, L the lenght and ~ the height. One notes
5 immediately that the air chambers are represented by the
spaces 4-13 between arched walls 14, 14'; 15, 15'; 16, 16'
arranged with concave and convex shapes opposite to one
another in groups of two, and that, again in groups of two,
the centers of curvature of the arcs are aligned along a
10 single line parallel to the longitudinal axis of the brick.
The connecting septa 17, 18, 19 between the chamhers ~, 5;
6,7; 8, 9 are of minimum length since they connect the
chambers between two convex points in their walls. Chambers
4-13 are all not very wide in the direction of the
15 longitudinal axis of the brick, while they extend in
heigh-t, that is, in the direction of the transverse axis of
the brick.
For any line a parallel to the longitudinal axis of the
brick, one notes how, moving it always in a parallel
20 fashion, for example -to position _ the chambers of the
sub-bricks always have in this direction a width b, c, a;
b', c', d', which is larger and smaller in alternate
succession.
Finally, one notes how the septa 20, 21 connecting sub-
25 -blocks 1, 2, 3 to one another are shifted toward the
inside to the brick. This is done to interrupt the
continuity of the thermal bridge along one external core
from one sub-block to the other. The connecting septa 22,
23 are also neither aligned nor in correspondence with the
g
inner cores in the same direction, so contributing to
preven-t conduction of heat, which is dispersed on the walls
and so vertically.
The bricks may be laid both with the openings in horizontal
5 planes and overlapping, and with the openings in vertical
planes and side by side, as shown more clearly in Figures 2
and 3;
In Figure 4, in which mumbers with increase of one hundred
with respect to Figure 1 designate like parts, a second
10 embodiment of a brick according to the invention is shown
in this case, the radius of curvature of the arched walls
114, 114', ... is less than that of the archea walls 14,
14', of E`igure 1, on the contrary the radius oE curvature
of the arched walls 115, 115', 115, and 115' is greater
15 than that of the arched walls 15, 15', 16 and 15'. As a
result, the brick consisting of the sub-hlocks 101, 102,
103 and lOla is stronger that that of Figure 1.
Further, the longitudinal dimensions of chambers 104-113
are reduced so that the convection is also lowered and then
20 the heat insultating properties are improved.
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