Hydraulic and earth engineering – Bank – shore – or bed protection – Wave or flow dissipation
Patent
1993-05-07
1995-04-11
Taylor, Dennis L.
Hydraulic and earth engineering
Bank, shore, or bed protection
Wave or flow dissipation
405 15, 405 21, 405258, E02B 306
Patent
active
054052173
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention described herein concerns a protruding hollow foundationless springy elongated modular device for the control of soil erosion and soil migration in a fluid environment. An economy of weight is achieved through the combination of a flatfish type variably rigid contact base and a streamlined hull. The invention also relates to the placing of units in end-to-end and/or perpendicular relationship to serve not only for the above purpose but also for other purposes such as flood, mud, aquaculture or other dams, and for the protection of vulnerable objects such as cables and utility lines in an active fluid environment.
The major purpose of the erosion-control device is the fixation of submersed sedimentary counterforts and dunes either by controlling the speed of the erosion fluid or by opposing a stationary implant to the migration of natural sedimentary ripples, thus provoking their increase in size and their fixation.
Surrounding fluids (air and water) cause soil erosion, in a general manner, in maritime and land environments, because of the speed of erosion which can be reached either by nature or following human intervention.
A device slowing down a maritime- or river-current can be compared with the artificial reproduction of a sedimentation ripple (mega-ripple) which forces the current upwards from the soil and thus favors the settling and concentration of the shifted mobile elements into new, natural sedimentation ripples simulating the profile of a delta or estuary thereby regenerating mobile shores.
Traditionally such a sedimentary action has been sought as a marginal function of oversized heavy shore constructions. Even when not oversized, the energy-reducing devices are made, more often than not, by filling envelopes of supple fabric used in earth works (bags, rollers, etc.) with such heavy ballast as sand or concrete which ensures stability and their unfolding on their own. When weighted in such a manner, the devices assume the shape of an extended semi-cylindrical wing and tend gradually to submerge in the sand under their own weight. Other technologies are employed to prevent this gradual submerging which, as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,585, (Holmberg) consist in laying the erosion control system on a porous apron of fabric used in earth works, anchored to the soil with peripheral pockets (drawing 1a).
Should these convex, relatively rigid, erosion slowing-down devices be fixed to a flexible and porous apron, the hydrostatic overpressure exerted on the wing is carried almost entirely through the apron to the soil below the structure which can cause it to lift and capsize. In addition, such devices can be laid only when loaded: they are heavy, susceptible to damage, occupy much space, are unpleasant in appearance and immovable. When made in long sections, they are prone to longitudinal fragility and can be broken by changes occuring in the soil.
One of the characteristics of the present invention lies in the possibility of assembling movable light-weight low-profile sedimentation structures in water. It may also prove imperative to change the location and/or orientation of these devices to obtain a better reproduction effect, taking into account the features of the maritime factors occuring within the operational zone.
On emerged land, light-weight supple devices, adapted to the aerial fluid constraints, are used to fix dunes behind protective wind breakers by the use of fabric netting spread on the ground (drawing 1c) or set vertically (drawing 1).
One of the purposes of the invention described herein is to fix submarine dunes using a light easy-to-install device adapted to the maritime fluid and to remedy the heavy or massive structures' faults or at least to limit them satisfactorily, while allowing better control of soil erosion using a simple and multi-functional device (maritime, river or land).
This purpose is met in the invention by laying the device, the lower section of which has elements to fix the device to the soil while the upper section has parts reducing the energy of erosi
REFERENCES:
patent: 331127 (1885-11-01), Goodridge
patent: 954283 (1910-04-01), Hawkes
patent: 2069715 (1937-02-01), Arpin
patent: 3733831 (1973-05-01), Stickey
patent: 3888209 (1974-06-01), Boots
patent: 4954013 (1990-09-01), Lamberton
Dias Alain
Larcher Marc
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