Displacement absorbing piping joint

Details Displacement absorbing piping joint Displacement absorbing piping joint

2001-12-05

2002-11-12

Nicholson, Eric K. (Department: 3679)

Pipe joints or couplings

With support

C285S223000, C285S114000, C052S220300

Reexamination Certificate

active

06478339

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a displacement absorption piping joint capable of eliminating a trouble which occurs if, for example, a plurality of concrete pavement slabs are arranged adjacent and opposite one another, i.e., a trouble that pipe members, a cable or the like arranged to penetrate between the connected end faces of the adjacent concrete pavement slabs are damaged as a result of the relative displacement of the positional relationship between the concrete pavement slabs caused by the expansion and contraction of the concrete pavement slabs due to temperature change, an external stress or the like.
BACKGROUND ART
A concrete structure such as the runway, taxiway or apron of an airport, a concrete structure such as a road or a large-scale concrete or asphaltic structure such as a building, is often constructed by connecting a plurality of structural elements such as pavement slabs each having a required shape or the like. Since a positional shift or a displacement tends to occur between the connected end faces of the adjacent structural elements such as pavement slabs or the like constituting the large-scale structure due to the expansion and contraction of the structural elements, an external stress or the like, measures have been taken to prevent the damage of internal piping and wiring resulting from the positional shift or the like.
When constructing an airport runway, for example, an operation for arranging a plurality of PC pavement slabs each having a width of 7.5 m, a length of 100 m and a predetermined thickness on a field foundation course portion (such as roadbed) to be adjacent one another is carried out. That is, a large-scale structure (or runway) having a plurality of pavement slabs arranged to be adjacent one another is completed by sequentially executing pavement slab manufacturing steps of arranging a rectangular form on the field foundation course portion, filling and then hardening a material such as concrete for each pavement slab.
Meanwhile, if wires such as cables are provided inside the runway, cable wiring protection pipes are provided (or embedded) in the respective pavement slabs in advance and the end portions of the pipes exposed to the connection end faces of the pavement slabs adjacent one another are communicated and connected with one another. Thereafter, cables are inserted into each pipe, thereby completing wiring.
FIG.
10
(
a
) is a perspective cross-sectional view showing a state in which the pavement slabs constituting the runway are provided to be continuous to one another, and FIGS.
10
(
b
) and
10
(
c
) show a piping structure on the connected end faces of the pavement slabs. Rectangular pavement slabs
2
, for example, are arranged on a foundation course portion
1
such as a roadbed to be adjacent one another. An embedded lighting unit
3
, for example, is embedded in the upper surface of each pavement slab and a cable
5
for supplying electric power to each lighting unit
3
is inserted into a pipe member
4
embedded and provided in each pavement slab
2
.
As the pipe member
4
, a bellows-shaped flexible pipe member made of a metallic material such as stainless or a steel product is mainly employed since it is advantages in that a piping path can be arbitrarily selected. To couple the pipe members
4
to each other on the connection end faces
2
a
(joints) of the pavement slabs
2
, the openings
4
a
on the end portions of the respective pipe members
4
exposed to the respective connection end faces
2
a
are directly coupled to each other.
As shown in
FIG. 11
, each pavement slab
2
is completed by filling concrete in the form
6
and hardening the concrete while the form
6
is being fixed to the upper surface of the foundation course portion
1
. Before an operation for filling the concrete is carried out, the pipe members
4
and the base portions of the lightning units
3
are positioned at predetermined points, respectively.
Meanwhile, the flexible pipes
4
are slightly expansion-deformed mainly in axial direction in response to loads or stresses applied to the pavement slabs, thereby exhibiting a function of slightly absorbing the loads or the like and protecting the internal cable
5
. However, on the connection end faces
2
a
shown in FIG.
10
(
b
), the flexible pipes
4
are simply connected to each other. Owing to this, if the positions of the adjacent pavement slabs
2
are relatively shifted in the plane direction of the connection end faces indicated by arrows as shown in FIG.
10
(
c
), then the positions of the openings
4
a
on the both end portions are shifted in the plane direction, with the result that a shearing force generated on the both connection end faces
2
a
is applied to the cable
5
in the pipes and the cable
5
tends to be broken.
Further, even if the flexible pipe members
4
are provided not by connecting the mutual end portions of the pipes
4
but by allowing mutual bellows portions to spread across the connection end faces
2
a
of the two pavement slabs, the flexible pipes and the internal cable tend to be cut off due to a shearing force generated by the relative movement of the two connection end faces
2
a
as in the case of FIG.
10
.
Thus far, no joint having a function of protecting pipe members provided to spread across the connection end faces of two structural elements from being damaged by a shearing force or the like generated between the connection end faces, has been developed. Due to this, the pipe members spreading across the connection end faces as well as the cable tend to deteriorate in a relatively short period of time, thereby requiring frequent replacement operations. Further, conventionally, it has been only the method to repair deteriorated pipe members by excavating the joint portions of the pavement slabs and thereby partially exposing the piping elements. Since this repair method requires an operation accompanied by labor and cost, it has been demanded to improve this respect.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a displacement absorption piping joint capable of eliminating a trouble which occurs if a plurality of concrete pavement slabs, for example, are continuously arranged on a roadbed with the end faces of the slabs opposite one another so as to construct an airport runway, i.e., a trouble that pipe members, a cable or the like arranged to penetrate between the connected end faces of the adjacent concrete pavement slabs are damaged by a shearing force due to the relative displacement of the positional relationship between the concrete pavement slabs caused by the expansion and contraction of the pavement slabs due to temperature change or the like, an external stress such as a load or the like.
In particular, the piping joint of the present invention is applicable to a case of protecting pipe members provided to spread across two structural elements, which are not limited to concrete structural elements such as concrete pavements, or a wire such as a cable inserted into the pipe members from a searing force generated by the relative displacement of the structural elements.
It is still more another object of the present invention to provide a piping joint capable of largely securing the movement quantities of two pipe members corresponding to the displacement quantities of structural elements despite its compact shape.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
To obtain the above objects, the present invention according to claim
1
, wherein a displacement absorption piping joint communicating and connecting end portions of pipe members respectively embedded into two structural elements adjacent each other and having connection end faces displaced relatively to each other, with each other on the connection end faces of the both structural elements, wherein the piping joint has a fixed unit fixedly embedded into the connection end face of one of the structural elements while a front end face side of the fixed unit is being exposed, and a movable unit supported by the fixed unit to be displaceable along a plane direction of

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Displacement absorbing piping joint does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Displacement absorbing piping joint, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Displacement absorbing piping joint will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2993963