Hydraulic and earth engineering – Fluid control – treatment – or containment – Flow control
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-19
2001-08-07
Novosad, Christopher J. (Department: 3671)
Hydraulic and earth engineering
Fluid control, treatment, or containment
Flow control
C138S120000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06270287
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
Hollow plastic leaching chambers are commonly buried in the ground to form leaching fields for receiving and dispersing liquids such as sewage system effluent or storm water into the surrounding earth. Such leaching chambers have a central cavity for receiving liquids. An opening on the bottom and slots on the sides provide the means through which liquids are allowed to exit the central cavity and disperse into the surrounding earth. Typically, multiple leaching chambers are connected to each other in series to achieve a desired subterranean volume and dispersion area. Leaching chambers are usually arch-shaped and corrugated with symmetrical corrugations for strength. Additionally, leaching chambers usually come in standard sizes. The most common size for most leaching chambers is roughly six feet long, three feet wide and slightly over one foot high.
The amount of liquid that a given leaching chamber is capable of receiving and dispersing is dependent upon the internal volume of the leaching chamber and the dispersion area over which the leaching chamber can disperse the liquids. Because most plastic leaching chambers are arch-shaped for strength, the volume and dispersion area for any given leaching chamber having the same dimensions is roughly the same. Therefore, most present leaching chambers of the same size have roughly the same capacity.
The capacity of a leaching field depends upon the size and the number of leaching chambers employed. If the size or the number of the leaching chambers employed in a leaching field is increased, the volume and dispersion area is increased, thereby increasing capacity of the leaching field. However, increasing the size or the number of leaching chambers also increases the cost as well as the area of land required for burying the leaching chambers.
SUMMARY
The present invention provides a standard-sized leaching chamber which is capable of receiving and dispersing 10% more liquids than existing leaching chambers of the same size. Such a leaching chamber allows fewer leaching chambers to be employed for a given application and, therefore, reduces costs.
The present invention resides in a leaching chamber for burial in the ground including a hollow load bearing structure or conduit having a longitudinal axis. The conduit comprises a plurality of corrugations extending in directions transverse to the longitudinal axis. Each corrugation is non-symmetrical about the longitudinal axis.
In preferred embodiments, each corrugation has a ridge, a central sloping section and a shoulder. The ridge is higher than the shoulder and the central section slopes down from the ridge to the shoulder. On the ridge side of the central axis of the chamber, the central section is convex when viewed from above. On the shoulder side, the central section becomes concave when viewed from above. The cross-section of each corrugation in the direction transverse to the longitudinal axis is non-symmetrical. Each ridge is also wider than the shoulder in the longitudinal direction such that the corrugations are also non-symmetrical when viewed from above. The corrugations are oriented relative to each other such that the ridge of each corrugation is adjacent to the shoulder of an adjoining corrugation. The orientation of the corrugations provides the conduit with a roof having lateral edges in which portions of the edges of the roof are higher than central portions of the roof. Additionally, the adjoining corrugations are laterally offset from each other relative to the longitudinal axis. Passages within the conduit enable liquids to leach from the conduit and vents in the corrugations allow air to escape from the conduit.
The conduit includes a pipe access port. The pipe access port is configured such that a discharge pipe may be coupled to the access port either from a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis or a direction transverse to the longitudinal axis of the conduit.
The conduit also includes a locking flange at a longitudinal end of the conduit for locking the conduit to another conduit. The locking flange includes a series of flange members which are offset from each other such that the flange members alternate about a common reference curve (or line) which defines a matable surface boundary of each flange member.
Another aspect of the present invention resides in an end cap for enclosing the end of the conduit. The end cap has a locking flange which includes a series of flange members. The flange members are offset from each other and are capable of mating and locking with the flange members of an identical mating conduit.
The present invention leaching chamber is roughly the same size as current leaching chambers but has a 10% larger volume which allows the present invention to receive and disperse 10% more liquids than obtainable with existing leaching chambers.
The conduit is fabricated to facilitate nesting of conduits in a stack of conduits for ease of transport. A base flange extending from each conduit has slots formed therein for facilitating the lifting of the conduit with tools. More specifically, knotted ropes attached to a crane are inserted into the slots so that one or more conduits can be easily lifted from a stack of conduits.
Alternate embodiments of the invention include arch-shaped corrugated conduits having a flange with a series of flange members alternating about a common reference curve which defines a matable surface boundary of each flange member. In particular, the arch-shaped conduit of this embodiment has alternating peak corrugations and valley corrugations along the length. The conduit can also include a sub-arch at the top of the arch-shape at the ends of the conduit. Preferably, both ends of the conduit are identical so that either end of a chamber can mate with another like chamber.
Another preferred embodiment of the invention includes an arch-shaped corrugated conduit having biased ends, each end having an identical mating structure. The inclusion of an identical mating structure on biased ends of a chamber provides greater flexibility in installing a series of chambers than is possible in the prior art.
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Hamilton Brook Smith & Reynolds P.C.
Novosad Christopher J.
PSA, Inc.
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