Hydraulic and earth engineering – Underground passageway – e.g. – tunnel – Lining
Patent
1998-02-20
2000-10-10
Lillis, Eileen D.
Hydraulic and earth engineering
Underground passageway, e.g., tunnel
Lining
405147, 405135, 277626, E21D 1138
Patent
active
061294853
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The subject of the invention is a seal intended more specifically to be inserted between adjacent faces of two prefabricated concrete elements such as arch segments that form a tunnel lining, but it is applicable, in general, to forming a seal between two rigid components of any kind.
During the production of an underground tunnel, it is customary to produce a concrete lining that can be cast in situ but which may advantageously be made up of prefabricated arched elements known as arch segments made of reinforced or prestressed concrete and each covering a cylindrical sector. These elements have an arched, interior face and an arched exterior face, these faces being connected by lateral edge faces which in general are approximately flat and of which there are four, so that their development is approximately rectangular or in the shape of a trapezium. They are placed one after another in such a way that their lateral faces are contiguous and the tubular lining of the tunnel is thus produced as the excavation progresses.
It is necessary to form a seal between the prefabricated elements along their adjacent lateral faces, for example to prevent the ingress of water, and this is why gaskets made of a compressible material are generally inserted between the elements, these gaskets normally having to withstand a certain pressure difference between the interior face and the exterior face, for example a certain overpressure on the outside, that is to say exerted on the exterior face, particularly when the tunnel is below the level of the groundwater table.
To achieve this, each element may be fitted with a profiled gasket extending around the entire periphery of the element, along its lateral faces. When this is the case, the gaskets placed along the lateral faces, which are opposite each other, of two adjacent elements bear against one another.
To attach the gasket to the element, the element has a peripheral groove in which a corresponding part of the gasket is housed. This gasket may be held in simply by elasticity or alternatively may be bonded into the groove.
To reduce the length of gasket to be used, it can also be applied directly to a smooth lateral face of the adjacent element. When this is the case, each element may, for example, have a gasket attached to two of its lateral faces, the other lateral faces bearing directly on the gaskets of adjacent elements.
The profile and the transverse sectional dimensions of the gasket, as well as the properties of the material of which it is made, are determined to be such that the gasket, once the elements have been placed, is subject to a degree of compression capable of providing a seal against the pressure difference, between the interior face and the exterior face, to which the elements may be subjected and, for example, against the pressure of water coming in from outside.
However, the dimensions of the elements, the flatness of the lateral faces, and the relative positioning of the elements with respect to each other are unable, in practice, to be determined, with absolute certainty and this is why the compressive forces applied to the seals between the elements may vary.
Furthermore, to bore the tunnel, use is of ten made of a tunnel-boring machine which carries excavation means and also constitutes sheeting for protection against collapse and the ingress of water. This tunnel-boring machine is placed as an extension to the tunnel lining already produced and bears against the lining, by means of rams which allow it to be moved forward by the distance necessary to lay a further series of arch segments, when excavation has been carried out.
At least near to that end of the lining against which the tunnel-boring machine bears the prefabricated elements already placed are therefore subjected to the forces of the thrusting of the tunnel-boring machine, and the result of this is that the compressive forces applied to the joints between the elements as well as the clearance between two adjacent elements may vary in a way that is difficult to predict. This means tha
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Bernard Simon
Glang Siegfried
Grabe Werner
Gutschmitd Holger
Haye Bruno
Lagman Frederick L.
Lillis Eileen D.
Phoenix Aktiengesellschaft
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