Vent for a ventilated concrete floor structure and method of forming a ventilated concrete floor structure

A vent for a ventilated concrete floor structure, wherein the ventilated concrete floor structure comprises a plurality of support beams in substantially parallel spaced apart relation on an underlying support surface, a concrete floor thereover and a plurality of air channels respectively between adjacent pairs of the support beams and arranged to be covered by the concrete floor to form air ducts, the vent comprising:

• a pair of upstanding longitudinally-extending sidewalls interconnected in spaced-apart relation in a width direction of the vent crosswise to a longitudinal direction;
• a passageway between the interconnected sidewalls for releasing air from at least one of the air ducts and to a ventilated space over the concrete floor, wherein the passageway has an inlet opening at bottoms of the interconnected sidewalls and arranged to be communicated with said at least one of the air ducts and an outlet opening at tops of the interconnected sidewalls arranged above the bottoms thereof relative to a height direction of the vent, crosswise to the width and longitudinal directions, and wherein the tops of the sidewalls are arranged at an upper surface of the cast concrete floor;
• wherein the passageway is trapezoidal in shape-such that the inlet and outlet openings are rectangular in plan and the inlet opening is wider than the outlet opening in the width direction of the vent.

A method of forming a ventilated concrete floor structure, the method comprising:

• providing a plurality of longitudinally-extending support beams with planar upper surfaces in substantially parallel relation to each other and spaced apart in a lateral direction crosswise to a longitudinal direction, wherein the upper surfaces of the support beams lie in a common plane to collectively define a common support surface for a concrete floor to be cast thereover;
• defining between the beams air channels for passage therebetween of ventilation air therealong;
• providing a plurality of air discharge vents configured for releasing air from air channels, wherein the vents are arranged to be elongated in the lateral direction and to span between an adjacent set of two or more of the plurality of longitudinally extending support beams;
• each of the air discharge vents having an inlet opening at a bottom for communication with the air channels and an outlet opening at a top for release of the air;
• mounting the vents to the support beams in an array of the vents with the vents rested on the upper surfaces of the support beams, wherein in the array the vents are arranged at spaced positions from each other across the common support surface of the support beams in a plurality of longitudinally extending rows;
• arranging, on the support beams, between the rows of the air discharge vents, cladding configured to support the concrete floor;
• wherein the cladding comprises substantially uniform rectangular sheets;
• arranging each sheet of the cladding on the support beams with a width in the longitudinal direction equal to a spacing between the rows such that each sheet extends between an adjacent pair of the rows of air discharge vents and so that edges of the sheet are arranged at the air discharge vents in the row;
• and casting the concrete floor on the cladding between the air discharge vents to a thickness to define a top surface of the concrete;
• wherein each of the air discharge vents has a height equal to a thickness of the concrete so that the outlet opening at the top is at the top surface of the concrete.