Articulated concrete joint member

#The invention relates to the construction of pavements and concrete slabs, and in particular, the jointing method used in cases of differential movement between said slabs.

#Pedestrian thoroughfares whether associated with a road, through a park or other means, and which fall under the control and maintenance responsibility of a Municipal Council will often be formed from concrete. As such pedestrian thoroughfares carry very light traffic loads, typically, such thoroughfares or footpaths will have little or no reinforcement within the concrete.

#Typically, the footpath will be formed from pavement slabs which are cast in place in significant lengths so as to economically place the pavement by limiting the number of concrete pours required when constructing the thoroughfare between locations.

#It will be convenient to further describe the articulation member with respect to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate possible arrangements of the invention. Other arrangements of the articulation member are possible and consequently the particularity of the accompanying drawings is not to be understood as superceding the generality of the preceding description of the invention.

#FIG. 1 is an elevation sectional view of the articulation member, according to the present invention.

#FIG. 2 is an elevation sectional view of the articulation member, according to another embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 1 shows the articulation member (1) cast within a pavement. The articulation member (1) includes a core (2) about which the articulation member (1) can pivot. Further included are the connection means (3), in this case sideways projecting portions of sufficient size to engage the concrete (5, 6), and transfer loads from one side of the articulation member (1) to the other.

#In this embodiment of the invention the articulation member (1) is made from a single elastomeric extrusion, such as rubber, which may also include a proportion of, or possibly entirely from, recycled rubber crumb. The environmental benefits of being able to use recycled rubber crumb from granulated car tyres will be clear.

#It will be clear to the person skilled in the art that the core (2) can incorporate a portion of the articulation member (1), that is of a thicker section than the connection means (3), or be of the same size. In defining the portion of the core (2) rather than purely geometric description, it is important to recognize that the core (2) is that portion of the articulation member (1) that is subjected to the greatest flexural stress as load is transferred between adjacent slabs (5 and 6). In placing a stress based functionality to the articulation member (1) the connection means provide, in terms of stress, an engagement with the concrete which may be achieved through pure friction, or through a mechanical jointing with the concrete (not shown), and thus at least for a frictional engagement the primary consideration is one of maximizing surface area without unduly reducing the thickness of the concrete pavement above and below the connection means (3). The core (2) however, is required to transfer load from one pavement to the next through the transfer of flexural stress and thus, in terms of geometry need only be of a size to handle the expected flexural load, the most significant portion being the tensile load in the upper portion of the core (2).