Dam of earth or rock fill having impervious core
AssigneeHeilmann & Littmann Bau-Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsFranz List, Franz Scheul
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A dam of earth or rock fill is provided with an impervious core by forming a trench near the center of the fill and sequentially building plate-shaped wall sections in the trench from poured soil-cement mixture. The wall sections which are superimposed on each other in edge-to-edge relationship are hingedly connected by joint assemblies of tough, yieldable material, such as soil-cement enriched with bentonite.
Claims14
A retaining dam for a body of water comprising:
- (a) a foundation substantially impervious to water;
- (b) a plate-shaped core extending upward from said foundation,
- (1) said core being substantially impervious to water and having two vertically extending major faces,
- (2) said core including a plurality of superposed wall sections and joint means connecting each section to a superposed section for limited pivotal movement,
- (3) each section having two opposite faces and a horizontally extending face connecting said opposite faces and abuttingly engaging a corresponding face of another wall section, said opposite faces of said sections jointly constituting said major faces,
- (4) each joint means including a body of tough, yieldable material engaging in area contact one of the opposite faces of each wall section and the corresponding face of the superposed wall section;
- and
- (c) particulate fill resting on said foundation and covering said major faces and said joint means.
In a method of constructing a retaining dam for a body of water which includes depositing particulate fill on a foundation impervious to water, excavating a trench in said fill to said foundation, and sequentially building a plurality of plate-shaped wall sections in said trench, each wall section being built by pouring an aqueous slurry into said trench, the solids in said slurry consisting essentially of particulate fill material and an amount of Portland cement sufficient to cause spontaneous solidification of said slurry, the slurry to constitute a lower-most section being poured on the top edge portion of a previously poured and solidified section, the improvement which comprises:
- (a) erecting two guide walls in said trench in spaced relationship prior to the building of one of said sections;
- (b) releasably securing an upright form wall to each guide wall, said form walls spacedly facing each other, said guide walls and form walls having respective top edge portions located on a common level;
- (c) pouring an amount of said slurry into said trench to fill the space between said form walls to said common level;
- (d) removing said form walls after said solidification of said slurry to constitute said one section, whereby cavities are formed between said one section and said guide walls;
- (e) filling said cavities with a tough, yieldable material;
- (f) erecting trough walls on the top edge portion of said guide walls, said trough walls diverging upward from the respective guide walls to constitute a trough downwardly bounded by said one section and said tough yieldable material;
- (g) filling said trough with an additional amount of said tough yieldable material;
- (h) forming a groove in said additional amount;
- and
- (i) partly forming another section by filling said groove with said slurry.
In a method of constructing a retaining dam for a body of water which includes depositing particulate fill on a foundation impervious to water, excavating a trench in said fill to said foundation, and sequentially building a plurality of plate-shaped wall sections in said trench, each wall section being build by pouring an aqueous slurry into said trench, the solids in said slurry consisting essentially of particulate fill material and an amount of Portland cement sufficient to cause spontaneous solidification of said slurry, the slurry to constitute a lower-most section being poured on the top edge portion of a previously poured and solidified section, the improvement which comprises:
- (a) erecting two guide walls in said trench in spaced relationship prior to the building of one of said sections;
- (b) releasably securing an upright form wall to each guide wall, said form walls spacedly facing each other, said guide walls and form walls having respective top edge portions located on a common level;
- (c) pouring an amount of said slurry into said trench to fill the space between said form walls to said common level;
- (d) removing said form walls after said solidification of said slurry to constitute said one section, whereby cavities are formed between said one section and said guide walls;
- (e) filling said cavities with an additional amount of said slurry;
- (f) erecting trough walls on the top edge portions of said guide walls, said trough walls diverging upward from the respective guide walls to constitute a trough downwardly bounded by said one section and the solidified additional amount of slurry;
- (g) filling said trough with a tough, yieldable material;
- (h) forming a groove in said tough, yieldable material;
- and
- (i) partly forming another section by filling said groove with said slurry.
In a method of constructing a retaining dam for a body of water which includes depositing particulate fill on a foundation impervious to water, excavating a trench in said fill to said foundation, and sequentially building a plurality of plate-shaped wall sections in said trench, each wall section being built by pouring an aqueous slurry into said trench, the solids in said slurry consisting essentially of particulate fill material and an amount of Portland cement sufficient to cause spontaneous solidification of said slurry, the slurry to constitute a lower-most section being poured on the top edge portion of a previously poured and solidified section, the improvement which comprises:
- filling said trench prior to said pouring with an aqueous liquid, and displacing said liquid by feeding slurry to the lowermost portion of said trench.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.