US 5,346,332 AGranted

Tubbing-type tunnel lining

AssigneeIngenieure Mayreder, Kraus & Co. Consult Gesellschaft m.b.H.

InventorsHarald Wagner, Alfred Schulter

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Abstract

A tubbing-type tunnel lining, which comprises a plurality of tubbing rings, each of which consists of an even number of tubbing blocks, which are similar or identical and have a trapezium-shaped or trapezoidal or diamond basic shape and are so arranged that the joints between adjacent rings are defined by the end faces of said blocks and are connected together by plug-connections, which permit a restricted transmission of shear forces, and in each ring are connected at inclined longitudinal gaps by key-groove connections consisting of continuous longitudinal grooves in inclined longitudinal side faces and keys inserted therein. The blocks themselves have zones which are compressible in the peripheral direction of the tubbing ring and/or said keys are compressible and in a relaxed state of said ring keep the blocks thereof psaced apart so as to define said longitudinal gaps whereas the rings are compressible under the load imposed by the rock so as to reduce the diameter of said ring and the width of said gaps. To ensure a proper guidance of the blocks as the diameter of the tubbing ring is decreased, each tubbing block is connected at each end face by at least two plugs to at least one tubbing block of an adjacent tubbing ring, only one of said two plugs is retained by a locating bearing in the block whereas at least one additional one of said plugs extends in one of the blocks which are connected by said plug in a slot and in response to a decrease of the diameter of the tubbing ring is capable of a limited displacement in said slot.

Claims12

Dependent claims

In a tunnel lining, comprising

a plurality of tubbing rings, each of which comprises an even number of similar tubbing blocks each having end faces defining gaps between adjacent ones of said tubbing rings and formed with holes, and inclined side faces defining inclined longitudinal gaps between adjacent blocks of the same ring and formed with continuous longitudinal grooves,
a plurality of plugs extending in said holes in adjacent end faces of adjacent ones of said blocks of adjacent ones of said rings and adapted to permit a transmission of limited shear forces between said adjacent rings and
a plurality of keys extending in registering ones of said grooves in adjacent ones of said inclined side faces of adjacent ones of said blocks of each of said rings hold said adjacent blocks together,
wherein each of said tubbing rings is adapted to assume a relaxed state, in which adjacent ones of said inclined side faces of adjacent ones of said blocks of said ring are spaced apart to define said longitudinal gaps, and
each of said tubbing rings when in said relaxed state is adapted to be compressed in its peripheral direction so as to reduce the width of said longitudinal gaps,
the improvement residing in that
each of said blocks of each of said rings is connected at least on one side of said ring to at least one of said blocks of an adjacent one of said rings by at least two of said plugs, only a first one of which is retained in said connected blocks by a locating bearing formed by one of said holes whereas at least one additional one of said two plugs extends in at least one of said two connected blocks in a slot, which constitutes another one of said holes and permits a limited displacement of said block in response to a compression of the adjacent portion of the associated one of said rings in its peripheral direction.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.