SOIL REINFORCING ELEMENT AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING

Abstract

A soil reinforcing element including a flat elongated strip of material defining an upper planar surface and a bottom planar surface, the bottom planar surface opposing the upper planar surface, and a frictional profile being formed on each of the upper planar surface and the bottom planar surface, as well as a method of manufacturing the same.

Claims

1. A soil reinforcing element, comprising: a flat elongated strip of material defining an upper planar surface and a bottom planar surface; and a frictional profile formed on each of the upper planar surface and the bottom planar surface.

2. The soil reinforcing element of claim 1, wherein: the frictional profile includes a plurality of protuberances.

3. The soil reinforcing element of claim 2, wherein: the plurality of protuberances are spaced apart from one another by a constant interval.

4. The soil reinforcing element of claim 1, wherein: the frictional profile includes a plurality of depressions.

5. The soil reinforcing element of claim 4, wherein: the plurality of depressions are spaced apart from one another by a constant interval.

6. The soil reinforcing element of claim 2, wherein: the plurality of protuberances are grouped into a plurality of groups and each of the groups is spaced apart from one another by a constant interval.

7. The soil reinforcing element of claim 1, wherein: the flat elongated strip of material is twisted at intervals to form a plurality of sections, adjacent ones of the plurality of sections being twisted by 180 degrees with respect to one another.

8. The soil reinforcing element of claim 1, wherein: the flat elongated strip of material is formed from aluminum.

9. The soil reinforcing element of claim 1, wherein: the flat elongated strip of material is formed from stainless steel.

10. The soil reinforcing element of claim 1, wherein: the flat elongated strip of material is formed from carbon steel.

11. A method of manufacturing a soil reinforcing element, comprising: providing a flat elongated strip where all surfaces of the flat elongated strip are smooth; and passing the flat elongated strip through a cold forming embossing roller device to emboss a frictional pattern on opposing surface of the flat elongated strip corresponding to impressions on roller surfaces of the embossing roller.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: twisting the flat elongated strip, about a central axis longitudinally extending along a length of the flat elongated strip, into a plurality of sections, adjacent ones of the sections being twisted 180 degrees relative to one another.

13. The soil reinforcing element of claim 11, wherein: the flat elongated strip is formed from aluminum.

14. The soil reinforcing element of claim 11, wherein: the flat elongated strip is formed from stainless steel.

15. The soil reinforcing element of claim 11, wherein: the flat elongated strip is formed from carbon steel.

16. A method of manufacturing a soil reinforcing element using coiled metal comprising: placing a coil on an unwinding pedestal to uncoil a strip from the coil; passing the strip through a straightening station to straighten the strip; passing the strip through a punch station to flatten the strip; passing the strip through an embossing station to create a frictional profile on top and bottom surfaces of the strip; passing the strip through a twisting station; passing the strip through a guillotine to cut the strip to a predetermined length; placing the finished strip in a stack; and banding the finished stack of strips.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein: the frictional profile includes a plurality of protuberances.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein: the frictional profile includes a plurality of depressions.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein: passing the strip through the twisting station creates a plurality of adjacent twisted sections that are twisted 180 degrees relative to one another about an axis extending lengthwise through the strip.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein: the frictional profile includes at least one of a plurality of protuberances and depressions, the plurality of protuberances being grouped into a plurality of groups and each of the groups being spaced apart from one another by a constant interval.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0023] FIG. 1A is an exploded perspective view of a prior art soil reinforcing system.

[0024] FIG. 1B is a side view of the system shown in FIG. 1A.

[0025] FIG. 1C is a side view of the system shown in FIG. 1A coupled together.

[0026] FIG. 1D is a schematic view of a rolling process according to the prior art.

[0027] FIG. 2A is an isometric view of an embodiment of a soil reinforcing element in accordance with the present disclosure.

[0028] FIG. 2B is a side view of the soil reinforcing element of FIG. 2A.

[0029] FIG. 3A is an is an isometric view of a further embodiment of a soil reinforcing element in accordance with the present disclosure.

[0030] FIG. 3B is an enlarged view of a portion of the soil reinforcing element of FIG. 3A.

[0031] FIG. 3C is a side view of the soil reinforcing element of FIG. 3B.

[0032] FIG. 4 is an is an isometric view of a still further embodiment of a soil reinforcing element in accordance with the present disclosure.

[0033] FIG. 5 is a flowchart depicting a method of manufacturing a soil reinforcing element in accordance with the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] Various embodiments and aspects of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like or similar features are labeled with the same reference number. The following description and drawings are illustrative of the present disclosure and are not to be construed as limiting the disclosure. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure. However, well-known or conventional details are not described in order to provide a concise discussion of embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0035] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a soil reinforcing element 150 is described with reference to FIGS. 2A-2B. The soil reinforcing element 150 may include a flat elongated strip 152 of material, e.g., metal such as carbon steel, aluminum, or stainless steel, for example. The flat elongated strip 152 may be configured as a relatively flat rectangular prism having a top surface 152T and a bottom surface 152B. The top surface 152T and the bottom surface 152B are planar surfaces. Preferably, the top surface and the bottom surface of the flat elongated strip 152 is substantially smooth. Raised ribs or raised protuberances 154 may be formed in the top surface 152T and the bottom surface 152B such that a frictional profile may be formed on the respective top and bottom surfaces 152T, 152B. That is, the raised protuberances 154 define a frictional pattern that together define a frictional profile. As shown in FIGS. 2A-2B, the raised protuberances 154 may be ribs that extend at least partially widthwise along a width of respective ones of the top surface 152T and the bottom surface 152B. In the illustrated embodiment, the frictional elements 154 are raised protuberances although other embodiments not shown may use other kinds of frictional elements. For examples, some other embodiments may employ depressions as the frictional elements.

[0036] As shown best in FIG. 1B, which is a side view of the soil reinforcing element 150, raised protuberances 154 may be formed on each of the top surface 152T and the bottom surface 152B. The raised protuberances 154 may be spaced apart from one another at a predetermined interval or spacing and may be grouped within a group 156 of the raised protuberances 154, and may be positioned on opposing sides of the flat elongated strip 152 at the same relative position along the length of the flat elongated strip 152.

[0037] Another embodiment of a soil reinforcing element 200 is shown and described with respect to FIGS. 3A-3C. The soil reinforcing element 200 is substantially similar to the soil reinforcing element 150 except that the soil reinforcing element 200 defines a different frictional profile and includes depressions 204a that are formed in each of its upper surface 202T and bottom surface 202B. In particular, along opposing edges of the upper surface 202T and the bottom surface 202B, depressions 204a and 204b may be formed. The depressions 204a and 204b may be spaced at an interval and may also be grouped into groupings 206 and each of the groupings 206 may be spaced apart from one another by an interval. FIG. 3C depicts a side of the soil reinforcing element 200. The grouping 206 may also be referred to as a frictional profile as it provides friction or grip with soil when the soil reinforcing element 200 is used that would not otherwise be provided as the top surface 202T and the bottom surface 202B, which are planar, are otherwise smooth.

[0038] As shown in FIG. 3C, the depressions 204a may be formed on both the upper surface 202T and the bottom surface 202B. Similarly, on the opposing side of the soil reinforcing element 200, the depressions 204a may be formed on both the upper surface 202T and the bottom surface 202B. It should be understood that in other embodiments, that the upper surface 202T and the bottom surface 202B may include a combination of protuberances and depressions and that such protuberances and depressions may have other arrangements, patterns, and/or configurations without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure.

[0039] A method of manufacturing the soil reinforcing elements 150 and 200 may include providing a relatively flat elongated strip of metal that has a smooth surface on the top and bottom surfaces 152T, 152B and forming depressions or protuberances (i.e., raised elements) in the top and bottom surfaces 152T, 152B. The manipulation of the surface profile is fabricated by the method of cold form embossing. It is also economically advantageous to fabricate the soil reinforcing using stock metal material that is contained on a coil. Where the cold formed rolled raised and depressed profile is intermittently spaced along the flat elongated strip surface, where the spacing and shape of the raised and depressed profile is optimized and verified by using the method of pullout testing.

[0040] A further embodiment of a soil reinforcing element 300 is shown and described with respect to FIG. 4. The soil reinforcing element 300 may be a flat elongated strip 302 including protuberances 304 formed on respective opposing surfaces thereof in a similar fashion to that of strips 152 and 152, except that the flat elongated strip 302 has been twisted to form a plurality of sections 306 that are twisted relative to one another. It should be noted that instead of protuberances 304 that depressions forming a frictional profile similar to that of the soil reinforcing element 200 may be utilized instead.

[0041] Each of the reinforcing elements 300 may include a through bore (not shown) to facilitate coupling of the reinforcing element to an MSE.

[0042] A method of manufacturing the soil reinforcing element 300 may include providing a flat elongated strip 302 of material, e.g., metal. The flat elongated strip 302 may be substantially similar to the flat elongated strips 150, 200 described above except that the flat elongated strip 302 has been twisted about an axis longitudinally extending along its length by intermittently twisting the flat elongated strip 302 by 180 degrees such each of the sections 306 have their respective top and bottom surfaces remaining substantially planar with respect to the top and bottom surfaces of adjacent ones of the sections 306. As shown in FIG. 4, the flat elongated strip 302 has been twisted such that what was the bottom surface B of one of the sections 306 is twisted to be coplanar with the top surface T of an adjacent one of the sections 306.

[0043] FIG. 5 depicts a flowchart outlining steps in a method of manufacturing the above-described soil reinforcing elements. In particular, at step 502, a determination is made as to whether the strip of material is on a coil. If the strip of material, e.g., metal, is on a coil, the coil is unwound at step 506. Otherwise, if the strip is not on a coil, i.e., it is already unwound, the strip is fed into the rollers, which may be performed according to a similar process as described with respect to FIG. 1D. At step 508, the strip of material is straightened by passing the material through a straightening station. At step 510, a determination is made as to whether the material requires punch to further smooth and flatten the material. At step 512, if the strip of material needs to be punched such that is has substantially smooth top and bottom surfaces, the strip of material may be further flattened by passing through a punch station. If the strip does not require a punch, at step 514, a determination is made as to whether the surface requires profiling. If the strip of material, at step 514, was determined not to require profiling, a determination is made at step 516 as to whether the strip of material requires a twist, at step 518, the strip is twisted. If the step 514 a determination was made that the surface requires profiling, at step 520, a query is made as to whether the strip at a predetermined or desired thickness, and if yes, at step 522, induction heating is performed, and if not, at step 524, surface profiling is performed. If induction heating was performed at step 522, after the induction heating is performed, the surface profiling at step 524 is performed and thereafter, the strip is sheared to a desired length at step 526. If at step 516, the strip did not require twisting, the next step may been shearing the strip to a desired length at step 526, and the finished strip may then be stacked at step 528 and banded at step 530.

[0044] A particular frictional profile may be formed on respective ones of the top and bottom surfaces of the flat elongated strip of material by passing the flat elongated strip through an embossing station, such that as discussed above with respect to FIG. 1A-2D, a desired arrangement of protuberance (e.g., protuberances 154) and/or depressions 204a, 204b may be formed. After a desired frictional profile has been formed in the top and bottom surfaces of the flat elongated strip, the flat elongated strip may be passed through a twisting station, cut to a particular size by passing through a guillotine, and then placed in a stack and banded. Other orderings of these steps may be utilized without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure.

[0045] Where the process method of manufacturing shown in FIG. 5 may be manipulated to included using stock metal that is: 1. Placed on in a feeding station; 2. Passed through a straightening station; 3. Passed through a punch station; 4. Passed through an induction heating station; 5. Passed through an embossing station; 6. Passed through a twisting station; 7. Passed through a guillotine; 8. Placed in a stack; 9. Banded. It should be noted that other orderings of these steps may be utilized without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure.

[0046] The embodiments and methods described in this patent pertains to soil reinforcing that is fabricated with flat elongated strips. Flat elongated strip soil reinforcing is known to have surfaces that are fabricated to form a grid, fabricated with a surface that is smooth or that has raised cross ribs. The flat elongated strips are also known to be fabricated with a sinusoidal or other geometric profile in a manner that allows for extension as a force is applied. For flat elongated strip soil reinforcing that utilizes a modified surface, such as a protrusion or raised cross rib, the surface protrusion or raised cross rib is formed during the final phase of the manufacturing process that is known as the hot rolling process.

[0047] Hot rolling is a metalworking process that takes place at a temperature above the recrystallization temperature of the material that may be between 850° C. to 1200° C. During the metalworking process the grains of the material deform and recrystallize. The metalworking process is designed so the metal maintains a microstructure where the crystals are approximately the same length and so as to prevent the metal from work hardening. The starting material typically consists of large pieces of metal that may be classified as slabs, blooms, and billets. In instances where the casting operation is continuous the material is fed directly into rolling mills at the predefined temperature. In some operations the material may start at room temperature, then is reheated to the proper temperature. In both cases the material is processed with a series of rollers to produce the end product shape such as strips, rounds, angles, channels, and the likes thereof. The surface of the element can be configured with raised ribs such as the ribs on concrete reinforcing bars. The raised ribs are placed on the element as a final rolling process while the material is still at or near the original billet temperature.

[0048] The placement of the raised protuberances (e.g., protuberances 154) requires sets of special rollers, e.g., embossing rollers, to produce elements, e.g., depressions or protuberances on the material that is passed through the rollers. Because special rollers are required the thickness, width, and configuration of the element is limited by the roller and limited in sizes that can be purchased by the consumer. Because special rollers are required the number of fabricators is also limited. It is therefore advantageous to develop a manufacturing process where a metal element can be manipulated into a soil reinforcing element of different widths and thicknesses and with different surface and cross section profiles using a cold rolling process.

[0049] A metalworking process that can manipulate the surface of metal is called embossing. Metal embossing is a stamping process that produces raised or sunken reliefs in the metal. The stamping process is typically made by means of matched male and female dies. In one process the metal is passed between male and female rollers that contain impressions of the desired pattern. The pattern is formed in the metal when it is cold. This is advantageous as it allows for the fabrication using different metal stock such as strips, plates, and bars. It also allows for the use of bars with different cross sections such as rectangular, square, round, hexagonal or any desired pattern placed on the surfaces or edges.

[0050] Soil reinforcing is designed to resists tension forces that develop in an earth mass. The soil reinforcing must be strong enough to resist rupture and to resists pullout from the earth mass. The resistance to rupture of a soil reinforcing element is a function of the metal properties and the cross-sectional area and is easily calculated. The pullout resistance of a soil reinforcing element is more complicated to calculate and is a function of the surface area and shape. To aid in predicting the pullout resistance of soil reinforcing it is determined through pullout testing. One such pullout test method is governed by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) specification D6706, Standard Test Method for Measuring Geosynthetic Pullout Resistance in Soil. To determine the pullout resistance of metal soil reinforcing the ASTM D6706 test is modified as required.

[0051] When used with soil reinforcing the raised reliefs that are hot-rolled on the surface of flat elongated strip is known to increase the resistance to pullout from the compacted backfill. A flat elongated strip with surface reliefs has a higher pullout capacity than that of a flat elongated strip with no surface relief. It is therefore advantageous to devise an economical method of manufacturing a soil reinforcing element that allows for the use of commonly produced metal shapes, that can have surface reliefs or projections, and, or, edge relief or projections, that increase the pullout capacity of the soil reinforcing element that is verified and optimized through testing.

[0052] It is also advantageous to devise an economical method of manufacturing a soil reinforcing element that allows for the use of commonly produced metal shapes where the cross section can manipulated by twisting the element so as to increase the pullout capacity of the soil reinforcing element that is verified and optimized through testing.

[0053] A system for constructing a mechanically stabilized earth structure may include a soil reinforcing element, e.g., the reinforcing element 150, 200, or 300, consisting of a flat elongated strip fabricated with cold formed embossed elements along the surface and a through bore at the proximal end; a facing anchor having first and second connection plates extending from the back face of an earth structure and being vertically-offset from each other at predetermined distances that accepts the proximal end of the soil reinforcing, each connection plate defining a horizontally-disposed through bore; and a coupling device extendable through each horizontally-disposed through bore and the central opening of the connection element to secure to the soil reinforcing to the facing anchor, wherein the combination of the through bore, central opening and the coupling device prevent the element from uncoupling. The combined connection element and soil reinforcing element 150, 200, or 300 may be configured to swivel in a horizontal plane. In an embodiment, the soil reinforcing element 150, 200, or 300 may replace the reinforcement elements 110 of the MSE structure that was described above with reference to FIGS. 1A-1C

[0054] The system may include: a soil reinforcing element 150, 200, or 300 consisting of a flat elongated strip fabricated with cold formed embossed elements along the surface and a through bore may be formed in a proximal section of the of the flat elongated strip to facilitate coupling of the soil reinforcing element to a facing element such as those described above with respect to FIGS. 1A-1C, for example. The system may further include a facing that includes welded wire mesh with horizontal and vertical wires, where the vertical wires extend as prongs at the top edge. The proximal section of the soil reinforcing may be coupled to the wire facing element by passing the through bore of the proximal end of the soil reinforcing element over the vertical prongs of the facing element.

[0055] A system for constructing a mechanically stabilized earth structure may include: a soil reinforcing element a flat elongated strip fabricated with cold formed twists along the central axis and a through bore at the proximal end (e.g., the soil reinforcing element 300); a facing anchor having first and second connection plates extending from the back face of an earth structure and being vertically-offset from each other at predetermined distances that accepts the proximal end of the soil reinforcing, each connection plate defining a horizontally-disposed through bore; and a coupling device extendable through each horizontally-disposed through bore and the central opening of the connection element to secure to the soil reinforcing to the facing anchor, wherein the combination of the through bore, central opening and the coupling device prevent the element from uncoupling. The combined connection element and soil reinforcing element may be configured to swivel in a horizontal plane.

[0056] In a further embodiment, a system for constructing a mechanically stabilized earth structure may include: a soil reinforcing element consisting of a flat elongated strip fabricated with cold formed twists along the central axis and a through bore at the proximal end; a facing consisting of welded wire mesh with horizontal and vertical wires, where the vertical wires extend as prongs at the top edge; and connecting the proximal end of the soil reinforcing to the wire facing element by passing the through bore of the proximal end of the soil reinforcing element over the vertical prongs of the facing element.

[0057] While the present disclosure may have been shown and described with reference to various embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents. In other words, the various exemplary embodiments disclosed in the present specification and drawings are merely specific embodiments to facilitate an understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. For example, the particular ordering of the steps may be modified or changed without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure is defined not by the detailed description of the disclosure but by the appended claimed, and all differences in the scope should be construed as being included in the present disclosure.