U.S. patent number 3,760,549 [Application Number 05/200,347] was granted by the patent office on 1973-09-25 for construction element.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Wilhelm Johannes Silberkuhl. Invention is credited to Horst Manthey, Wilhelm Johannes Silberkuhl.
United States Patent |
3,760,549 |
Silberkuhl , et al. |
September 25, 1973 |
CONSTRUCTION ELEMENT
Abstract
A load-supporting construction element, for spanning a pair of
spaced-apart supports and adapted to form a wall, floor, deck or
roofing structure or a support for a wall, floor, deck or roofing
surface which consists of a sheet-metal plate of generally
rectangular-plan configuration and a plurality of troughs and
crests in alternating relationship and of trapezoidal
cross-section. The apices of the troughs and/or crests are provided
with integral (unitary) ridges concave in the direction in which
the corrugation bulges and of trapezoidal or arcuate cross-section.
The flanks of the trapezoidal corrugations are stepped.
Inventors: |
Silberkuhl; Wilhelm Johannes
(Essen, DT), Manthey; Horst (Essen, DT) |
Assignee: |
Silberkuhl; Wilhelm Johannes
(Essen, DT)
|
Family
ID: |
5788795 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/200,347 |
Filed: |
November 19, 1971 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
|
|
|
|
|
Nov 21, 1970 [DT] |
|
|
P 20 57 372.2 |
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
52/630; D25/123;
52/537 |
Current CPC
Class: |
E04D
3/24 (20130101); E04C 2/322 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
E04D
3/24 (20060101); E04C 2/32 (20060101); E04d
003/361 (); E04d 013/04 () |
Field of
Search: |
;52/537,588,630,336,671,672,674,450 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
703,638 |
|
Feb 1965 |
|
CA |
|
50,008 |
|
Sep 1921 |
|
SW |
|
Primary Examiner: Perham; Alfred C.
Claims
We claim:
1. A construction element which comprises a generally planar plate
of rectangular plan configuration unitarily formed with alternately
upwardly and downwardly bulging corrugation of generally
trapezoidal cross-section, said corrugations being formed with
generally flat flanks converging to flattened crests and troughs
respectively, said flanks being formed with longitudinally
extending steps and said crests and troughs being formed unitarily
with longitudinally extending rib profiles deformed therein and
concave in the direction in which the respective corrugation
bulges, said corrugations having altitudes approximately equal to
the transverse widths of said flattened troughs and crests, said
steps being formed substantially midway along said flanks, and said
flanks including angles of about 115.degree. with said flattened
troughs and crestd and said steps include angles of substantially
145.degree. with said flanks.
2. The element defined in claim 1 wherein said rib profiles are
provided substantially in the middle of the respective flattened
trough and crest.
3. The element defined in claim 1 wherein said rib profiles extend
approximately over a quadrant of a circle in cross-section.
4. The element defined in claim 3 wherein the rib profiles on the
upwardly bulging corrugations are of arcuate cross-section and the
rib profiles on the downwardly bulging corrugations are of
trapezoidal cross-section.
5. The element defined in claim 4 wherein said flattened crests and
troughs have transverse widths A and D respectively, said
corrugations have altitudes H, said rib profiles have widths B and
E for the arcuate and trapezoidal cross-sections respectively, and
respective altitudes F and G and said corrugations have broad bases
of widths C, the values A, B, C, D, E, F and G being related as
follows: A/2 .ltoreq. B .apprxeq. E .ltoreq. A/4, C .apprxeq. 2A
.apprxeq. 2D, and B/2 .apprxeq. E/2.
6. The element defined in claim 5 wherein F .apprxeq. G .apprxeq.
B/3 .apprxeq. E/3.
7. The element defined in claim 6 wherein B .apprxeq. A/3.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a construction element and, more
particularly, to a load-supporting, support-spanning, structural
member of rectangular-plan configuration and adapted to be used as
wall, floor, deck or roof member and/or as a sheathing for any
structure and/or as a partition member, alone or in combination
with a planar or other supported surface.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the construction field, considerable effort has been made to
design lightweight, low-cost, high-strength flat space-covering
members which can be used without, or even in place of, supporting
means, girders, studs, troughs, columns and the like. For example,
prior to the advent of sheet-metal or synthetic-resin structural
elements or sheets of the character described, construction
generally made use a load-supporting or load-transmitting members
of a well-defined profile as beams, girders and the like, which
were spanned by the covering members, e.g. flooring built up from
wood, slabs, cast in situ or prefabricated of concrete, or boads,
plates or sheets of a variety of materials adapted to rest upon the
supporting members and designed to span large areas. In a
refinement of these construction techniques, structural elements
having a generally flat configuration and intended to span large
areas were integrally or unitarily provided with stiffening
formations intended to to increase the load-supporting capacity of
the body and to replace girders, beams and separate supports which
otherwise were required to extend along the flat web of the
structural element. Typical of systems of the latter type were
concrete slabs cast with trapezoidal ribs to form a monolithic body
in which the ribs served as beams and the web between the ribs as
the covering portion of the structural element.
While the aforedescribed systems were found to be convenient and
satisfactory for many purposes, they were unduly complex, expensive
and massive. Attention has turned, for many construction purposes,
to lightweight material of sheet metal and synthetic resin in an
effort to find structural elements which are more convenient to
handle, are lightweight and are of high stiffness and resistance to
deformation. For example, corrugated sheet metal and
synthetic-resin sheets have been provided heretofore, the
corrugations being of arcuate or trapezoidal cross-section and
merging smoothly from one creast to the adjacent trough. These
systems have only limited stiffness and can be used to span
relatively small distances. They seldom can be employed as a
substitute for horizontal load-carrying supports and frequently
must be used in conjunction with them. Attempts to use sheet-metal
and synthetic-resin sheets having spaced-apart ridges unitarily
deformed from the plane of the sheet and of rectangular
cross-section, have also proved to be unsuccessful because the
structural element had only limited antibuckling strength or
load-supporting capability. It should be noted that another problem
involved with existing corrugated materials or materials provided
with profile-stiffening members has been the inability to stack the
structural elements efficiently and conveniently. Finally, it
should be pointed out that corrugated sheets of metal or synthetic
resin, in which each corrugation is of arcuate cross-section, are
relatively expensive to produce.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is the principal object of the present invention to provide a
low-cost, high-strength, space-covering structural element designed
to obviate the aforementioned disadvantages and to simplify and
improve the construction of load-supporting members.
Another object of the invention is to provide a generally flat or
sheet-like structural element which may be used as a
load-supporting member without girders, beams or the like, i.e.
which provides the compression and tension flanges upon loading in
an integral or unitary manner.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved
construction element adapted to span large areas, and suitable for
use as a wall-forming, roof-forming, deck-forming, or roof, wall or
deck-supporting member in substantially any phase of building
construction including sheathing, partitioning and facing a
structure.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a generally
flat, load-supporting construction element with increased
load-bearing capacity without increases in thickness of the
material and with satisfactory stacking ability.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These objects and other which will become apparent hereinafter are
attained in accordance with the present invention, in a generally
flat structural element having a rectangular-plan configuration and
composed of sheet metal or a synthetic resin, the structural
element being of constant wall thickness throughout and unitarily
formed with corrugations opening alternately on opposite sides of
the structural member and of generally trapezoidal configuration.
The stiffening ribs of generally trapezoidal cross-section,
according to the present invention, comprise flanks or side walls
which converge alternately upwardly and downwardly to a crest or
trough which, according to the present invention, is provided with
a longitudinally extending unitarily formed profile rib which is
concave in the direction in which the corrugation bulges and which
has a transverse width equal to at least a substantial fraction of
the width of the flattened crest or trough in which it is formed.
The structural element which can be used as a roofing plate, a wall
plate, a sheath plate or the like, or for any of the other purposes
previously described, also is provided along the flanks of the
trapezoidal cross-section with longitudinally extending steps such
that a transition is formed between a slender trapezoid in the
region of the small side of the trapezoidal corrugation and an
enlarged trapezoid close to the broad base thereof. This
combination of a step in each flank and a rib or channel in each
crest or trough has been found to impart substantially greater
stiffness and antibuckling resistance to the construction element
than has been attainable with existing corrugated plates and
furthermore permits the plate to take up shear stresses and bending
moments in the transverse direction with greater effectiveness.
According to an important feature of the invention, the width of
the flattened crest or trough is substantially equal to the height
of the flanks or walls of the corrugation and the altitude
thereof.
The alternating corrugations of the plate constitute the
compression and tension flanges of the structural element when the
latter is a load-supporting body in accordance with the present
invention and the crest ribs and flank steps have been found to
enable the altitude of the corrugations to be relatively high. As a
consequence, the compression and tension flanges can effectively be
removed from a median plane through the plate to a much greater
extent than has been possible heretofore. The stacking properties
of the plate are thereby improved as is the load-carrying
capability for a given sheet thickness.
According to another feature of the invention, the crest rib is
formed of arcuate cross-section along the upper portions of the
plate and of trapezoidal cross-section along the downwardly facing
portion of the plate, in both cases the crest rib being dimensioned
to correspond to at least 90.degree. of circular arc. The side
walls preferably include angles of about 115.degree. with
horizontal flanges of the plate while the angle of the step is
advantageously about 145.degree..
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the
invention will become more readily apparent from the following
description, reference being made to the accompanying drawing in
which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a structural element according to
the present invention; and
FIG. 2 is a detailed view of a portion thereof in end elevation
corresponding to the region viewed along line II -- II of FIG.
1.
SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION
The generally flat structural element illustrated in the drawing is
preferably round from sheet metal or extruded from a synthetic
resin using a round extruder and in most cases will be composed of
a sheet metal such as aluminum or steel which may be coated with
anticorrosion layers or the like. In general the plate is of
rectangular plan-configuration and is formed with corrugations 1,
2, 3, extending in the longitudinal direction and alternately open
upwardly and downwardly. Each corrugation is defined between a pair
of flanks or side walls which converge upwardly to a flattened
crest 2 or downwardly to a flattened trough 3. The plate is
generally employed as a roof, wall or sheath member.
As can be seen from FIG. 2, the side walls or flanks 1 are provided
with longitudinally extending steps 4 inclined in an angle of
substantially 145.degree. to the wall or flank which, in turn,
includes an angle of 115.degree. to the horizontal portions 2 and 3
extending therefrom. The steps 4 are located approximately midway
of the height of each wall or flank 1. The crests 2 of the upwardly
bulging corrugations are formed with reinforcing ribs 5 of arcuate
cross-section, the ribs 5 defining a concavity open in the
direction in which its corrugation bulges. Correspondingly, ribs 6
are formed in the trough floor 3 and open in the direction in which
their corrugations bulge, i.e. downwardly. Preferably the
formations 5 and 6 extend in cross-section over substantially a
quadrant of a circle, i.e. about 90.degree., as shown at .epsilon.
in FIG. 2. The altitude G of rib 6 is approximately 125 mm in the
preferred case and has abroad base E substantially twice as wide as
its narrow base L. E may be about 3 G. The thickness of the plate
is preferably about 1 mm. Structural elements of this type have
been found to be satisfactory for spanning large distances and
carrying considerable loads.
According to an important feature of this invention, the transverse
width A or D of the flattened crest 2 or trough 3 of the respective
corrugation is approximately equal to the altitude H thereof. The
width of the channel formed by the rib 5 or 6 is represented at B
or E, respectively, and A/2 .ltoreq. B .apprxeq. E .ltoreq. A/4 and
preferably B .apprxeq. E .apprxeq. A/3.
It has also been found to be desirable to dimension the corrugation
such that the broad base C .apprxeq. 2A, while D .apprxeq. 2A and B
.apprxeq. E. The altitude F .apprxeq. G of the formations 5 and 6
may be defined by the relationship B/4 .ltoreq. F .ltoreq. B/2 so
that in the preferred state F .apprxeq. B/3. The step of each flank
1 may have a width I .apprxeq. H/4 or .apprxeq. K/2 wherein J and K
are respectively with widths of the portions of the side walls
flanking the step 4. The angle .alpha. between the flank K and the
floor 3 of a trough is about 115.degree. as previously described
while the angle .beta. between the portions of the side wall 1 and
the step 4 formed therein may be 145.degree.. Similarly, the angle
.gamma. between the side wall and crest 2 is approximately
115.degree. while the angle .delta. of the flank of the rib 6 is
about 135.degree..
* * * * *