Three-dimensional construction element comprising a body of generally polyhedral form

A three-dimensional construction element comprising a body of generally polyhedral form with an aperture therethrough. Said element comprises at least one peripheral rib forming a statically indeterminate frame the neutral axis of which is located in a plane parallel to the planes defining the ends of the element having the aperture therethrough, and in that the grooves located beside the rib form, separately or together, a geometric figure which is complementary to the figure formed by the rib. (FIG. 1).

The present invention relates to a 3-dimensional construction element 
comprising a body of generally polyhedral form with an aperture 
therethrough. 
The invention also comprises a process for producing this element and its 
use for forming dwelling units in the construction of apartment buildings, 
hospitals, hotels, etc. 
Elements produced by assembling slabs are known and may be transported in 
their assembled state without departing from the regulations, if they are 
small enough. 
Thus, the idea of constructing a large continuous room by assembling a 
number of successive elements was conceived. 
However, whatever solution is adopted, the elements manufactured cannot be 
very large; on the one hand owing to their lack of rigidity in the 
position of use and on the other hand owing to transportation problems, 
since in fact these elements do not have the necessary to rigidity to 
enable them to be turned over onto their smaller side in order to 
correspond to the traditional road gauge. 
It is obvious that the handling of any elements consisting of assembled 
slabs will necessarily lead to their becoming dislocated to a greater or 
lesser extent before arriving on site. 
This would not happen if, as proposed by the invention, the elements or 
cells formed a rigid block consisting of at least one closed frame of 
greater or lesser thickness or depth, suitably reinforced with brackets or 
some other means in the corners in order to ensure extra rigidity, or 
formed by a very dense assembly of frames, such a frames hardly deforms at 
all owing to the rigidity of the material itself which is not broken at 
any point. 
Another object of the invention consists in providing superimposable 
structures consisting of complementary and thus closely overlapping 
elements, resulting in a mortar-less construction of extreme solidity 
which is therefore resistant to ordinary forces whilst providing a 
hitherto to unknown behaviour and resistance of construction when 
subjected to seismic forces. 
Therefore, the invention intends to remedy the known dissadvantages by 
proposing a three dimensional element, characterised in that it comprises 
at least one peripheral rib forms a statically indeterminate closed frame 
the central neutral axis of which is located in a plane parallel to the 
planes defining the apertures at the end of the element the sides of said 
rib and the corners of said element are bevelled, and in that the grooves 
located beside the rib form, separately or together, a geometric figure 
complementary to the figure formed by the rib thereby providing for the 
engagement of another complementary rib therein. Consequently, the 
statically indeterminate frame will be termed an elemental frame. 
The external ribs carried by the element will have the combined effect of 
contributing to the strength of the statically indeterminate structure and 
interlocking between the similar ribs of an adjacent element. 
By using the construction element according to the invention, a number of 
elements are vertically or horizontally juxtaposed and superimposed in 
such a way that their ribs mutually interlock and retain the elements 
between them without any need for binding material.

The elemental frame provided with a rib at 1 as shown in FIG. 1 is made 
extra-rigid by the presence of reinforcements in the lateral walls and in 
the corners of the frame, the arrangement of these reinforcements being 
shown in FIGS. 18 and 19 which will be described below. 
FIG. 2 shows the deformation of this frame under the effect of external 
forces. It will be seen that the angles of the frame remain practically 
undeformed. 
To increase the rigidity of theribbed elemental frame 1, the internal 
angles of this frame may optionally be inclined at 2, or moulded at 3, 
equally for decorative purposes, as shown in FIG. 3. 
The three-dimensional construction element shown in FIG. 4 constitutes a 
dwelling unit for an apartment building, a hospital or hotel etc., and 
comprises a body of generally polyhedral form which is polygonal in cross 
section and longitudinal section, this body being smooth and reinforced or 
decorated on the inside and may be open at one or both ends, and may, of 
course, also have openings in the sides, notably a door 4, as shown by 
dotted lines. The sides of 
The parallelepiped thus formed are generally between 1.5 and 7.0 meters 
long, i.e. basically corresponding to the dimensions of apartment units. 
This element comprises external transverse ribs 10 the neutral grain of 
which is located in a plane parallel to the planes defining in apertures 
at the end of the element, this plane preferably being a median plane, 
whilst the rib forms a static undeformable system with the body of the 
element. The ribs 10 are intended to interlock between the similar ribs of 
an adjacent element as shown in FIG. 9, where the ribs 10 of the element 
interlock between the ribs 10' of the superimposed element B and between 
the ribs (not shown) of the adjacent element D. 
The ribs 10 are rectilinear and form closed transverse frames statically 
indeterminate. The angles and sides of these frames have bevelled surfaces 
11 and 12 respectively to make it easier to assemble several elements. 
FIG. 5 shows a section through one of the large sides of the element with 
the ribs 10 and the bevelled surfaces 12. In the variants represented in 
FIGS. 6-8, the ribs are either rectangular, as shown at 13 in FIG. 6, or 
in the form of saw teeth 14 (FIG. 7) or undulations 15 (FIG. 8). 
The element described may be produced either continuously by the internal 
tunnel shuttering and external shuttering traditionally used for ribs with 
intermediate reinforcements, or by lamination, extrusion or any other 
process suitable for the type of material used. This material may be 
reinforced concrete, cellular concrete, wood, metal or synthetic board, 
such as plywood, for example. 
In a variant of the process, statically indeterminate frames are used 
surrounding smooth interior walls reinforced or decorated so as to form a 
rigid undeformable cell similar to that in FIG. 4. 
Moreover, the materials chosen may be covered by a protective layer which 
thus insulates the element from sound and heat, etc. Instead of beingin 
the same plane, the ribs could be continued in a spiral arrangement 
relative to the body of the element without altering the statically 
indeterminate effect obtained by the angles. 
FIG. 9 shows an example of the assembly of four elements A, B, C and D 
constituting part of a construction. The ribs of these elements interlock 
reciprocally in one another as shown in the section in FIG. 10 along a 
plane perpendicular to the common edge of the four elements. 
FIG. 11a shows a section along a horizontal plane through the adjacent 
elements A and D and FIG. 11b shows a section along a vertical plane 
through the superimposed elements A and B. 
The sides of the parallelepipedal element described comprise means such as, 
for example, rods or spindles (not shown) to enable wheels to be fitted 
with a view to transporting this element by road. 
FIGS. 12-14 show the ribbed element described above comprising at each end 
a set of wheels 21, 22 and a lifting device diagrammatically shown at 23 
and 24, respectively, serving to lift the element from the position shown 
with solid lines into the position shown with dotted lines in FIGS. 12 and 
13 to enable it to be towed by a road vehicle 25. Thus, the loading and 
unloading of the element are done automatically. Of course, any kind of 
connection intended to increase the rigidity of the convoy may be provided 
between the axles 21 and 22, for example by means of the tie rods working 
under traction. 
FIGS. 15-17 show a particular method of manufacturing the construction 
element described herein. As shown in FIG. 15, the element is formed by 
juxtaposing statically indeterminate frames 16 manufactured separately and 
stuck together or assembled with one another by compression, using the 
tensile strength of bars 17. These bars could also be placed differently. 
FIG. 16 shows the finished element with the junction lines indicated at 18 
on the outside and at 19 on the inside, the glued surfaces 20 being 
inclined or in any desired form relative to the interior wall of the 
element in order to improve adhesion and encourage precision in 
assembling. 
An important advantage of the element described herein is that it enables a 
static, undeformable system to be made which can be turned over onto its 
small side without any risk of breakage, as shown in FIGS. 12a and 12b. 
The small side of the element turned over in this way determines the width 
of the vehicle in the convoy, which should not exceed the statutory 
permissible width of transporting vehicles traveling on the highways. This 
makes it possible to avoid having the transport subject to special 
authorization, as is usually the case for elements which are not 
sufficiently rigid to be turned over onto their small side. 
Another advantage of the element described herein is that it can be used to 
construct apartments without any need to provide a binding material 
between the vertically and horizontally interlocking or fitting ribs of 
the juxtaposed or superimposed elements. Moreover, this construction has 
the advantage of having a high degree of resistance to seismic forces. 
FIGS. 18 and 19 show the arrangement of reinforcements in the frames which 
provide the extra-rigid qualities of the latter. For this purpose, the 
frame, considered as the non-ribbed parts, comprises a bed of external 
bars 26 and a bed of internal bars 27 and transverse bars such as 31 and 
32. 
The internal bars 27 are kept in the ribs, but with a larger cross section 
(as in 27.sub.1 ). 
A bed of external bars 26.sub.1 was provided, but at a greater spacing from 
the internal bars 27.sub.1 than they are in the body. Of course, there are 
also transverse bars of the type shown at 31, the bars of the type shown 
at 32 being interrupted. In the ribs, as in the slab of the frame, passing 
from one wall A of the element comprising body and ribs, to the other wall 
B of the element comprising body and ribs, at right angles to the 
above-mentioned A the internal bars of the first wall A become the 
external bars of the second wall B and the external bars of the first wall 
A become the internal bars of the second wall B. 
To strengthen the reinforcement in the corners, on the outside, external 
bars of the wall A are then used, which will remain on the outside of the 
other wall B (such as 26.sub.1 ') borrowed from the external bars of the 
rib in the wall A and following one another on the outside in wall B. 
Throughout the construction, yokes (such as 28, 28') and joining or 
assembly bars (such as 29, 29' and 30, 30') were introduced.