Patent GB-1157522-A (GB)
Title: Spatial Structure.
Inventor: LEROUX RENE
IPC: F17C1/00
Filed: 1966-07-13
Abstract: 1,157,522. Ship and submarine hulls; space vehicles. R. LEROUX. 13 July, 1966 [13 July, 1965; 4 May, 1966], No. 31442/66. Headings B7A, B7S and B7W. [Also in Division F4] A spatial structure, e.g. a liquefied gas storage tank, comprising a plurality of curved surfaces 22, 25, 27, Fig. 8, defining a closed volume occupied by internal structural members as shown in Fig. 7 is constructed on a notional three-dimensional plan comprising an array of notional contiguous polyhedra, e.g., cubes, each inscribable in a separate notional sphere and at least two of the polyhedra having no face which is not an interior face of the array; the internal structural members consisting of either a wall extending over the interior face or elongate members extending circumferentially along the edges of the interior face, and the one or more curved surfaces 22, 25, 27 associated with any one cube each having at least one principal radius of curvature of the same value, and each of the apices associated with a non-interior face lying on the associated curved surface or surfaces. Each curved surface 22 is a partspherical vault standing on an exterior face only such as A, A<SP>1</SP>, B<SP>1</SP>, B, of a cube of the array, each surface 25 is a part-spherical vault standing- on two faces such as A 2 , A<SP>1</SP> 2 , B<SP>1</SP> 2 , B 2  and B 2 , B<SP>1</SP> 2 , C<SP>1</SP> 2 , C 2  of an edge cube of the array, whilst each surface 27 comprises a partspherical vault standing on the three faces of a corner cube of the array. Each part spherical vault 22, 25, 27 can be formed from a relatively small number of parts as shown in Fig. 9 which is an exploded view of vault 27 which is shown subdivided along arcs O, O<SP>1</SP>, O<SP>11</SP>, O<SP>111</SP>, O<SP>1v</SP>, O<SP>v</SP> of circles to provide three vaults 22<SP>1</SP>, 22<SP>11</SP>, 22<SP>111</SP> all of which are similar to part-spherical vault 22 of Fig. 8, and three ungulµ 28<SP>1</SP>, 28<SP>11</SP>, 28<SP>111</SP>. Vaults 22<SP>1</SP> and 2211 and the intervening ungulµ 28<SP>1</SP> together make up a vault 25. The curved surfaces of the outer envelope may be parts of ellipsoids and paraboloids and may comprise an " equimoid " which is defined as the surface produced by the mutual intersection of a plurality of right cylinders having the same cross-sectional radius and having a common point of intersection of their axes. The array shown in Figs. 7, 8 is generated by the notional repetition at spaced locations of a notional paving comprising an array of contiguous non- overlapping squares 1, 1A, 1B, Fig. 1, each inscribable in a separate circle shown in broken lines, there being at least two squares having no edge which is not common to another square of the array. In a modification the array is generated by successive notional rotations of the notional paving about an axis in the plane of the paving, producing a toroid, Fig. 15 (not shown), and which may serve as a space ship. The notional paving may comprise a single regular dodecagon 7, Fig. 5 (only half of which is shown), surrounded by a row of trapeziums B, each having its exterior edge 8A replaced by part of the circumscribing circle shown in broken lines. Fig. 14 shows a structure of such paving having an envelope comprising partspherical vaults 37, 38, 39. In a further modification, the inner hull of a submarine having an outer hull 50 is formed of four roughly spherical structures having a plurality of internal polyhedral cells 48, Fig. 19, having all faces interior to the array and similar exterior cells 49, each of which has its flat face which is not interior to the array replaced by a portion of a circumscribing sphere. Adjacent spheres are connected by peripheral cells 41, the defining polyhedra of which are not inscribable in a sphere but the curved outer wall of each cell 41 forms part of a sphere of the same curvature as the outer wall of each peripheral cell 49. The boundary surface between the peripheral cells 49 and interior cells 48 of each sphere is shown by a heavy lined surface which is inscribable in a notional sphere 47. Resistance to buckling is increased by partitions 51 in the shape of a polyhedral lens. In all embodiments wherein the internal structural members comprise walls, the latter are pierced by apertures decreasing in section with distance of the walls from the outer curved surfaces. One or more of the structural members which may comprise tubes may extend exteriorly of the enclosed volume and provide support legs.