Patent Publication Number: US-7214004-B2

Title: Mobile flood wall

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   Floods have always required protective measures in the form of man-made structures where flooding of the threatened areas would lead to danger to humans and animals. 
   However, unusually extremely high water levels have occurred in increasing numbers for the past few years. 
   Among other things, changes in the climate, the regulation and narrowing of river beds, the use of water meadows as drainage zones for growing crops and the increasingly extensive surface sealing of the landscape have contributed to this serious development. 
   Therefore, an increasing need for additional and more effective measures can be seen, which can halt and prevent flooding in private and public areas in the long term and also in the short term. 
   The traditional protection and raising of river banks are masonry or heaped-up dike and river bank forms of a corresponding weight, consistency and slope angle as a permanent and immobile protection against floods. 
   These are usually built on the banks of rivers in municipal areas in terms of height and shape such that according to empirical values, they can prevent flooding of the river bank areas in the range of floods that occur and do not interfere with the visibility conditions at normal water levels. 
   Centuries-old town and city centers have developed and expanded as trade routes on the banks of rivers and the building of structures in the area of the banks must be correspondingly adapted aesthetically and functionally. In many areas, a steady increase in the height of the structures protecting river banks would unacceptably damage the quality of the built-up environment. 
   Mobile systems that can be deployed and also dismantled in a short time for supplementing the permanent structures built are therefore meaningful and necessary for the protection of public and private river bank areas from extreme flood levels occurring at an increased frequency. 
   Dams built up from sand bags and films or prepared foundations for supports, on which, for example, Europallets, supplemented by films, form protective walls that can be erected and dismantled in a short time, have been known. 
   Also known are Aqua Stop flood walls made of aluminum as supports, which are bolted on existing concrete foundations and then form a protective wall with walls arranged in between, which are made of horizontal dam girders and corresponding seals. 
   These prior-art devices for protection against floods are frequently characterized by the high weight of their component parts, which requires great effort in terms of manpower and machinery for the erection of longer sections in a short time. 
   Mobile systems, which require prefabricated foundations, cannot be used, in turn, in a flexible manner due to the fact that they are characteristically bound to a site and compromise the quality and the functionality of the areas requiring protection during periods without flood. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   An object of the invention is to provide mobile flood protection that can be erected in a short time by the use of reusable, lightweight and therefore easy-to-transport and easy-to-erect parts, which can be erected and adapted without technical problems, without tools and without comprehensive instructions by any person, male or female, on nearly any soil. This object and other objects are provided by my invention which is set out below. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1   a  shows a view of the support element; 
       FIG. 1   b — 1   b  shows a vertical section of the support element taken along the lines and arrows  1   b — 1   b  shown in  FIG. 1   a ; and 
       FIG. 1   c  shows a top view of the outer side of the support element. 
       FIG. 2   a  shows a view of the water side of the wall element; 
       FIG. 2   b  shows a top view of the wall element; and 
       FIG. 2   c — 2   c  shows a vertical section of the wall element taken along the lines and arrows  2   c — 2   c  shown in  FIG. 2   a.    
       FIG. 3  shows a geomat with sealing part at the low end of the wall element. 
       FIG. 4  shows an elastic corner connection for wall elements with an angle of 90° or another angle. 
       FIG. 5  shows bolts for connecting the support elements to the wall elements. 
       FIG. 6  shows clamps for connecting two wall elements at the upper edge. 
       FIG. 7  shows a view of the support element. 
       FIG. 8  shows a vertical section of the wall element. 
       FIG. 9  shows a horizontal section of the geomat with the sealing part at the low end of the wall element. 
       FIG. 10   a  shows a vertical section of the sealing tape. 
       FIG. 10   b  shows a top view of the sealing tape. 
   

   The invention pertaining to a mobile flood wall, which arises from this development idea, comprises wall elements that can be assembled on the site and are complemented with support elements such that they form a flood protection system with novel advantageous properties. 
   Support elements  1  through  5  form together an equilateral triangle preferably consisting of a plastic in a plate-like manner as a whole with three outer sides of equal, specially structured surface. 
   They are used to support the flood wall at an angle of 60°, which forms the wall with the land side surface, each of the three outer sides of the support elements  1  being able to be used as the base as desired. 
   These three equal outer sides of the support elements are structured as square grids of preferably two or three parallel rows of pyramid-shaped expansions of the surface as square pyramids  2  with lateral edges of equal length, likewise as equilateral triangles and with corresponding depressions of identical shape located in between as the structure of the surface  2  of the underside of the support elements, fittingly for meshing with the identical surface structures  12  of the land sides of the wall elements  11 . 
   Depending on the material, round openings  3 , which frame the inner, likewise equilateral triangular area, are left in the three edge areas of the three sides of the support elements  1 . 
   Within the three edge areas with round openings, the surface of the support elements is expanded by an inner equilateral triangular frame shape  4  on both sides as a circumferential thickening of the plate shape of the support element and as a circumferential additional support of disk-shaped expansions  14  of the wall elements for connection to wall elements. 
   The triangular area within this thickening is interrupted by a central round opening  5  also for easier handling during transportation and may have additional round openings  5  depending on the material and the dimensions. 
   Wall elements  11  through  19  are shaped as rectangular plates, preferably plastic plates, with identical upper and lower halves, and orientation toward the differently structured land side and water side is therefore sufficient during erection. 
   They have a horizontally corrugated surface  13  on the water side as rounded channel-shaped openings preferably in the sections between the connection sections for land-side support elements. 
   The wall-high sections at the two ends of each wall element  11  with the openings and expansions for connecting the wall elements are of greater thickness on the land side and on the water side. 
   The land-side surface of the wall elements  11  is structured as a square grid of preferably two or more pyramid-shaped expansions  12  of the surface as square pyramids with lateral edges of equal length likewise as equilateral triangles and with corresponding depressions of identical shape located in between as the structure of the surfaces of the sections between the connection sections for land-side support elements fittingly for meshing with the surface structures  2  of the outer sides of the support elements. 
   The land-side wall-high sections between land-side disk pairs  14  are structured in the same manner as square grids  12  for connection to the surface structures  2  of the outer sides of the support elements. 
   The vertical disk pairs  14  expand the land side of the wall elements  11  at right angles to the surface with respective round holes  15  located opposite each other fitting the round holes  3  in the equilateral edge frame of the support elements  1 . 
   The edge frames of the support elements can be inserted as desired with one of the three sides of each support element being positioned between the disk pairs, and are connected to the wall elements in a fitting height position by bolts  22  pushed into the round holes  3 ,  15 . 
   The land side is smooth and unstructured in the section under and above the two disks  14 . 
   Wall elements  11  are connected to the support elements  1  by the frames of the support elements being inserted between the disk pairs  14  of the wall elements and connected with bolts  22  pushed through via the round holes  3 ,  15  and fastened in a nondisplaceable manner. Supported wall elements are thus displaceable upwardly and downwardly from one round hole to the next with the disk pairs of the wall elements as rails, by the bolts being pulled out, the wall element is brought into the desired height position depending on the topography, and the bolts are again pushed in. 
   Connection of the Wall Elements to One Another Linearly and at an Angle 
   The wall elements are connected linearly via a wall-high snap closure  16  through  18  with a sealing tape  20  of drop-shaped cross section, which presses the snap closure  18  against the cavity  16 . Besides the linear connection, wall elements may also be connected to one another at other angles by an elastic, wall-high connection element  21  as a wall section of a width and thickness selected depending on the material and the angular position and with a snap closure technique at the ends as in the case of the linear connection  16  through  18 . 
   Additional connection elements in the form of a clamp  23  may be inserted into round holes  19  as central openings in the left-hand and right-hand edge areas of the top side of the wall elements  11 ,  21  for the additional connection of the wall elements to one another. 
   Technique for Connecting the Support Elements to the Ground Intermediate Mat as a Ground Seal 
   In case of grounds of high strength (stone, pavement, tar, etc.), an additional intermediate mat  26  with a surface structure  27  can be inserted fittingly to the meshing with the underside of the support elements  2  for a more effective sealing, friction and adhesion to the subsoil. 
   This mat may consist of different materials and be cut fittingly to size depending on the needs and the topography with corresponding thickness and material properties and structure of the underside of the intermediate mat  28  to enable it to be adapted to the particular subsoil. 
   Low End of Wall Element/Support Element 
   For sealing against water especially in case of grounds with high strength, a sealing section  24 ,  25  can be used at the low end of the wall element/support element of the assembled flood wall in a positive-locking manner as a closure of the intermediate mat fittingly to the pyramid shape of the surface structure of the corner point of the lower side of the support element and the low end of the wall element. 
   This sealing profile may consist of different materials with a corresponding thickness and material properties and structure of the underside of the sealing profile  28  to enable it to be adapted to the particular subsoil. 
   The water pressure on the wall plates is absorbed by the triangular support elements and it presses the meshing of the underside of the leg lying on the ground into the ground to ensure the stability and nondisplaceability of the flood wall. 
   In case of grounds with high strength, an intermediate mat under the base of the support elements ensures adhesion in some sections over the entire area depending on the consistency and the surface structure of the subsoil. 
   The height of individual wall plates can be adjusted depending on the topography when the bolts are removed from the round openings of the two disk-shaped expansions of the wall elements and the meshing will separate upon vertical pulling or pushing of the corresponding wall plate and snaps into the next higher or next lower meshing segment of the support element and wall element and the bolts are then again inserted into the round openings of the two disk-shaped expansions of the wall elements in this height position. Gaps that may possibly develop at the lower edge of a wall element due to points on the soil that cannot be leveled off in a short time can be closed, for example, with sand bags. 
   Additional support elements may also be inserted between the disks and reinforce the flood wall as needed, meshed with the land side of the wall elements. 
   Working Steps for Erecting the Mobile Flood Wall of the Subject of the Application 
   
       
       
         
           Delivery and at the same time ground preparation on the site, 
           erection and connection of a wall element to support elements, 
           more ground preparation on the left and right and adding additional wall elements with support elements on both sides, 
           and connection with the adaptation possibilities of the parts depending on the nature of the ground, differences in height and obstacles in the terrain and according to the water level. 
         
       
     
  
   ADVANTAGES 
   The subject of the application preferably consists as a whole of plastic or aluminum and therefore it has a low own weight, which makes possible lighter and more rapid transportation, erection, disassembly and conversion on the site. 
   Rapid orientation during erection is possible due to equal outer sides of the support elements and erection of the wall elements toward the water side and the land side only. 
   The parts can be assembled and adapted without tools and without extensive instructions by any person, male or female, on nearly any soil. 
   No prefabricated foundations are necessary, and the subject of the application can therefore also be used in an especially flexible manner in space. 
   The parts can be cleaned without effort by spraying with water to ensure reusability as a finished part. 
   The material can be stored in a simple manner and, due to the plate shape of the elements, in a space-saving manner.