Improvements in Piles, Quays, and Retaining Walls or Structures.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd Apr., 1897-Accepted, 3rd July, 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Piles, Quays, and Retaining Walls or Structures.
I, FRANÇOIS HENNEBIQUE, of 54, Boulevard Saint-Michel, Paris, in the
Republic of France, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Béton or concrete strengthened with iron or steel has already been employed in
building construction in various ways. Thus more particularly in the formation
of girders and beams of strengthened béton there are obtained many advantages
particularly shown by the use of a rational mixture of iron or steel and cement,
the former being extremely suitable for resisting the effects of traction or tension,
and the latter offering a considerable resistance to stress or compression. A capital
point for the construction of a practical girder or beam is to connect the bars of
metal forming the cord of tension with the cord of compression by means of suitable
stirrup pieces and in a former patent of mine No. 14530 I indicated a certain
number of improvements which I introduced in these stirrup or crosspieces which
in this girder made of strengthened béton play the part of the suspension rods of
the lattice work of metallic girders and ensure a perfect resistance of the girder to
the severing action under a bending strain.
I have applied these principles to the construction of piles, sheet piles and
solid uprights or standards which corresponding to the special conditions of their
arrangement or employment may according to the strains, the loads and the
pressures to which they are subjected, be assimilated to girders whether placed on
two or more supports or embedded at one end and so forth.
The construction of these piles and sheet piles, their combination, and the
method of placing them in position as well as the applications of which these separate
and combined elements are capable form the object of the present invention, and
are shown in the accompanying drawings,
Sheet 1 showing details of the piles, and
Sheet 2 details of the sheet piles as an example,
Sheet 3 shows the application of these parts and their combination for the
construction of a quay wall,
Sheet 4 the application to the consolidation of a canal bank and to the
construction of an overhanging staging.
Figure 1 (Sheet 1) shows in elevation a row of piles. These piles are formed
in a mould after the manner of girders of strengthened béton. They are formed
by metallic rods a a of suitable dimensions and section (generally of round
iron of 15-30 millimetres) connected from place to place by stirrups clasps or
crosspieces b shown in detail in Figure 2.
These crosspieces, which may be of any suitable section, such for instance as
rectangular, square or circular, are placed as required during the filling of the

page_text: sheet piles with the gage piles and of the heads of the sheet piles with one another,
and the like, will vary and also the dimensions of the respective parts.
In the examples shown in Sheets III and IV, I have shown respectively in
vertical and horizontal sections, quay walls, stagings and the consolidation of banks
or slopes, by means of piles and sheet piles according to my invention suitably
connected by cross pieces and beams formed by girders of strengthened béton
arranged on the principles hereinbefore mentioned.
The quay wall, Figures 14 and 15, Sheet III, is formed of a first wall made of
connectable sheet piles p of strengthened béton supporting a retaining wall m¹ also
of strengthened béton. These two parts of the structure are intimately connected
one with another. A girder 8 connects the heads of the sheet piles and forms one
with a horizontal béton foundation on which the retaining wall rests, strengthened
and connected to the said foundation by abutments placed from point to point. At
each abutment there is a corresponding cross, tie v of strengthened béton attaching
the foundation to the piles Z.
Whatever scouring may be produced, the monolithic construction thus arranged
forms a perfectly undeformable whole, resisting all pressures.
The examples shown in Sheet IV, namely an overhanging staging, Figures 18
and 19, and the consolidation of a bank or slope, Figures 20 and 21, are arranged
exactly on the same principles.
The piles and solid sheet piles of strengthened béton which, owing to the
arrangement of the protective cap which I have described may be driven into the
ground with the same facility as piles or sheet piles of wood, have numerous
advantages over these latter, as not only does the method of moulding and of
protecting enable any suitable power of resistance and any desired forms and
dimensions to be given them, but where it is a question of a dam or wall, it may be
constructed without interfering with the navigation and without its being necessary
to lower the level of the water. Their non-liability to alter in air or water allows
of constructions of this strengthened béton being raised above the level of the
water when works executed in timber cannot bear the alternations of dryness and
humidity. Foundations of this strengthened béton as regards economy, facility
of execution, maintenance and repairs advantageously replace foundations on
caissons of compressed air.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. Piles formed of bars of iron embedded in béton and cross tied by cramps in
such a way as to always form a solid girder practically constructed for supporting
the weight of an upper building or construction or any desired lateral horizontal
pressures, substantially as hereinbefore described and shown in the accompanying
drawings.
2. Sheet piles of strengthened béton such as described characterized by
longitudinal grooves (o o¹) the groove (o) on one sheet pile serving as guide for
the ramming of the adjacent. sheet pile to a projection formed in the lower part
of each sheet pile in proximity to the point; the ultimate filling with cement of the
interval between the grooves (o o¹) enabling adjacent sheet piles to be connected
together in a perfect manner, thus forming an absolutely tight wall, substantially
as described.
3. In piles of the kind described, a metal cap substantially as hereinbefore
described and shown in the accompanying drawings, for use in ramming, enabling
the head of the pile or sheet pile to be entirely encased and to distribute the
pressures of the blows of the ram uniformly on all the faces of said head by means
of an interposed cushion of sand.
4. The application of piles and sheet piles of strengthened béton, such as
described, to the construction of any works or foundations in bad soil, to dams for
hydraulic works, quay and sustaining walls, the consolidation of slopes and the