HK1137791B - Protective shelter - Google Patents

Description

Protective shelter

Technical Field

The present invention relates to protective shelters and, more particularly, to shelters that can provide protection in a war zone and that can be easily assembled in a quick, safe and reliable manner.

Background

In the face of the various requirements of temporary or at least rapidly built shelters, there is often a compromise between the level of protection offered by the shelter and the speed, reliability and ease with which such a structure can be built.

Furthermore, the degree of protection required by a shelter can vary over time, and known protective shelters, while providing adequate primary protection, may not be suitable for situations where a lesser or greater degree of protection is required.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention seeks to provide a protective shelter which has further advantages over known such shelters.

As will be appreciated from the following description, embodiments of a shelter according to the present invention can be quickly, importantly and reliably constructed in a delicate manner with minimal human effort such that each individual component of the structure can be individually manually removed and handled.

Moreover, the individual components can advantageously be dimensioned such that they are easily transported in a flat, unassembled form on pallets (2 m by 2.2 m pallets).

It will be appreciated that the present invention provides a protective shelter offering opposed outer supports and a roof structure extending between the supports, the roof structure including a plurality of tray members arranged to receive earth, sand or aggregate material defining an inner layer to provide a first level of protection for the roof structure; and the tray member is arranged to be supported by a beam arranged to define a shallow arch across the shelter such that the central interior height of the shelter away from the opposed supports is greater than the height of the supports.

To assist in the rapid and reliable formation of such shallow arch structures, the support beam members advantageously comprise beams of the same shape and configuration, the end faces of the beams forming an angle or slope with respect to a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal extent of each beam. The angle to this plane is advantageously 7.5 °.

As a further advantage, the ends of the beams that are arranged to be supported by the side walls are arranged to be received by the anchor assemblies. Preferably, the vertical members of the cross-beam comprise portions that receive flitch plates (flitch plates) for supportively connecting the beams. Preferably, these portions are controlled by tolerance channels (tolerance channels) within the beam. Advantageously, securing the cross-beams and the compoboards in this manner creates a strong, continuous roof beam.

The anchor assemblies are advantageously used to space the transverse beams along the length of the shelter and are arranged such that each transverse beam is effectively connected to and sandwiched between adjacent anchor assembly units in a safe manner. Alternatively, each anchor assembly unit may be considered to be effectively and safely connected to and sandwiched between adjacent cross beams.

In any event, the anchor assembly units provide, through secure engagement with the top cross-member, a rigid footing/support structure that extends along the length of the upper surface of the wall of the shelter, thereby combining to effectively define a lintel beam that extends along the length of the wall. Such a rigid support structure provided by the interconnected anchor assembly units defines the aforementioned lintel beam in such a way that even if the outer wall suffers damage or its integrity is compromised in any way, the rigidity and stability of the overall roof structure can advantageously remain intact, maintaining the roof structure in place despite any damage to the wall.

The structure of the invention advantageously includes a second laterally extending layer spaced from the carrier member and arranged to define a pre-detonation barrier.

The pre-detonation screen is advantageously spaced from the initial layer formed by the tray members and the earth, sand, aggregate layer by a distance of about 1 metre.

Preferably, the bracket member comprises a series of interconnected identical bracket members having manually connectable engagement formations at opposite ends thereof.

As a further feature, the part of the roof structure provided on the earth, sand or aggregate layer can advantageously be formed by interconnected metal bars (e.g. scaffold bars).

Such rods are arranged to provide roof trusses and rafter rods within the integral structure of the roof. As one example, the pre-detonation screen can comprise plywood panels having a thickness of 19 mm.

It will be appreciated from the above and following description that there are particular benefits in the ease of forming the roof structure on the gabion units forming the opposed walls of the shelter.

The wall structure can be formed from structural blocks, such as those which are the subject of european patent 0466726.

A complete protective shelter can be easily and quickly constructed as needed in response to the level of danger faced and the level of protection required.

For example, once the gabion is positioned to form a wall of a shelter, the roof structure can be easily and reliably formed in a structurally rigid and reliable manner with minimal manpower and use of the components described herein, so that a basic level of blast protection is first provided by the transverse beams and the continuously interconnected tray members, and the layer of earth, sand or other aggregate provided thereon, as described herein.

The level of protection can be further enhanced by including a pre-detonation barrier that is configured in a quick, efficient and reliable manner as desired.

An adaptable level of protection can advantageously be provided by the shelter according to the invention.

Drawings

The invention is further described below, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a protective shelter according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 1a is a side elevation view showing additional details of the connecting structure top truss and support members of the protective shelter of FIG. 1;

FIG. 1b is a side elevation view showing additional and further details of the top truss and support members of the protective shelter of FIG. 1;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the protective shelter of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a further plan view showing additional detail of the protective shelter of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a further plan view showing further additional detail of the shelter of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing further details of the shelter of FIG. 1, particularly illustrating a pre-detonation barrier located on the roof structure of the shelter;

figures 6a and 6b illustrate connecting members for connecting a roof truss within a roof structure to a cross beam of the roof structure;

FIG. 7 includes a side elevational view of the cross-beam of the structure of FIG. 1; and

figure 7a includes a transverse cross-sectional view of such a beam;

fig. 7b is a side elevation view showing further additional detail of the top truss and support members of the protective shelter of fig. 1;

FIG. 8 is a side elevational view of a bracket member forming part of the roof structure shown in FIG. 1, but not shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 9 is a side elevational view of the structure of the top beam anchor assembly unit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a side plan view of the top beam anchor assembly unit of FIG. 9; and

fig. 11 is a perspective view of the supporting opposing walls and the dividing walls of the protective shelter.

Detailed Description

Reference is first made to fig. 1. Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a protective shelter 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The shelter 10 is provided with opposed side walls 12a, 12b formed of aligned gabions, the side walls 12a, 12b supporting a roof structure according to the invention.

The roof structure in the embodiment shown comprises a pair of parallel stringers 14, 16, the stringers 14, 16 extending along the length of the shelter 10 and being parallel to the opposing walls 12a, 12 b.

Supported by the stringers 14, 16 and extending across the width of the shelter 10 perpendicular to the stringers 14, 16 to be partially supported by the upper surfaces of the opposed walls 12a, 12b is a transverse beam structure comprising three elongate and continuously connected transverse beams 18, 20 and 22.

Each of the cross beams 18, 22 supported by the upper surface of each of the opposing walls 12a, 12b is arranged to engage with a top beam anchor assembly unit 23. In addition to providing secure support for the transverse roof rail structures 18, 20, 22 on the opposing walls 12a, 12b, such roof rail anchor assembly units 23 are interconnected by connecting them to their respective roof rails 18, 22, thereby providing a rigid, secure horizontal lintel rail structure extending along the length of the walls 12a, 12 b. The shape, configuration and structural details of each of the top beam anchor assembly units 23 will be explained in further detail later with reference to fig. 9 and 10.

As can be seen in fig. 1, each beam 18, 20, 22 is positioned at a slight angle to its adjacent beam so that when the beam structures 18, 20, 22 are consecutively joined together as shown in fig. 1, the beam structures 18, 20, 22 form a shallow arch extending between the opposing side walls 12a, 12 b.

As will be appreciated from further discussion of FIG. 7 below, each end face of each beam 18, 20, 22 is disposed at a small angle, preferably about 7.5, to a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal extent of the beam, thereby facilitating the formation of a shallow arch in an appropriate configuration when the corresponding end faces of each successively connected beam 18, 20, 22 are brought into abutment.

The provision of such a shallow arch advantageously provides the protective shelter with a suitable internal height, whilst advantageously limiting the height provided by the opposed support walls 12a, 12b, and also advantageously limiting the thickness provided by these walls 12a, 12 b.

By such careful design of the structural components of the roof shown in figure 1, the roof structure can be arranged such that each individual component can be handled and manipulated individually by hand.

A corresponding pair 24, 26 of top trusses; 28. 30, of a nitrogen-containing gas; 32. 34 extend upwardly from the beam structures 18, 20, 22 and extend upwardly from a location near the ends of the beams 18, 20, 22.

In the illustrated embodiment, the top truss is in the form of metal rods, each corresponding pair 24, 26 of top truss rods remote from the transverse beams 18, 20, 22; 2830; 32. 34 are connected together directly or through other features of the roof structure described below.

A corresponding pair 24, 26 of top trusses; 2830; 32. 34 are used to support rafter rods 36, 38, which rafter rods 36, 38 cross over the upper part of the roof structure of shelter 10 in the manner shown in the drawings.

The outer ends of the rafters 36, 38 are connected to an eave beam 40, the eave beam 40 extending longitudinally along the roof structure of the shelter 10 and in a direction parallel to the opposing walls 12a, 12 b.

The inner ends of the rafters 36, 38 are connected to a central ridge bar 42, which ridge bar 42 in the illustrated embodiment can comprise a scaffold tube and serves to define the upper extent of the roof structure of the shelter 10.

Like the eave beams 40, the ridge beams 42 extend longitudinally along the length of the shelter 10 and parallel to the opposing exterior walls 12a, 12b and the stringers 14, 16.

As a further feature, adjustable interior struts 44, 46 are included to provide interior support to the stringers 14, 16.

Although the illustrated embodiment is designed to surround the outer walls of the gabion, if the gabion does not provide sufficient support, adjustable braces 48, 50 may also be provided within the wall structure to provide adequate support for the roof structure as shown.

As described in further detail below, rafter rods 36, 38 and outermost top trusses 24, 34 are used to provide support for pre-detonation barrier 52, and in the illustrated embodiment, pre-detonation barrier 52 may be formed of plywood. Fig. 1a illustrates in more detail a front view of the intersection of a roof rod 42, rafter rods 36, 38 and top trusses 28, 30. Likewise, fig. 1b illustrates in more detail a front view of the intersection of the eaves rod 40, rafter rod 38 and top trusses 32, 34.

To complete the structure and provide some weather protection for the structure, an outer top fabric cover 54 may also be included, the outer top fabric cover 54 being anchored to the outer surface of the opposing wall (12a), 12 b.

As shown in fig. 1, the roof structure of the protective shelter 10 of the illustrated embodiment effectively forms a two-layer structure: the pre-detonation barrier provided by the plywood is provided as a first outer layer and a second, somewhat more protective and rigid inner layer is provided by laterally extending bracket portions, see for example figure 8 below. The first outer layer and the second inner layer combine to form an in-plane surface for each of the beams 18, 20, 22, placing soil, sand or other aggregate on the two-layer structure as indicated by arrow a in fig. 1.

When the pre-detonation barrier provided by the plywood panel 52 is of a suitable thickness to enable detonation of, for example, an incoming mortar shell, the products of any such detonation are advantageously absorbed by the layer of earth, sand or aggregate 18 located on the cradle-shaped members of the roof structure to maintain the overall integrity of the inner layer of the roof structure and to provide a suitable level of protection for personnel within the structure.

Advantageously, the distance between the pre-detonation screen 52 and the earth, sand or aggregate layer 18 is about 1 meter to provide suitable blast resistance.

Fig. 2 is a plan view showing the protective shelter of fig. 1, but with only the transverse beam structures 18, 20, 22 of the protective shelter shown therein.

It should be understood that although fig. 1 illustrates a cross-sectional view of only one of the transverse beam structures 18, 20, 22, a plurality of such structures are provided extending laterally in parallel along the length of the shelter 10. Adjacent transverse beams 18, 22 are separated by, and securely connected to, beam anchor assembly units as will be described further below, but the position of adjacent pairs of transverse beams is shown by arrows 23 in figure 2.

Although not visible in fig. 2, a series of aluminium bracket members are mounted between each pair of cross members 18, 20, 22 as shown in fig. 2, a portion of each of these cross members being formed in an inverted T-shape to provide a flange for mounting the bracket members thereon.

The precise construction of one embodiment of such a carrier member is further discussed below with reference to fig. 8.

When a series of interconnected tray elements between each pair of transverse beams 18, 20, 22 are provided to receive a layer of earth, sand or other aggregate, it has been found to be advantageous to include a layer of geotextile (geotex) over the tray elements prior to providing the earth, sand or aggregate layer. The geotextile material is advantageously clamped and typically secured to the beam in a suitable manner.

Such geotextile layers, not shown in the drawings, serve to prevent sand from entering the dwelling provided by the protective shelter through the roof structure and also serve to enhance the integrity of the soil, sand or aggregate layer should any one or more of the support bracket members suffer damage.

Fig. 2 also provides a clear indication of the particular dimensions of the protective structure shown in fig. 1.

Turning now to fig. 3, fig. 3 provides a plan view similar to fig. 2, but in this embodiment only the top truss structures 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34 are illustrated, as well as the ridge and eave posts 42, 40.

Like the beam structures 18, 2022 shown in fig. 2, the roof structures 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34 repeat along the length of the protective shelter 10.

Fig. 4 again illustrates the top trusses, ridge bars and eave bars, but this time in combination with rafter bars 36, which rafter bars 36 extend transversely across the top structure of the protective shelter 10 in respective pairs along both sides of the series of top trusses.

Figure 5 fully illustrates the pre-detonation screen 52 provided by plywood sheets, it being understood that in the illustrated embodiment 19mm thick plywood sheets are used to ensure detonation of an incoming mortar or the like.

Turning now to fig. 6a and 6b, there is illustrated a partial cross-sectional and plan view, not shown in fig. 1, of connector members for allowing connection of the top truss to the beam structures 18, 20, 22.

This embodiment is illustrated by reference to the top truss 26 shown in figure 1 and each connector includes a blind bore 56 arranged to receive an end of the top truss 26 therein, the end of the connector remote from the blind bore 56 being provided with two apertured lugs 58, 60 by which the connector is bolted to the beam structure 18, 20, 22 as shown in figure 1.

Fig. 7 is a side elevational view showing one of the three cross members 18, 20, 26 shown in fig. 1.

Fig. 7a is a cross-sectional view of the cross beam 18 of fig. 7, such as used as the top cross beams 18, 20, 22 shown in fig. 1.

The inverted T-shaped portion of the cross beam 18 is clearly illustrated in figure 7a by the laterally extending supports 19, 21, which supports 19, 21 are arranged to engage the lateral extent of each of the sand, earth or aggregate support carriers discussed further herein as being part of the roof structure.

It will be appreciated that each end face of the cross-beam 18 is of an angled or beveled configuration and preferably provides an angle of 7.5 ° to a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal extent of each cross-beam.

Referring to FIG. 1, it will be appreciated that the previously connected cross beams 18, 20, 22 are used to form a shallow arch, while the corner/bevel ends of each of the cross beams 18, 20, 22 as shown in FIG. 7 are used to facilitate forming the shallow arch, and so that each of the cross beams 18, 20, 22 may be replaced by another cross beam, if desired.

Since no position selection is required for each of the cross members 18, 20, 26, a safe structure can be formed in an efficient and fast manner.

Also shown in fig. 7 are holes through which bolts are passed to connect the cross members 18, 20, 22 in series through the composite slab or brace member and to connect the top trusses 26, 28, 30, 32 as shown in fig. 1. Fig. 7b illustrates a front view of an exemplary composite plate 70 in greater detail, with the connector members and beam structures 18, 20, 22 including the blind holes 56 shown in fig. 6a and 6b attached to the composite plate 70. Optional marker rods 72 may be attached to the composition plate 70 for aligning the composition plate and the beam.

Fig. 8 illustrates a side elevational view of one 66 of a plurality of racking members located between each of the parallel beam structures 18, 20, 22 best shown in fig. 2 to accommodate soil, sand or aggregate thereon and provide a desired level of protection against shrapnel and the like.

It will be appreciated that each of the cross-members 18, 20, 22 itself has an inverted T-shaped cross-section such that each pair of adjacent beams provides a cradle between which an elongate cradle member can be mounted.

Like the transverse beams 18, 20, 22 which extend continuously across the width of the shelter 10, the brackets 26 are arranged to be connected in a manner which extends continuously across the width of the shelter 10, of course between respective parallel transverse beam structures 18, 20, 22, the respective ends of the transverse beam structures 18, 20, 22 being provided with common engagement formations 64, 66.

As can be seen in fig. 8, when two or more bracket members 62 are interconnected, the upstanding engagement formation 66 of one bracket member is received within the hook formation 64 of its contiguously connected adjacent bracket member.

Furthermore, this feature is particularly advantageous for quickly and safely forming a strong and lightweight roof structure of a shelter. The structure of each of the tray members may be further enhanced by the inclusion of laterally extending roof portions 68 to provide a bending resistance to any explosions that may occur in the vicinity of the pre-detonation barrier, and to help stabilize the mass of soil, sand or aggregate provided thereon.

Turning now to fig. 9, further details of one of the top beam anchor assembly units 23 previously shown in fig. 1 are illustrated.

FIG. 9 includes a side elevational view of the top beam anchor assembly unit 23, such as mounted on the exterior wall 12a of FIG. 1, the top beam anchor assembly unit 23 including a pair of laterally extending footing plates 29 as shown in FIG. 9; the inclined panel 31 extends upwardly from the footing plate 29 at an inclined angle as shown in fig. 9 and may further extend along the length of the top beam anchor assembly unit 23 as shown in fig. 10.

Welded at each end of the top beam anchor assembly unit 23 in the vertical direction are a pair of end plates 25, as shown in fig. 9.

Each end plate 25 includes a pair of aligned holes 27, the holes 27 being provided for engagement of, for example, the top beam anchor assembly unit 23 with the cross beam 18 shown in fig. 1, and in particular for engagement of bolts and their associated composite plates.

Turning to fig. 10, full detail of the illustrated embodiment of the top beam anchor assembly unit 23 of the present invention is provided by way of a plan view.

The vertically extending wall sections 25, 25' and the laterally extending panels 31 are clearly shown in fig. 10. The position of each of the respective footing plates 29, 29' is also illustrated.

In use of the fig. 1 configuration, it will be appreciated that a plurality of such roof rail anchor assembly units 23 are placed in side-by-side relationship and each side panel 25, 25' is secured to roof rail 18. Thus, each of two adjacent roof rail anchor assembly units 23 is connected to a common roof rail 18 and effectively spaced apart by the roof rail 18 such that a lintel beam is provided along the length of the upper region of the wall 12a, which is defined by the interconnected roof rail anchor assembly units 31 and the spaced apart roof rails 18.

As shown in figure 11, the doorway for a protective shelter may be provided with further protection by providing one or more partition walls 74, the partition walls 74 being located outside the door of the shelter and being formed from a row of, for example, 7 fort units, a vestibule 76 for such a roof structure being provided to extend between the shelter and the partition walls and comprising a crate structure 78 on which smaller gabions with sand thereon are provided 78.

Then, on a gabion providing a protective doorway for such a roof structure for a doorway of a protective shelter and supported by a crate, an extension of the pre-detonation layer may be provided to extend the protective layer provided by the roof structure to the general interior region of the protective shelter and to the doorway region of the shelter.

It will of course be appreciated that the pre-detonation layer may be formed from any suitable material and that the structure for supporting the earth, sand or aggregate layer may likewise be formed from any suitable material. However, depending on the weight/strength ratio of the alloy, the illustrated embodiments of the present invention may use the alloy. It will also be appreciated that the features of the protective shelter described herein may be used in an unassembled, flat-pack form in a subsequent assembly.

Claims (22)

1. A protective shelter comprising:

opposed outer supports and a roof structure extending between the outer supports, the roof structure including a plurality of tray members arranged to receive earth, sand or aggregate material defining an inner layer to provide a first level of protection in the roof structure; and

the tray member is arranged to be supported by a beam arranged to define a shallow arch across the shelter such that the internal centre height of the shelter away from the outer support is greater than the height of the outer support.

2. The protective shelter of claim 1, wherein the beams are transverse beams extending between the opposed outer supports.

3. The protective shelter of claim 1 or 2, wherein the beams are of identical shape and configuration.

4. The protective shelter of claim 2, wherein the end faces of the transverse beams form an angle with respect to a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal extent of each of the transverse beams.

5. The protective shelter of claim 4, wherein the angle to the plane is 7.5 °.

6. The protective shelter of claim 1, wherein the roof structure further comprises a barrier spaced from and extending above the tray member to define an outer layer in the roof structure for providing a second level of protection.

7. The protective shelter of claim 6, wherein the barrier is a protective barrier.

8. The protective shelter of claim 1, wherein the roof structure further comprises an outer fabric covering.

9. The protective shelter of claim 6, wherein the distance between the tray member and the barrier is about 1 meter.

10. The protective shelter of claim 1, wherein the opposed outer supports are walls or gabions.

11. A protective shelter as claimed in claim 10 wherein the gabion is a cage structure adapted to be filled with a filler material to provide structural blocks, the cage structure comprising walls defined at least in part by mesh openings, liner material located within the mesh openings enabling the cage to be filled with particulate material which, if not present, passes through the mesh openings.

12. The protective shelter of claim 2, wherein the transverse beams are supported by one or more longitudinal beams extending along the length of the shelter.

13. The protective shelter of claim 12, wherein the longitudinal beams are arranged to be supported by vertical supports.

14. The protective shelter of claim 13, wherein the vertical supports are adjustable struts.

15. The protective shelter of claim 6 or 7, further comprising: a plurality of top trusses arranged to support the barrier.

16. The protective shelter of claim 15, wherein a plurality of the top trusses are arranged in pairs secured to and extending upwardly from the transverse beams.

17. The protective shelter of claim 15, wherein each of the top trusses is arranged to extend upwardly from a location adjacent a respective end of the transverse beam.

18. The protective shelter of claim 15, wherein the pairs of top trusses meet at an apex at an end distal from the proximal ends of the transverse beams.

19. The protective shelter of claim 6, further comprising: a rafter support configured to support the barrier.

20. The protective shelter of claim 2, wherein the ends of the transverse beams are received in anchor assemblies mounted on the opposed outer supports.

21. The protective shelter of claim 20, wherein the anchor assemblies are arranged to space the transverse beams along the length of the shelter and are further arranged such that each beam is operatively connected to and sandwiched between adjacent anchor assembly units.

22. The protective shelter of claim 21, wherein the transverse beams connected along the width of the shelter are connected by a composite panel.