EP1131492B1 - System for connecting a structural cable to a building work structure - Google Patents

Abstract

A connecting system for connecting a cable including at least one wire for a building work structure and an element of the structure. The connecting system comprises a clamping device which is connected to the element of the structure, and a load transmitting device which transmits a clamping load of the clamping device to the cable and which houses the at least one wire of the cable. The at least one wire is bonded into the load transmitting device.

Description

The present invention relates to a system of connection between a cable for structure structure construction and an element of this structure, the cable comprising at least one wire. A cable according to the preamble of claim 1 is described in FR 2 708 017 A.

The present invention relates in particular to cables consisting of a number of strands themselves gathering several threads, which are solicited in particular traction in building structures such as off-shore platforms with taut lines, or bridges suspended or guyed.

The connection systems are necessary for anchor the cables for example at the bottom of the sea. The accessibility of these systems is not always easy, which makes their implementation costly.

The object of the invention is to provide a system of connection in which the wires are firmly anchored for in particular to withstand traction forces simple, effective and inexpensive means.

• un dispositif de serrage qui est lié à l'élément de structure, et
• un dispositif de transmission d'efforts qui transmet les efforts de serrage du dispositif de serrage au câble et qui loge ledit au moins un fil du câble, et en ce que ledit au moins un fil est collé dans le dispositif de transmission d'efforts.

For this purpose, according to the invention, a connection system of the kind in question is essentially characterized in that it comprises:

• a clamping device which is connected to the structural element, and
• a force transmission device which transmits the tightening forces of the clamping device to the cable and which houses said at least one wire of the cable, and in that said at least one wire is glued into the force transmission device.

Thus, thanks to these provisions, each wire of the cable is firmly and simply retained when this thread is put into traction.

• le dispositif de serrage comprend au moins deux clavettes d'un mors qui sont en appui sur le dispositif de transmission d'efforts et des moyens de mise en compression du mors ;
• les moyens de mise en compression comportent un fourreau dont la paroi intérieure est de forme convergente en direction d'une extrémité du fourreau, les clavettes du mors étant de forme complémentaire à celle de ladite paroi intérieure et étant montées dans le fourreau pour être serrées par effet de coin dans le fourreau ;
• les clavettes sont de section longitudinale sensiblement de forme triangulaire ;
• le dispositif de transmission comprend au moins deux plaquettes, chacune des plaquettes portant au moins un canal de forme complémentaire à au moins une partie de la forme de la section transversale du fil, les plaquettes étant montées en regard pour que les canaux des plaquettes forment au moins un passage dans lequel est logé ledit au moins un fil ;
• une pluralité de fils est logée dans plusieurs passages eux-mêmes délimités par plusieurs plaquettes (11) qui sont empilées les une sur les autres pour former au moins un brin ;
• les clavettes recouvrent en totalité la surface extérieure d'un tronçon du brin ;
• le dispositif de transmission comprend au moins un manchon cylindrique dans lequel est logé ledit au moins un fil ;
• ledit au moins un fil est emmanché de force dans ledit au moins un manchon ;
• une pluralité de manchons sont montés adjacents les uns aux autres dans les clavettes ;
• les fils sont réalisés en matériau composite à base de fibres de carbone ; et
• les fils sont des fils pleins.

In preferred embodiments of the reinforcement according to the invention, use is also made of one and / or the other of the following provisions:

• the clamping device comprises at least two keys of a jaw which bear on the force transmission device and means for compressing the jaw;
• the compression means comprise a sleeve whose inner wall is of convergent shape towards one end of the sleeve, the wedges of the jaw being of complementary shape to that of said inner wall and being mounted in the sleeve to be clamped by wedge effect in the sheath;
• the keys are of longitudinal section substantially of triangular shape;
• the transmission device comprises at least two plates, each of the plates carrying at least one channel of complementary shape to at least a portion of the cross-sectional shape of the wire, the plates being mounted opposite so that the channels of the plates form at at least one passage in which is housed said at least one wire;
• a plurality of son is housed in several passages themselves delimited by several wafers (11) which are stacked one on the other to form at least one strand;
• the keys completely cover the outer surface of a section of the strand;
• the transmission device comprises at least one cylindrical sleeve in which is housed said at least one wire;
• said at least one wire is forced into said at least one sleeve;
• a plurality of sleeves are mounted adjacent each other in the keys;
• the son are made of composite material based on carbon fibers; and
• the threads are solid threads.

• la figure 1 est une vue schématique générale d'une plate-forme offshore comprenant des câbles ancrés par des systèmes de connexion selon la présente invention ;
• la figure 2 est une vue en perspective d'une première forme de réalisation de l'un des systèmes de connexion de la figure 1 selon la présente invention ;
• la figure 3 est une vue en perspective éclatée des seules plaquettes du système de la figure 2 ;
• la figure 4 est une vue en coupe longitudinale du système de la figure 2 ;
• la figure 5 est une vue en perspective d'une deuxième forme de réalisation de l'un des systèmes de connexion de la figure 1 selon la présente invention ; et
• la figure 6 est une vue en coupe longitudinale du système de la figure 5.

Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of two of its embodiments, given by way of non-limiting examples, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

• Figure 1 is a general schematic view of an offshore platform comprising cables anchored by connection systems according to the present invention;
• Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of one of the connection systems of Fig. 1 according to the present invention;
• Figure 3 is an exploded perspective view of the only plates of the system of Figure 2;
• Figure 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of the system of Figure 2;
• Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of one of the connection systems of Fig. 1 according to the present invention; and
• FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of the system of FIG. 5.

The structure of construction work 1 represented in Figure 1 and in which are integrated several connection systems according to the present invention, takes by example the form of an offshore platform. This platform classically comprises an upper part 2 which is generally above sea level and which is anchored in the bottom 3 of the sea by series 4, 5 of cables 6.

Each cable is stretched between a constituent element 7 of the platform 1, for example to the beams of the upper part 2, and an anchor at the bottom 3 of the sea by means of connection systems 10 that are going to be described below. Each cable is subject to traction while being very resistant to fatigue and corrosion.

Each cable 6 is constituted in a manner known in self, of a bundle of several strands that are themselves made from a series of elementary threads. reader will appreciate in the following that each cable can be reduced to a strand or even an elementary wire.

As this is particularly visible on Figures 2 and 4, each strand consists of a set of son 9 which are for example parallel to each other at the level from their ends. The strand thus formed can be joined to other strands to form the cable 6.

Each wire 9 is made of metallic material or made of composite material composed of unidirectional fibers embedded in a resin matrix. Fibers unidirectional are preferably carbon and can be high strength fibers or high fibers module that are embedded in a crosslinked epoxide matrix, obtained for example by a pultrusion process.

Advantageously, the threads 9 are of shape cylindrical with circular base and are solid wires. They can also be of any other profile, such as a square or hexagonal profile.

The connection system 10 according to the present invention comprises a clamping device 11 which is connected to the structural element 7 and a transmission device 12. This transmission device is subject to the clamping forces exerted uniformly by the tightening 11 and transmits these forces to the wires 9 of the strand which are thus firmly tightened.

The transmission device 12 consists, in the first embodiment, in a number of plates 15 between which are housed the threads 9.

Each of the plates 15 is substantially shaped rectangular and has an upper face 16, one face substantially flat bottom 17 and longitudinal edges 18, taken according to the thickness of the plate, of curved form so that all platelets 15, once superimposed on each other, form a base cylinder circular. Thus, each wafer 15 constitutes in so a longitudinal slice of a cylinder that is of thin compared to its length.

Each of the upper faces 16 and lower 17 of the pads 15 has a channel 20. The cross section channels 20 is close to the cross sectional half wires 9.

The channels 20 of an upper face 16 of a plate 15 are facing the channels 20 of a face lower 17 of the next wafer. The channels 20 thus define two by two passages 21 whose cross-section is complementary to that of the wires 9.

The pads 15 are made of material metal or composite or organic material.

The clamping device 11 consists of a jaw 25 and means 26 which here take the form of a sheath to compress the bit 25.

The jaw 25 has several keys 27. The set of keys 27 define a cylinder based ring having a proximal end 28 and a distal end 29. The inner diameter of this cylinder is close to the diameter of the cylindrical stack of The thickness of the wall at the level of the proximal end 28 is greater than the thickness of the wall at the distal end 29. The end proximal is the end on which the ends of the wires 9 while the distal end is the one from which the wires extend in the direction from the rest of the construction work.

Thus, each key 27 has a face 30 inside bearing on the pads 15 and one face outer 31 converges towards the inner face 30.

The sheath 26 is a cylinder with an annular base the inner wall 32 is of complementary shape to that the outer wall of the cylinder defined by the keys 27. Thus, the sleeve 26 has a first end or distal end 33 whose opening is of diameter less than the opening of the second end or proximal end 34 of this sleeve.

Therefore, the inner wall 32 of the sheath is frustoconical in shape and is complementary to the shape exterior, itself frustoconical, of the cylinder defined by the set of keyways 27. The diameter of the opening of the end 33 is slightly larger than the diameter of the cylinder defined by stacking platelets 15.

To realize the connection system 10 previously described, glue is applied in each channels 20 of the plates 15, then the wires 9 are set place in these channels and the pads 15 are stacked the on each other. The stack thus produced is then inserted into the keys 27. The assembly is then threaded in the sheath 26 by the proximal end 34, of which the opening is of large diameter. The keys 27 are put in compression by corner effect between their surface outer and the inner face of the sleeve 26 so that a predetermined clamping force is applied to the platelets 15 and is transmitted to the son 9. Then it suffices to proceed to the drying of the glue.

The predetermined clamping force on the wires 9 is function of the slope of each of the inclined faces of keys and sheath and the force with which the keys 27 are inserted into the sheath 26.

Thus, each wire 9 of a strand is firmly anchored to resist, for example, tensile forces.

In the embodiment previously described, the plates 15 of the force transmission device occupy the entire interior volume of the cylinder defined by the keys 27.

In the second embodiment shown in Figures 5 and 6, the connection system 50 differs from that previously described only by the shape of the device of transmission of effort 52, the other constituent elements are similar and carry numerical references identical.

The transmission device 52 no longer occupies any the interior volume of the cylinder defined by the keys 27 of the jaws 25. This device consists of a plurality of metal sleeves 55 for example made of aluminum. The sleeves 55 are of substantially internal diameter identical to the diameter of the wires 9 so as to forces these wires into the sleeves. The outside diameter of sleeves is small compared to the inner diameter of the cylinder delimited by the keys 27.

The threads 9 are furthermore glued inside the 55. These sleeves are made of boundary material low elastic, with a certain plasticity.

The mounting of the connection system 50 is substantially identical to the assembly of the first mode system of realization. The sleeves 55 are tangent to each other other inside the keys, each sleeve 55 being in contact with adjacent sleeves or a key according to three generators. In fact, when tightening, the sleeves are slightly crushed so that each sleeve is in contact along three surfaces. Only a part of them, the peripheral sleeves, are in contact with the keys.

Alternatively, the sleeves can be glued between they fill in the gaps between the sleeves.

In yet another variant, the sleeves 55 are in cross-section, of non-circular outer shape but close to a rhombus or other so as to juxtapose easily the sleeves.

Claims (12)

1. Cable (6) comprising at least one wire (9) and a connecting system for connecting said cable (6) and an element (7) of a building work structure (1), the system (10; 50) comprising :

   a clamping device (11) which is connected to the structure element (7),

   a load transmitting device (12; 52) which transmits the clamping loads of the clamping device (11) to the cable (6) and which houses said at least one wire (9) of the cable (6),

   characterized in that said at least one wire (9) is bonded into the load transmitting device (12; 52).
2. Cable according to claim 1, in which the clamping device (11) comprises at least two keys (27) of a jaw assembly (25), which bear against the load transmitting device (12; 52) and means (26) for compressing the jaw assembly (25).
3. Cable according to claim 2, in which the compressing means (26) comprise a sleeve, the interior wall (32) of which converges toward one end (33) of the sleeve, the keys (27) of the jaw assembly (25) being of a shape that complements that of said interior wall (32) and being mounted in the sleeve (26) so that they can be clamped in the sleeve by a wedge effect.
4. Cable according to claim 3, in which the keys (27) have an approximately triangular longitudinal cross section.
5. Cable according to claim 4, in which the transmitting device (12) comprises at least two plates (15), each of the plates (15) carrying at least one channel (20) of a shape that complements at least part of the shape of the cross section of the wire (9), the plates (15) being mounted facing each other so that the channels (20) in the plates (15) form at least one passageway (21) in which said at least one wire (9) is housed.
6. Cable according to claim 5, in which a number of wires (9) is housed in a number of passageways (21) themselves delimited by a number of plates (15) which are stacked one upon the other to form at least one strand.
7. Cable according to claim 6, in which the keys (27) entirely cover the exterior surface of a portion of the strand.
8. Cable according to claim 4, in which the transmitting device (52) comprises at least one cylindrical sleeving (55) in which said at least one wire (9) is housed.
9. Cable according to claim 8, in which said at least one wire (9) is forced into said at least one sleeving (55).
10. Cable according to claim 9, in which a number of sleevings (55) are mounted adjacent to one another in the keys (27).
11. Cable according to any one of Claims 4 to 10, in which the wires (9) are made of a carbon-fiber-based composite.
12. Cable according to any one of Claims 4 to 11, in which the wires (9) are solid wires.

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