Curved Surface Masonry Blocks for Radiation Shielding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing radiation shielding structures, particularly in nuclear facilities, face challenges with conventional concrete blocks that allow radiation to pass through seams and are prone to seismic damage due to weak mortar joints, requiring multiple layers and increased costs.
Innovation Solution
Interlocking building blocks with continuously curved surfaces, such as sine wave profiles, that fit together in multiple dimensions, minimizing seams and providing superior radiation resistance and structural integrity without the need for mortar joints.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional rectangular blocks are used for radiation shielding, then the structure can be constructed with standard blocks, but radiation can pass through seams between blocks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies curved surfaces (sine wave profiles) to the blocks instead of flat rectangular surfaces. The continuously curved surfaces allow adjacent blocks to interlock more closely, minimizing or eliminating gaps and seams between blocks. This curvature enables the blocks to fit together like puzzle pieces, preventing radiation from streaming through the joints while maintaining the protective shielding function.
2Ease of manufacture
If mortar joints are used between blocks, then the wall can be constructed with standard masonry methods, but the joints become weak links susceptible to seismic damage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent eliminates mortar joints from the construction system by designing blocks with continuously curved surfaces that interlock directly with each other. The curved surfaces create mechanical interlocking that transfers loads between blocks without requiring mortar. This extraction of the mortar component removes the weak link while maintaining construction feasibility through the self-aligning nature of the curved profiles.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the functions of mortar bonding and block connection into a single integrated system where the curved surfaces themselves provide both the alignment and bonding functions. The continuously curved surfaces allow blocks to self-align and interlock mechanically, combining what were previously separate functions (mortar adhesion and mechanical connection) into the geometric form of the blocks themselves.
3Reliability
If multiple wythes are used to block radiation, then adequate shielding is achieved, but material costs and labor costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The curved surfaces enable a single wythe of blocks to provide adequate radiation shielding by eliminating seams that would otherwise require multiple wythes. The interlocking curved profiles create continuous radiation-blocking surfaces without gaps, allowing one layer of blocks to achieve what previously required multiple layers, thereby reducing material quantity and construction costs.
Data Source
AI summary
A radiation shielding block for constructing structural walls having flat opposed front and rear surfaces defining a thickness of the block, continuously curved, sinusoidal opposed left and right surfaces and top and bottom surfaces. The continuously curved, sinusoidal surfaces have a regular repeating wavelength pattern having a wave direction that is perpendicular to the flat front and rear surfaces, and a length that is two complete wavelengths of a sinusoidal wave. A plurality of the radiation shielding blocks are stackable in a staggered wythe construction having a plurality of wythes and at least one successive course of blocks set atop a previous course of blocks such that the continuously curved, sinusoidal surfaces of the successive course of blocks engage complementary continuously curved, sinusoidal surfaces of the previous course of blocks, and the successive course of blocks is offset by one wavelength from the previous course in a front-rear direction.