Ground mounting assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Outdoor structures such as solar panel assemblies, docks, and buildings often experience instability due to high winds, particularly in loose or sandy soil, as existing mounting systems lack sufficient underground resistance to counteract wind forces, leading to loosening of mounting posts and instability.
Innovation Solution
A ground mounting assembly featuring posts connected to stabilizing elements like flat plates or half-pyramid shaped structures, which are buried underground to provide resistance against lateral and uplift forces, with cross members for additional stability, allowing for permanent, semi-permanent, or temporary mounting configurations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If posts with sufficient underground surface area are used to provide resistance to wind forces, then stability is improved, but the complexity and cost of the mounting assembly increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting assembly is divided into separate functional components: posts for vertical support, stabilizing plates for ground resistance, and cross members for lateral bracing. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently while maintaining overall stability without excessive complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The solution adds horizontal dimension to the mounting system by introducing cross members that connect posts laterally. This creates a three-dimensional bracing structure that resists wind forces more effectively than vertical posts alone, improving stability without requiring excessively deep or wide individual posts.
2Stability of the object's composition
If a cement cap is poured over the mounting structure to address instability, then stability is improved, but the installation becomes permanent and difficult to modify
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting assembly uses mechanical connections (bolts, brackets, and adjustable cross members) rather than permanent cement bonds. This dynamic connection system allows the structure to be adjusted, disassembled, or reconfigured as needed while maintaining stability during operation, providing both stability and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
Metal connection elements serve as intermediaries between the posts and cross members, providing stable mechanical bonds that can be easily assembled and disassembled. These intermediary components enable stable connections without permanent cement bonding, allowing future modifications or reconfigurations.
3Stability of the object's composition
If larger posts are used to increase underground resistance, then stability is improved, but the cost and difficulty of installation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The solution combines multiple standard-sized posts with cross members to achieve the stability of a single large post. By merging several smaller, easier-to-manufacture and install posts with lateral bracing, the system achieves equivalent or superior stability without the manufacturing and installation complexities of oversized posts.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of increasing post size in the vertical dimension, the solution adds horizontal dimension through cross members. This creates a distributed stability system that achieves the required underground resistance through multiple smaller elements working together, reducing manufacturing and installation difficulty compared to a single large post.
Data Source
AI summary
A ground mounting assembly includes one or a plurality of posts, each attached to at least one stabilizing plate or scoop pyramid. The post may be driven into the ground and then lifted to deploy plates into a locking mechanism, or driven into the ground by a pile driver with plate held in place, released, and driven further and deployed into a locking mechanism, or driven into the ground and double pounded inside the post to drive reinforcing plate into slotted winglets, or driven, double pounded and rotated to extend the reinforcing plates horizontally from the pole or pile. The post also can used as a mooring in harbors, lakes, or at sea. A system based on a double pounder pile driven mono pole, optionally extendable in length, is also described.