The Tilt-Dam System
The TILT-DAM system is an entirely new form of PERMANENT DEMOUNTABLE
FLOOD DEFENCE, operated and secured by gravity alone and with
a design life of 50 years. The system is a series of individual
units of open ended boxes with tilting lids set into the ground.
On a flood alert the lids are unlocked and then raised to the
vertical. All can be done by hand with all kit stored in the box
below. There are no stored materials elsewhere, or any need for
ancillary power, transport or skilled labour. Just an unlocking
lever and teams of two persons are required.
Its application to rivers and coastal flooding is universal.
However the primary purpose is to present a real step forward
from the sand bag, in protecting groups of private properties
on the principle of a stand away flood defence forming a stockade
linking into permanent walling or rising contours of ground for
a specific flood defence height. The system can be applied to
residential, commercial and industrial applications and can serve
either as units laid in straight lines or as single flood gates.
The system is unique in using gravity as the force enabling a
tilting slab, balanced about its hinge, to be raised by hand.
When mobilised as a flood defence, gravity (acting through water
pressure) holds the seals tightly closed. This is because the
hinge is positioned so that the pressure of water below the hinge
exceeds that above.
The TILT-DAM system has additional advantages arising from the
geometry of the box and swing of the tilting lids. The ‘dry’duct,
thus formed, can be used for pumping water arriving behind the
dams during a flood as well as the distribution of perimeter services,
pipes and
cables for new domestic and commercial developments.
The TILT-DAM system is protected under patent applications EP/05717818.8
for Europe and 10/591101 for the USA |
