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Abstract

A water inflatable structural module for constructing temporary dikes and related structures includes two identical elongated flattened cylinders sealed at opposite lateral ends to form a sealed, water-tight chamber within a cylinder. The cylinders are joined along a horizontal mid-plane to opposite longitudinal edges of a thin, flexible, elongated, rectangular web. A sealable inlet port in each of the two cylinders permits the cylinders to be inflated with water to form two relatively stiff, parallel, elongated cylinders attached at facing inner mid section lines to the flexible web. In a preferred version of the module the width of the web, and therefore the minimum spacing between the two cylinders with the web flat, is of the proper dimension to make the ratio of minimum spacing to inflated cylinder diameter lie in the approximate range of 1.75 to 1 to 2 to 1. That ratio allows tubes from a second and third module to lie side by side on the web of a first module, in tangential contact with the tubes of the first module. Thus constructed, any desired number of modules may be stacked to form an interlocking structure of any desired height, length and width without the use of any fastening elements, which resists lateral movement of modules with respect to one another, in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axes of the modules. The structural module is of elongated, substantially uniform transverse cross-sectional shape permitting fabrication of the module by a low cost extrusion process.

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First Claim