A PRACTICAL METHOD FOR IMPROVED IMPLEMENTATION OF PILE DRIVING FORMULA A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering Hamayon Tokhi B.Eng. School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering RMIT University, Melbourne February 2012 i DECLARATION I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and, ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed. Signed:................................... Hamayon Tokhi On: 27/02/2012 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Gang Ren, for allowing me to work on this research. I am also grateful to him for his guidance, support and encouragement throughout the duration of this research. I am also thankful to Professor Mike Xie for his assistance at various stages of this research work. My sincere appreciation is due to Dr Julian Seidel for his help in this research. His fruitful discussions were invaluable to this work. I am grateful to Frankipile, a local piling contractor, for allowing me for several weeks to use their office and allowing the use of their database. This research project contains some data provided by local, national and international organisations. In this regard, I would like to thank the staff of the Washington State Department of Transportation for providing support for the project. My appreciation is also due to Professor Samuel Paikowsky from the University of Massachusetts Lowell for providing moral support. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Shukria; my children Nazo, Wali, Palwasha and Weis; and my parents Fazel and Nadia. Without their support I could not have had the luxury of pursuing the interesting research at RMIT University. iii TABLE OF CONTENT 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 1-3 1.1 Overview ........................................................................................................................................ 1-3 1.2 Objective ......................................................................................................................................... 1-5 1.3 Scope of Work ................................................................................................................................ 1-5 1.4 Thesis Outline ................................................................................................................................. 1-5 2 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................................... 2-1 2.1 General ........................................................................................................................................... 2-1 2.2 Pile Types ....................................................................................................................................... 2-1 2.3 Pile Material ................................................................................................................................... 2-2 2.3.1 Timber Piles ............................................................................................................................ 2-2 2.3.2 Concrete Piles ......................................................................................................................... 2-3 2.3.3 Steel Piles ............................................................................................................................... 2-3 2.4 Pile Driving System ........................................................................................................................ 2-4 2.4.1 Pile Driving Hammers ............................................................................................................ 2-5 2.4.2 Drop Hammer ......................................................................................................................... 2-6 2.4.3 Single Acting Hammer ........................................................................................................... 2-6 2.4.4 Double Acting Hammer .......................................................................................................... 2-7 2.4.5 Differential Hammer ............................................................................................................... 2-8 2.4.6 Diesel Hammer ....................................................................................................................... 2-8 2.4.7 Vibratory Hammer ................................................................................................................ 2-11 2.4.8 Hammer Cushions ................................................................................................................ 2-11 2.4.9 Pile Helmet ........................................................................................................................... 2-12 2.4.10 Pile Cushions ........................................................................................................................ 2-12 2.5 Pile Axial Capacity Evaluation ..................................................................................................... 2-12 2.5.1 Static Design ......................................................................................................................... 2-13 2.5.2 Static Load Testing ............................................................................................................... 2-14 2.5.3 Rapid Load Testing (Statnamic) ........................................................................................... 2-15 iv 2.5.4 Dynamic Load Testing ......................................................................................................... 2-16 2.6 Wave Equation Analysis .............................................................................................................. 2-17 2.6.1 One-Dimensional Wave Equation ........................................................................................ 2-18 2.6.2 Boundary Conditions ............................................................................................................ 2-20 2.6.3 The CASE Method ............................................................................................................... 2-21 2.6.4 The CAPWAP Method ......................................................................................................... 2-24 2.6.5 GRLWEAP Method ............................................................................................................. 2-27 2.6.6 SIMBAT Method .................................................................................................................. 2-27 2.7 Comparative study of dynamic test methods ................................................................................ 2-28 2.8 Dynamic Formula ......................................................................................................................... 2-32 2.8.1 Rationale for use of Dynamic Formula ................................................................................ 2-36 3 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................................... 3-1 3.1 General ........................................................................................................................................... 3-1 3.2 Historical Background .................................................................................................................... 3-1 3.3 Analysis of Energy Losses ............................................................................................................. 3-8 3.4 Performance Comparison of Dynamic Formulas ........................................................................... 3-9 3.5 Pile Capacity Variations with Time .............................................................................................. 3-13 3.6 IBIS Radar .................................................................................................................................... 3-15 4 GRLWEAP Numerical Analysis ......................................................................................................... 4-1 4.1 Background ..................................................................................................................................... 4-1 4.2 GRLWEAP Inputs .......................................................................................................................... 4-4 4.3 Analysis Method ............................................................................................................................. 4-6 4.4 Results and Discussions................................................................................................................ 4-15 4.4.1 Delmag Hammers ................................................................................................................. 4-16 4.4.2 Junttan Hammers .................................................................................................................