Some Uncertainties in High-Strain Dynamic Pile Testing

High-strain dynamic pile testing is an important tool for driveability analysis, but the major objective of dynamic testing is determination of pile capacity at the time of testing. This method is a convenient tool in the pile driving industry. However, though high-strain dynamic pile testing has been used in practice for years, the actual accuracy and the area of application of this method, and also understanding the results of dynamic pile testing are vague. The paper presents discrepancies in high-strain dynamic pile testing, some uncertainty in the CAPWAP signal matching, negligible effects of soil properties on the CAPWAP results, incorrect interpretation and misleading use of testing results. It is shown the necessity to use engineering principles for verification of high-strain dynamic pile testing.