Evaluation of Screening Tool for Impact Hammer Selection for Installation, Testing and Damage Mitigation of Steel Pipe and H-Piles

Typically, impact hammer selection must consider drivability, testing requirements (assuming the same hammer is used for dynamic load testing), and the potential for pile damage, especially where piles are installed into dense or hard strata. There are various guidelines regarding the maximum allowable driving stresses and the maximum recommended driving energy of the impact hammer to avoid damaging steel pipe piles and H-piles during installation under such conditions. In a companion paper, these guidelines were reviewed to develop a preliminary screening tool for selecting an impact hammer to safely install and test steel pipe and H-piles. This paper will examine a case history where an H-pile was damaged during installation. The paper will review the hammer selection against this screening tool and how the pile damage could have been predicted using the screening tool in conjunction with sophisticated simulation and analysis software. The paper will also demonstrate the importance of interpreting the results of a pile driving simulation properly to ensure a reliable prediction of the actual pile driving conditions.