Dynamic Ground Response during Vibratory Sheet Pile Driving
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 7
Abstract
Vibratory sheet pile driving is a widely used foundation method. In order to investigate the effect of different operational parameters, such as vibration frequency and eccentric moment on sheet pile to ground interaction, carefully monitored and documented field tests were performed. A single sheet pile was vibrated into a sandy soil deposit (esker) and different operational parameters were varied. The interaction between the vertically oscillating sheet pile and the surrounding ground was studied, using sensors on the vibrator and on the ground in the vicinity of the sheet pile. The effect of vibration frequency and eccentric moment on sheet pile penetration speed and emitted ground vibrations is presented. When the sheet pile is vibrated at the resonance frequency of the vibrator–sheet pile–soil system (system resonance), ground vibrations increase significantly and sheet pile penetration speed decreases. It is concluded that the vibration frequency is an important parameter for the efficient and environmentally safe installation of sheet piles. These tests provide insight into the interaction of a vibrated sheet pile and the surrounding ground. Based on these results, guidelines for the efficient and environmentally friendly installation of piles and sheet piles are proposed.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The Swedish Maritime Administration (Sjöfartsverket), the client for the sheet pile project, gave permission to use data from the sheet pile driving tests. The support by the project team and Mr. H. Berg, technical manager, is acknowledged. The MPCS described in this paper was manufactured by Gamperl & Hatlapa, Germany. The assistance of Mr. J. Hatlapa in developing the electronic system and the eccentric moment sensor is acknowledged. The authors appreciate the dedicated work by the reviewers of the paper, which has helped to improve the quality of the manuscript.
References
Deckner, F. 2017. “Vibration transfer process during vibratory sheet pile driving—From source to soil.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Div. of Soil and Rock Mechanics, Royal Institute of Technology.
Gavin and Doherty Geosolutions. 2015. Comparison of impact versus vibratory driven piles: With a focus on soil-structure interaction. Hawthorne, NJ: Deep Foundations Institute.
Hartung, M. 1994. “Einfluss der Herstellung auf die Pfahltragfähigkeit in Sand” [Influence of construction on the bearing capacity of piles in sand]. Ph.D. thesis, Mitteilungen des Instituts Grundbau und Bodenmechanik, Technische Universität Braunschweig IGBTUBS.
Holeyman, A. 2000. Vibratory driving analysis. Keynote lecture in application of stress wave theory to piles—Quality assurance on land and offshore piling, edited by S. Nyyama and J. Beim, 479–494. Rotterdam, Netherlands: A.A. Balkema.
Holeyman, A. 2002. “Soil behavior under vibratory driving keynote lecture.” In TRANSVIB2002: Vibratory pile driving and deep soil compaction, edited by A. Holeyman, J.-F. Vanden Berghe, and N. Charue, 3–20. Lisse, Netherlands: A.A. Balkema.
Massarsch, K. R. 1991. “Deep vibratory compaction of land fill using soil resonance.” In Proc., Infrastructure’91, Int. Workshop on Technology for Hong Kong’s Infrastructure Development, 677–697. Hong Kong: Geotechnical Control Office.
Massarsch, K. R. 2002. “Effects of vibratory compaction.” In Proc., TransVib 2002—Int. Conf. on Vibratory Pile Driving and Deep Soil Compaction, Louvain-la-Neuve Keynote Lecture, 33–42. Rotterdam, Netherlands: A.A. Balkema.
Massarsch, K. R., and B. H. Fellenius. 2005. “Deep vibratory compaction of granular soils.” Chap. 19 in Ground improvement—Case histories, Vol. 3 of Geo-Engineering Book Series, edited by B. Indraratna and J. Chu, 633–658. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.
Massarsch, K. R., and B. H. Fellenius. 2017. “Evaluation of resonance compaction of sand fills based on cone penetration tests.” Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. Ground Improv. 170. (3): 149–158. https://doi.org/10.1680/jgrim.17.00004.
Massarsch, K. R., and C. Wersäll. 2019. “Monitoring and process control of vibratory driving.” Geotech. Eng. J. 50 (3): 1–10.
Massarsch, K. R., and C. Wersäll. 2020. “Vibratory plate resonance compaction.” Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. Geotech. Eng. 173 (4): 359–369. https://doi.org/10.1680/jgeen.19.00169.
Massarsch, K. R., and E. Westerberg. 1995. “The active design concept applied to soil compaction.” In Proc., Bengt B Broms Symp. in Geotechnical Engineering, 262–276. Singapore: National Technical Univ.
Massarsch, K. R., P. Zackrisson, and B. H. Fellenius. 2017. “Underwater resonance compaction of sand fill.” In Proc., 19th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, edited by W. Lee, J.-S. Lee, H.-K. Kim, and D.-S. Kim, 2587–2590. London: International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering.
Rodger, A., and G. Littlejohn. 1980. “A study of vibratory driving in granular soils.” Géotechnique 30 (3): 269–293. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.1980.30.3.269.
TK Geo 13. 2013. Trafikverkets krav för geokonstruktioner. (Requirements for geo-construction work). Swedish Transport Administration requirements for geotechnical work. Borlänge, Sweden: Swedish Transport Administration.
Viking, K. 2002. “Vibro-driveability—A field study of vibratory driven sheet piles in non-cohesive soils.” Ph.D. thesis, Div. of Soil and Rock Mechanics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Warrington, D. 1992. Vibratory and impact-vibration pile driving equipment. Charlston, SC: Vulcan Ironworks.
Warrington, D. C. 1989. “Theory and development of vibratory pile driving equipment.” In Proc., 21st Annual Offshore Technology Conf., 541–550. Houston: Offshore Technology Conference.
Whenham, V. 2011. “Power transfer and vibrator-pile-soil interactions within the framework of vibratory pile driving.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Louvain.
Whenham, V., and A. Holeyman. 2008. “Sheet pile vibro driving: Assumptions vs. measurements.” In Proc., 8th Int. Conf. on the Application of Stress-Wave Theory to Piles, 560–567. Amsterdam, Netherlands: IOS Press.
Whenham, V., and A. Holeyman. 2012. “Load transfers during vibratory driving.” Geotech. Geol. Eng. 30 (5): 1119–1135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-012-9527-0.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 7 • July 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 1, 2020
Accepted: Jan 21, 2021
Published online: Apr 28, 2021
Published in print: Jul 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Sep 28, 2021
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
Cited by
- Silvia Nobre, Marolo Alfaro, James Blatz, Bruno P. Arpin, Rob Kenyon, Effects of Vibration on Buried Structures from the Removal of Steel Casings during the Installation of Rockfill Columns for Riverbank Stabilization: A Case Study, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 10.1061/JGGEFK.GTENG-12000, 150, 8, (2024).
- K. Rainer Massarsch, Soil resistance during vibratory driving in sand, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Geotechnical Engineering, 10.1680/jgeen.22.00193, (1-10), (2023).
- Zhongxun Zhuang, Guangyin Du, Songyu Liu, Changhui Gao, Tonghe Zhou, Yong Yang, Field study on the densification of construction and demolition waste fill using vibratory probe compaction technique, Environmental Earth Sciences, 10.1007/s12665-023-10872-9, 82, 7, (2023).
- Rauan E. Lukpanov, Serik B. Yenkebayev, Duman S. Dusembinov, Denis V. Tsygulyov, Assessment of the Impact of Vibration Indicators on the Foundation of the Existing Building During Pile Driving, Proceedings of MPCPE 2021, 10.1007/978-3-030-85236-8_20, (229-238), (2022).