Numerical and Experimental Studies of Wave Propagation Induced by Pile Driving

Abstract

This paper presents results of numerical and experimental studies to predict the peak particle velocity (ppv) induced by a pile driving. By utilizing a professional finite element software, Plaxis 2D Dynamic, this study analyzed ppv due to pile driving in clays for various soil stiffness and various embedded pile lengths. For verification, a full scale field test of pile driving was performed in East Kalimantan with installed instrumentations of accelerations. Results of both instrumentation and numerical analysis show that ppv depends on distance and soil rigidity. The closer the object to pile tip, the larger the ppv that will be produced. The more rigid the soils at the pile tip, the larger the ppv, too. The results also show that both field test and numerical analysis results are comparable. Finally, this paper proposes a chart to predict the ppv of soils due to pile driving in clays. The output of the proposed method is the predicted ppv for various distances from pile driving location.

Keywords

• pile driving
• peak particle velocity (ppv)