DISCUSSIONS

Application of the wave equation analysis to friction piles

in sand: Discussion
D. GARBRECHT
Brtt~ilescrr~sroltfiirWrrsserbarr, Arisseristelle Kiisre, Moorweidenstrcisse 14, 2 h'utnbrrrg 13, Ferlercil Reprlhlic oJ'Gertnany
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Received September 2 , 1977

Accepted Febmary 1, 1978
Can. Geotech. J . . 15.310.31 l(1978)

In their paper the authors present an interesting 2oo

study on the application of the wave equation
analysis to instrumented and production piles. The
results are especially interesting to the discusser
7 confidence interval
n the 95 % level

because, charged by the German Pile Committee,

he is investigating the applicability of loading tests
by impact instead of static loading. In addition to
the wave equation analysis (in its most recent
form developed by Goble et al. 1975), the dis-
For personal use only.

cusser has also studied a similar method developed

by the Di~tcllInstitute TNO for Building Materials
and Building Structures at Delft. For the pre-
diction of the ultimate bearing capacity of piles
these methods require the measurement of force /
/
and motion at the pile top. Simple test equipment /
has been developed for in situ tests. The discusser /
considers these measurements to be a prerequisite
for a precise prediction of the bearing capacity.
The authors present calculations of the ultimate
bearing capacity of precast piles driven in a
homogeneous sand deposit at the Saint-Charles
River site (see Table 2 of their paper). In these
calculations the wave equation was applied, based
regress, coefficie
on blow counts only. They show that there is only
a poor correlation between the computed and
measured ultimate bearing capacity Q,, and Qfl,,
(regression coefficient r = 0.3). This is due to a
nonlinear relation between Qf,,. and Q,,,,. A much
better correlation can be achieved by a regression
FIG. 1. Comparison o f measured ultimate bearing
of Qflllon 7 = Qfn/Qc1,,(correlation coefficient capacity Qf,,, with ratio 11 (11 = Qf,,,/Qr,,, where Qr,,,
Y = 0.78, Fig. I ) . It can be seen in Fig. 1 that the is the computed bearing capacity).
prediction of the ultimate bearing capacity tends
to be on the safe side with increasing pile bearing for it is not permissible to assume a causal relation
capacity. In addition to the regression lines the between two variables on the basis of regression
confidence interval on the 95% level for the pre- coefficients.
diction of Qc,,,from 7 is shown in Fig. 1. Of course On the other hand it is obvious that such simple
this relationship is restricted to the piles driven data as blows per unit length will not yield results
into the sandy layers of the Saint-Charles River, of high precision. This lack of precision is often
not due to the method of analysis but to the
'Paper by F. A. Tavenas and J . M . E. Audibert, 1977. faultiness of the driving procedure, e.g. pre-ignition
Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 14, pp. 34-51. which cannot be taken into account. That is
 DISCU
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For personal use only.
FIG.2. Test equipment for pile loading test by impact
of the Dutch Institute T N O .
why-as mentioned before-a more precise pre-
diction of the pile capacity by wave equation
analysis can only be obtained by measurements
at the pile top during pile driving. Only by such
measurements can the assumptions made in the
analysis be verified. Nevertheless it would be
interesting if the authors would recalculate the
bearing capacities with the more refined method
according to Goble and Rausche (1976).
In Germany there is great interest in loading
tests by impact on large bored piles because there
would be a most remarkable reduction of the
costs compared to the costs of static loading tests.
The Dutch institute performed such loading tests
on large bored piles. The loading is achieved by
a blow of a free fall hammer, which bounces on a
steel plate glued to the pile top (Fig. 2 ) . Com-
pared to a blow during pile driving this hammer
gives a short and 'hard' stroke of high force am-
plitude. During this blow the force and the move-
ment of the pile top are measured. These
measurements have been analysed by a simplified
method. The dynamic and static pile capacity
have been assumed to be equal. This assumption
leads to an over-estimation of static loads. In the
near future it will be investigated whether this test
can also be analysed by the wave equation method.
It cannot be said in advance whether this analysis
will lead to a more precise prediction of the pile
bearing capacity, as it has been found that an elasto-
ideal plastic stress-strain relationship for the
mechanical behaviour of the soil does not lead to
accurate predictions in connection with a hard
blow (Suckow 1970). On the other hand such
hard blows do produce the high loads necessary
for the loading tests on large bored piles without
the use of too heavy a hammer.
GOBLE,G. G . , and RAUSCHE, F. 1976. Wave equation analysis
of pile dl-iving (WEAP Program). Vols. I-IV, Report No.
FHWA-IP-76-14.1. Federal Highway Administration, Wash-
ington, DC.
GOBLE,G. G., L I K I N SG.,
, JR., and RAUSCHE, F. 1975. Bearing
capacity of pilesfrom dynamic measurements. Department of
Solid Mechanical Structures and Mechanical Design, Case
Western Researve University, Cleveland, OH.
SUCKOW, H.-M. 1970. Beitrag zur Elmittlung von Rammspan-
nungen in Rammsonden und Hahlen. Doctoral thesis, Tech-
nical University of Brunswick, Federal RepublicofGermany.
TNO. 1974. Dynamic pile testingreport No. BI-77-13, Order Nr.
08.1.23200, Delft, The Netherlands.