A summary of Dynamic determination of pile capacity

By Frank Rausche, George G Goble and Garland E Likins, Jr.

A summary By : Fakhrur Rozy Harnas G0801005BThe purpose of the paper is to present the derivation of the Case method and to discuss the
assumptions contained in the governing equations. Sources of error are identified and means of
avoiding or correcting the difficulties are considered.
When a pile subjected to axial force, a stress wave that travels away from the point of force
application is induced. As long as no reflections arrive at the point under consideration, the force
in the pile is proportional to the velocity of the particle.For compression waves, the particle
velocity is in the direction of the propagation whereas for tension waves, the particle velocity is
opposite to the direction of wave propagation, and a negative sign is induced.
Two extreme conditions, free boundary condition (no axial forces acted on the pile toe) and fixed
toe are considered. In a free boundary condition, the velocities in the 2 waves superimpose
during reflection, causing the pile end velocity to double. While, in a fixed boundary condition
the force can double during reflection.
Resistance forces create a more complex wave behavior. However the derivation shows that the
resistance can be calculated as the average of the two forces selected at a time interval of 2L/c
apart, plus the average acceleration over the same time interval, times the pile mass.
The resistance distribution calculated by CAPWAP was often criticized as lacking uniqueness.
However, the resistance calculation derivation is unique within the assumptions contained in the
derivation. The assumptions are uniform pile cross section, linear elastic pile behavior, only
axial stresses in the pile and a rigid plastic soil resistance.
This assumptions caused several possible type of errors; Capacity is not fully mobilized at time
t*+x/c, impact energy is insufficient to activate all soil resistance forces, the stress wave is short
relative to the pile length over which resistance forces act and resistance forces are therefore not
maintained at full value during the time period considered. The resistance may not be fully
mobilized at time t*+L/c. Some resistance is velocity dependent and must be subtracted to
determine the static capacity. The capacity can change due to setup or relaxation effects.
Nevertheless, several techniques based on experience or large databases have shown that the
possible errors could be handled. An example of the use of the database is by correlating the
viscous damping constant J where dynamic measurements had been made on piles that had been
statically load-tested to failure.