Installation of Piles

Question

Why installation of piles is the most important aspect in any pile foundation?

Answer 1

Installation of Piles:

The installation of piles is the most important aspect of any pile foundation. There may be a number of techniques available for this. There should be proper care taken in this regard. The features or characteristics which are the deciding factor to choose the installation are:

a. Pile characteristics.
b. Resistance to achieve the required penetration.
c. Space available at the working site.
d. Disturbance due to noise.

Pile driver is the most widely used method of installing the piles. These use the dropping weight technique in which an appropriate weight is hoisted at a suitable height in a sleeve, is released to hit the pile head, and this then drives the pile in the ground. The method of dropping the weight may be single-acting dropping weight method and double-acting dropping weight method. The machine is driven by either steam; it may be hydraulic in nature or may be driven by compressed air.