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Piling and foundations Pile drivability tool Calculator

Pile drivability tool

Wave equation drivability, PDA signal checks and signal matching for driven piles. Version 0.2.3

  1. Example only, not a real site: steel pipe pile, made-up soil, catalogue hammer.
  2. Metric first. Imperial values are kept where the source publishes them.
  3. Signal records in tabs 3 and 4 are synthetic, made by this engine.

Dynamic formula inputs

Quick estimate of pile driving resistance from blow counts using published formulas. Use it as a quick check before a full wave equation run.

Hammer and blow counts

what the pile did at the end of driving

Energy delivered to the pile per blow · typical: 40,000 for a large drop hammer

Blows needed to push the pile the last inch · typical: 3–5

Same count in feet (= blows per inch × 12) · typical: 48

Which published formula to apply · default: FHWA Modified Gates

Advanced: efficiency and ENR formula

Efficiency

only used by the Wis. corrected variant

Share of rated energy actually reaching the pile · typical: 0.85

ENR (Wellington) safe load

the oldest formula, kept for comparison

Hammer rated energy · typical: 83,880 (worked example)

Penetration per blow · typical: 0.844 (worked example)

Results are shown in the units of the published formula (kips / lb) and converted to kN where relevant. Published formulas are quoted from GEC-12 Vol II §13.3 and Caltrans Foundation Manual App. E; the default values reproduce the Caltrans worked example (177,712 lb).
No results yetPress Run formulas or Load example. The default inputs reproduce the Caltrans App. E worked example (177,712 lb).

Hammer library …

Impact and vibratory hammers with the figures a drivability run needs. Figures are metric; where a maker publishes imperial values they are kept in the record and the conversion is checked.

Type part of a name to filter · e.g. DELMAG, Menck, ICE

Impact hammers can be loaded into the WEAP model below · vibratory models are reference data for tab 06

Loading hammer database…
Sources are cited per record; conversion flags show whether the publisher's own metric and imperial figures reconcile. Values a maker does not publish are left blank, never estimated.

WEAP drivability model

Predicts how many blows it takes to drive your pile to the target depth and checks whether the hammer and pile are a safe combination.

Pile

what you are driving

Sets the stress limits used in the safety check · default: steel

Limit = 0.9 × minimum yield (FHWA / AASHTO rule) · example: S355

Total pile length · typical: 20

Steel area of the shaft · typical: 0.012 (small pipe pile)

Hammer

the machine doing the work

Weight of the striking part · typical: 5,000

How far the ram falls · typical: 1.2

Share of energy reaching the pile · assumed 0.85 (no manufacturer publishes this)

Tip: press load on any impact hammer in the library above to fill these fields automatically.

Soil: shaft layers

resistance along the pile

Resistance under the pile tip · typical: 889.6 (worked example)

Advanced: pile details, quakes and solver

Pile and soil model details

defaults are fine for most runs

Stiffness of the pile material · typical: 210 (steel)

· typical: 7,850 (steel), 2,400 (concrete)

Model resolution along the pile · typical: 60

Head cushion between ram and pile · assumed 1,000,000 (not published; an assumption)

Elastic soil movement before the toe yields · typical: 2.5 mm shaft / 4 mm toe

Soil drag at high speed · typical: 1.0 (sand/gravel)

Simulation resolution · typical: 5,000

No run yetPress Run WEAP or Run the worked example. The calculation summary, checks and plots appear here.

PDA signal processing

Turns a measured driving record into force, energy and bearing capacity, and scans the pile for damage caused while it was being driven.

Signal and analysis

pick a record and press Analyze

Benchmark signals are synthetic test records from the built-in engine; a real field record can be used instead

How sensitive the soil is to driving speed · typical: 0.25 in sand, 0.5 in clay

Advanced: analysis parameters

Geometry override

only if the record metadata is wrong

Used for the 2L/c wave timing · typical: 20 (matches the benchmark piles)

Damage scan: β(x) from the reflection coefficient at 2x/c. With a matched soil baseline the shaft reflections are removed (model-based screening); β ≈ 1.0 = intact, flag threshold 0.9. Severity classes follow GEC-12 Vol II Table 10-2.
No analysis yetPress Analyze signal. Force, wave separation and the damage scan will appear here.
All benchmark signals are synthetic, made by this engine, unless you supply a field record.

Signal matching (inverse solver)

Matches the measured signal to work out what the soil actually did during driving. It is an automated fit, not a calibrated commercial program, and not a substitute for a load test.

Signal and solver

pick a record and press Run

The solver re-creates this exact signal by adjusting the soil model · benchmark records are synthetic

Thorough avoids false answers; Quick is fine for exploring · default: Thorough

Advanced: solver options and starting soil model

Solver

reproducibility only

Same seed = identical answer every run · typical: 42

First guess the solver refines: layer geometry and rough resistances · the default matches the benchmark pile

Thorough mode runs a global search over the full wave model, typically 30 to 60 s.
No solve yetPress Run inverse solve. The force match, recovered soil profile and simulated load test curve will appear here.

Automated verification

Runs the built-in accuracy checks against published worked examples and known solutions. Nothing to fill in: press the button and read the results.

On this hosted version the live gates are switched off because they take about a minute of server time. They run in the test suite before every release.

Not run yetPress Run verification gates to see the live pass/fail metrics for gates 1 to 4. Gate 3 solves a full inverse problem and takes about a minute.

Vibratory driveability & resonance

Estimates how fast a vibratory hammer will drive your pile and whether the hammer is running above the system's resonance frequency. Estimates only; read the note below.

Vibratory analysis is less mature than impact analysis Estimates only. Vibratory driving analysis has not matured to the reliability of impact analysis (GRL Engineers' published position); no standardized vibratory capacity method exists. Do NOT treat any output as capacity. Site calibration against measured penetration speed / acceleration is required for engineering use.

Hammer & pile

the vibrator and what it drives

From the 212-model vibratory database · selecting one sets its max frequency below

How fast the vibrator runs · typical: 1,200–1,800

Label for the report only

Driven length · typical: 20

Total pile weight · typical: 3,600

Area under the pile tip · typical: 0.36 (600 mm square)

Soil resistance rows

static resistance before vibration reduces it

One row per depth: outer shaft friction, inner shaft friction, toe resistance (kN) and whether the soil is cohesive (1) or granular (0) · the default rows are a worked demo

Advanced: soil stiffness, calibration and reduction factors

Soil & calibration

these change the resonance check and rate estimate

Soil stiffness for the resonance check · typical: 150–250 (medium dense sand)

· typical: 2,000

Acceleration the pile needs before it penetrates; needs site calibration · default 14.71 = 1.5 g

Extra static weight on the vibrator · typical: 0 (none)

Published factor set for how much vibration reduces soil resistance · match your soil description

Pile drivability tool 0.2.3. The tool runs on the GeoMan ANZ server. Nothing you type into it is saved; runs are rate limited per address. Method, limits and references.

PROJECT
GeoMan ANZ
DWG REF
WEB-025
DWG TITLE
PILE DRIVABILITY TOOL
DATE
31-OCT-26
REV
P2