Explanation of Pile Driving Equipment October 15, 2009

Pile driving equipment is used to drive piles into soil or rock to provide support for foundations for buildings, bridges, or marine structures.

One traditional type of pile driver includes a heavy weight placed between guides so that it is able to freely slide up and down in a single line. The weight is placed upon a pile and when the weight reaches its highest point it is then released and smashed onto the pile in order to drive it into the ground. The weight may be raised using hydraulics, steam, diesel or manual labor.

Load bearing piles can be used as:
                                                Friction piles
                                                End-bearing pile
                                               Anchor pile

Friction Piles .  End bearing piles can be very expensive to use if firm soil runs deep into the ground. In such situations, piles are driven through the penetrable soil. Load transmission of the structure to the penetrable soil is accomplished by skin friction or cohesion between the soil and embedded surface of the pile. This type of pile is called friction pile due to the properties of cohesion.

Friction piles are often used to support a downward load or an upward load.

End Bearing Piles. The base of an end bearing pile rests on a relatively firm soil such as rock, very dense sand or gravel. The load of the structure is transmitted through the pile into this firm soil. Because the base of the pile bears the load of the structure, this type of pile is known as an end bearing pile.

There are two types of end bearing piles: 

1. the preformed timber pile and
2. the in-situ reinforced concrete pile.
Both types transmit their load into the firm soil layer of the ground.

Anchor Piles. An anchor pile is a type of friction pile. This pile is used to restrain uplift or overturning of a structure. Uplift of a structure may be caused by flotation or ground heave. Flotation may occur to an empty underground tank in waterlogged ground. High-rise buildings have a tendency to overturn because of wind load, and bridge piers or retaining walls may overturn due to horizontal loads.

In most cases, piles work on a combination of the base end and the friction of the pile bear the load of the structure. In order to classify a pile as an end bearing pile or a friction pile, we must know which principle is the more prominent in a particular case. Friction is more likely to predominate for piles in clays and silts and where long sockets are formed in soft rocks. End bearing applies to piles terminating in compact gravel, hard clay or rock. 

See the pile driving equipment made by ICE
 

---