Intelligent Pile-Driving with a Diesel Impact Hammer

This paper describes an automated energy control system for a diesel pile hammer. Some background is given on experience using an energy monitoring system on the Route 1/I-95 interchange in Alexandria, Virginia. An adjustable hammer throttle and feedback from an energy monitoring system was then used to create a fully automated hammer energy control system. The performance of this system is described in reference to a piling project in Canada where the automated energy control system was used to obtain a high level of quality control and assurance — data and graphs from the project are presented. The hammer energy control system (ECS) was used to successfully control and maintain a prescribed impact (kinetic) energy for the diesel hammer. This paper presents the results from the first ever use of a partially automated diesel pile hammer and points to a new direction in quality control and assurance in pile driving.