ABSTRACT
NON-MONOTONICAL DECAY OF GROUND SURFACE VIBRATIONS CAUSED BY PILE DRIVING
P.B. ATTEWELL, A.R. SELBY and A. UROMEIHY
School of Engineering and Applied Science University of Durham
England
ABSTRACT Driving of piles by impact hammer or vibrodriver causes ground surface vibrations which generally attenuate with distance from the pile because of geometrical divergence and to a lesser extent soil material damping. A large body of records has been taken on many sites in the UK using a multichannel digital recorder which allows simultaneous recording at different standoff distances, usually in the 2m to 20m range. On a significant number of occasions the vibrations have shown a maximum amplitude at some 10m from the pile, usually when a long bearing pile was being driven at large toe depth. One effect of this ‘anomalous’ amplitude/distance phenomenon is to render inapplicable any scaled distance law of a form sometimes used for initial vibration estimation purposes by construction site staff in order to ensure conformance with any consent to work agreement entered into with a local authority under Section 61 of the Control of Pollution Act 1974.
