Assesment of low strain wave attenuation for piles cast in very dense granular soil

Abstract

In low strain testing of piles, soil within which the pile is embedded causes attenuation of propagated stress wave. The pile-soil interaction effect on low strain integrity test is not properly identified; however, it may lead to inconclusive results when piles are embedded in very dense soil. In this paper a method to estimate soil effects on low strain wave attenuation is proposed. Numerical analysis is utilized to arrive to a theoretical model, which accommodates soil effects on wave propagation in pile body. The proposed model assuming pile casted in very dense granular soil is compared with PIT-S software, which simulates propagation of low strain waves for similar pile-soil conditions. Generally, wave attenuations estimated by both methods were found to be close for pile subjected to short duration light impact.