Dynamic Pile Formula

■ Sanders (1850): W  Weight of hammer

H  Height of fall
Qu  Pile resistance or Pile capacity
S Pile penetration for the last blow
■ Wellington (1898): Drop Hammer or Single acting Steam
Engineering News Formula Hammer

C  A constant accounting for energy loss

during driving
[1 in. or 25.4 mm for drop hammer]
[0.1 in or 2.54 mm for steam hammer]

A factor of safety FS = 6 is recommended for estimating the allowable capacity

Note: Dynamic pile formula are not used for soft clays due to pore pressure evolution
Engineering New Formula

WH W  e W p
2

Qf  .
S  C W  Wp
Qf=Ultimate Load Capacity of Pile (Avg Resistance of
Soil to Penetration)

Wp= Weight of Pile Factor of Safety=6

η= Hammer Efficiency (<1)

e=Coefficient of restitution
 η
(0.75-1.0) Drop hammer
(0.75-0.85) Single acting hammer
0.85 Double acting hammer
0.85-1.0 Diesel hammer

e
Timber pile 0.25
Timber Dolly + Steel Pile, 0.3
Plastic Dolly + Steel Pile, 0.5
Plastic Dolly + Reinforced Concrete Pile =0.4
 0.7

0.6 e=0
0.5

0.4


Heavier hammer
0.3
or lighter piles
0.2 give better
efficiency
0.1

0
0 1 2
Coefficient of Restitution: W/P
Danish Formula
WH
Qf 
1  2WHL 
0 .5

S  
2 AE 

η =(0.7 to 0.95)
 Foundation Analysis and Design: Dr. Amit Prashant

Dynamic Pile Formula: Modified Hiley Formula

W  Weight of hammer
H  Height of fall
Qu  Pile resistance or Pile capacity
S Pile penetration for the last blow
 Hammer fall efficiency
Efficiency of blow
C Sum of temporary elastic compression
of pile, dolly, packing, and ground

Hammer Fall Efficiency:

 Foundation Analysis and Design: Dr. Amit Prashant

W  e Wp 2


W  Wp

Factor of Safety for Hiley’s Formula:

 Foundation Analysis and Design: Dr. Amit Prashant

Dynamic Pile Formula: Modified Hiley Formula

Temporary Elastic Compression

R Driving without helmet or dolly but only a cushion or pad

C1 1.761
A of 25 mm thick on head.
R
 3.726 Driving of concrete or steel piles with helmet and short
A dolly without cushion.
R
 5.509 Concrete pile driven with only 75 mm packing under
A helmet and without dolly.

R.L
C2  0.657
A
C3  0.073  2.806 R
Ap Ap  Overall cross-sectional area of pile at toe in cm2
 Foundation Analysis and Design: Dr. Amit Prashant

Dynamic Pile Formula: Simplex Formula for

Frictional Piles
Frictional resistance of the pile is brought into the empirical relationship in
this formula by measuring the total number of blows for driving the full
length of pile.

R Ultimate driving resistance in kN

Np Total number of blows to drive the pile
L Length of pile in meters.
W Weight of hammer in kN.
H Height of free fall in meters.
s Average set i.e. penetration in cm for last blow being the
average of last four blows.
 Foundation Analysis and Design: Dr. Amit Prashant
Dynamic Pile Formula: Janbu Formula

Units: kN and m.

RU Ultimate capacity (FS)

 Efficiency factor (0.7 to 0.4, depending on driving conditions)
.W.H

kU  Cd 1 1 c Cd  Cd  0.75  0.15 P W  c 
A.E.S2

W Weight of hammer/ram
P Weight of pile
H Height of free fall in meters.
Hammer fall efficiency as mentioned for modified Hiley ’s formula
A Area of pile
E Elastic modulus of pile
s Set per blow as for Simplex formula
L Length of pile
A steel H-Pile of sectional area (A) 14x10-3 m2 is driven into
sand by a double acting stem hammer supplying a rated
energy (WH) of 35 kN-m per blow. Weight of pile+ cap
(Wp)=19.5 kN, weight of hammer including casing (W)=35.5
kN, length of pile (L)=12 m, Young’s modulus (E) =210x106
kPa, average set per blow (S)= 16 mm, hammer efficiency
(η)=0.85, coefficient of restitution (e)=0.5. Find ultimate
capacity of the pile by (i) ENR Formula (ii) Modified
Engineering News formula (iii) Danish formula (iv) Modified
Hiley formula (ignore elastic compression) (v) Janbu’s formula.