The Basics of Vibratory Power Theory

This is a brief summary of the basic theory behind vibratory power. It goes back to Savinov and Luskin (the original summary of the development of the technology) and I've covered it repeatedly in my monographs. The basic model is shown above. It assumes that that soil acts as a velocity-dependent damper, which speaks to … Continue reading The Basics of Vibratory Power Theory

Projectile Motion, or Why You Don’t Put Starter Fluid in a Diesel Hammer

We've been posting some pretty technical stuff lately. While there is a good deal of that here, we're going to use this to illustrate two things: how projectile motion works and why you shouldn't put starter fluid in a diesel hammer. The Situation Let's consider the situation where the contractor brought the rig illustrated below … Continue reading Projectile Motion, or Why You Don’t Put Starter Fluid in a Diesel Hammer

The Kinematics and Kinetics of Vibratory Driver Eccentric Rotation

The basic mechanics of vibratory pile drivers, i.e., those which drive with vibration and without impact, are well documented. This is a more detailed look at their kinematics (and some of their kinetics) which will show, at the least, that these aren't just pulled out of the air but have some basis in the dynamics … Continue reading The Kinematics and Kinetics of Vibratory Driver Eccentric Rotation

The Basics of Setting the Cut-Off Point for a Vulcan Single-Acting Hammer

The issue of slide bars, full and short stroking and blow rate have always been central to the proper "certification" and operation of Vulcan hammers. In this post we will take a "bare bones," basic approach to the dynamics of the problem with the most basic automatic hammer of all: a single-acting air/steam hammer, in … Continue reading The Basics of Setting the Cut-Off Point for a Vulcan Single-Acting Hammer

An Example of a Self-Locking Wedge: the Vulcan 560 Slide Bar Key

In the earlier post Tapered Keys and Their Use In Vulcan Hammers we had a general discussion of tapered keys, the theory behind them and their application in Vulcan hammers. In this post we'll look at one specific application--the Vulcan 560 Slide Bar Key--and see how Coulombic friction applies in this case of a self-locking (hopefully) … Continue reading An Example of a Self-Locking Wedge: the Vulcan 560 Slide Bar Key

An Example of Balancing a Sling Picked-Up Load: the IPH-16

A common problem in elementary statics is picking up a load with a sling. It's an important one in heavy lifting, and Vulcan certainly experienced a great deal of that. We're going to look at an example: the Internal Pile Hammer IPH-16. It's shown with its skid on the truck above; we're going to look … Continue reading An Example of Balancing a Sling Picked-Up Load: the IPH-16