Above: Pileco D-8 diesel hammer on Vulcan Foundation Equipment's excavator mast, ready to drive below grade. Photo courtesy of Vulcan Foundation Equipment. Since we dealt with older European diesel hammers in the post Diesel Hammers: Delmag, Nilens and the Method of Analysis, let's turn to something more contemporary: Pileco diesel hammers, one of several organisations which … Continue reading Diesel Hammers: Pileco
Now we get into a topic that's potentially controversial: the energy rating of diesel hammers, or any impact hammer for that matter. Let's start with defining what we mean by rated energy. Efficiency and Rated Striking Energy Hibbeler (1989) defines mechanical efficiency as follows: $latex e = \frac{Energy\,Output}{Energy\,Input} $ (15) A quick look at Equation … Continue reading Diesel Hammers: Rated Striking Energy, and Should Diesel Hammers Be Derated?
With recent upheaval over tariffs and our long-term commercial relationship with China, one is led to wonder: is the era of the "Chimags" at an end? Or at least not what it used to be? And could another different diesel hammer be manufactured in the U.S. (yes, there are other manufacturers)? In this series we'll … Continue reading Diesel Hammers: Some Basic Thermodynamics, and the Mean Effective Pressure
This is yet another paper which cited my work, in this case the ZWAVE paper. Once again I'm not sure why they picked this one; it's probably because I explored a soil model based on that of Randolph and Simons (1986), which they also cited and discussed. I came back to models like this in … Continue reading Comments on “A novel soil reaction model for continuous impact pile driving”
As noted elsewhere, Vulcan got itself into many products outside of pile driving equipment. One of those was railroad equipment. Some of these didn't work out as planned, as was the case with the Caldwell Steam Snow Plow. Others, ostensibly, had a happier outcome for everyone. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, one of … Continue reading The Hicks Track Laying Machine, and an Example of Belt/Band Friction
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
The 1400, driving sheeting for a creosote plant environmental remediation in Chattanooga. The 1400 incorporated many of the features of the 400, including the curved eccentric case (which was mated to the 7" clamp.) The original suspension was an H-beam, but this proved too light for bias weight, and was replaced by the cast unit … Continue reading Estimating the Starting Time of a Vulcan Vibratory 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 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 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
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