Vulcan sometimes liked to think that it was the "only game in town" when it came to pile drivers. But we knew it wasn't true. Before diesel and vibratory hammers became common and air/steam hammers "ruled the roost" Vulcan's main competitor was McKiernan-Terry (MKT.) Based in northern New Jersey (its last facility there was in … Continue reading McKiernan-Terry
The GeoInstitute has chosen to feature George Goble's Terzaghi Lecture, it's here: https://youtu.be/ujXSyvB4iPc?si=6xdRze61jFt-KiFf He covers the waterfront (complete with a major marine project) on the WEAP/CAPWAP method of pile dynamics. The methods he and his colleagues pioneered have become standard in driven pile practice. I have a few comments on the lecture as follows: He … Continue reading George Goble’s 2007 Terzaghi Lecture
In the earlier post Some Insight into the Origin of Vulcan’s Pile Hammer Valve System we looked at the Corliss valve and its application first to steam engines and later pile hammers. In this post we'll look at these engines from another standpoint: analysing their rotational action using the method of instantaneous centre of rotation. The … Continue reading Solving a Dynamics Problem using the Instantaneous Centre of Rotation with a Vulcan Design
The results of the Proctorsville project showed that our understanding of the mechanics of pile driving—and of the load transfer mechanism between pile and soil during and after installation—left a great deal to be desired. The solution to the problem was to instrument the pile driving process. Such an effort was documented in the 1908 … Continue reading Goodrich (1908): The First Instrumented Pile?
It's my custom to review papers which cite my own work. This pair of papers, whose lead author is Tu Yuan from Zhejiang Sci-Tech University in Hangzhou, China, is interesting because it take an approach whose basic concept goes back a long way in pile dynamics and which needed some basic advancement. The two papers … Continue reading Comments on “Nonlinear fictitious-soil pile model for pile high-strain dynamic analysis” and “Fictitious soil pile model for dynamic analysis of pipe piles under high strain conditions”
First, we need to review what we've learned from our previous posts on diesel hammers. First, the posts themselves: Diesel Hammers: Rated Striking Energy, and Should Diesel Hammers Be Derated? Diesel Hammers: Delmag, Nilens and the Method of Analysis Diesel Hammers: The Russian Hammers and Hemi-Headed Pile Drivers Diesel Hammers: Pileco Now we can discuss what we have … Continue reading Diesel Hammers: Vulcan Series II Diesel Hammers
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
The classic Delmag diesel hammer, a D-30, early 1990's. In Diesel Hammers: Some Basic Thermodynamics, and the Mean Effective Pressure it was noted that the diesel hammers were developed in Germany between the World Wars. The Germans went to war the second time with diesel hammers in hand to aid their war effort. (The U.S. did … Continue reading Diesel Hammers: Delmag, Nilens and the Method of Analysis
It is my custom to link to and make comments on papers which cite my work. This paper is titled Construction of a mathematical model of dynamic loads in a jib self-propelled crane when pulling a sheet pile out of the ground. It comes from Ukraine, and it is the first study of its kind … Continue reading Comments on “Construction of a mathematical model of dynamic loads in a jib self-propelled crane when pulling a sheet pile out of the ground.”
Much of the narrative around Vulcan centres on the development of the Warrington-Vulcan pile hammer design in the late 1880's (and the serial number records aren't the most informative about when exactly the final transition to that design was made.) But how did Vulcan come up with the valve design it made its standard? Some … Continue reading Some Insight into the Origin of Vulcan’s Pile Hammer Valve System
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