Numerical investigation of inside peak particle velocities for predicting the vibration influence radius of vibratory pile driving

Abstract

The vibration influence radius of vibratory pile driving is commonly predicted by the peak particle velocity (PPV) at the ground surface rather than inside the soil. In this paper, a vibratory penetration model is established in FLAC3D to investigate both surface and inside PPVs. The computation time of the model is significantly decreased by a density scaling method. The surface PPV attenuation in simulation shows a good agreement with a field test. When the distance from the pile axis is identical, the maximum PPV is inside the soil rather than at the ground surface. Then, the PPV at all points are illustrated as an isoline map, where the inside vibration influence radius is larger than that of surface. Additionally, the inside influence radius is still bigger as two construction parameters (the centrifugal force and the static force) change. The centrifugal force can slightly increase the inside influence radius and the static force has little effect on the radius. This work could advance vibration measurements for predicting the influence radius of vibratory pile driving.