Sheet pile wall installation methods
2 examples of disturbance free sheet pile installations: jacking and vibrating
Watch sheet piling tutorial video: vibro and pile press

https://www.icevibro.com/uploads/video/0901.mp4

https://www.icevibro.com/uploads/video/PVE SheetPile Press.mp4

 
In China thousands of sheet pile projects are carried out each year. Sheet piles are a great fit for the modern reduce -reuse -recycle practices for temporary foundation works. Here are at the Deep Foundations WeChat Group we discuss this topic regularly. This week we are sharing three videos about jacking and vibrating methods to drive and extract permanent sheet pile walls without disturbance to the environment and with minimal soil settlement.
 


Vibrating:
On the banks of the canal of along the main street of the Shanghai Pudong Luchao Port township 9m long sheet piles were driven to serve a dual function: a permanent retaining wall as well as the foundation for a concrete water embankment on the riverside. As the jobsite is adjacent to town houses low vibration equipment was requisite for the job. Henan Shuili weighed its options for executing this job: a silent piler that jacks the piles into the soil or a resonance free hammer that vibrates the piles into the soil at a high frequency of 2300 RPM. After consultation with equipment suppliers it was decided that the ICE 20RF hammer would be the most economical choice for this job. The rental price was about half and the pile driving speed was expected to be double that of the silent piler. The piling operation was subcontracted to Nanjing NJSY company ltd.
 


The piles chosen for this job were 9m long No. 6 cold rolled sheet piles manufactured close by in the city of Nanjing. The sheet piles performed well. To increase the daily production rate the client used a guide frame to position the piles and used a special lifting tool that allows the hammer to directly lift the sheet piles into place. The lifting chain that was supplied by ICE has a swiveling hook that fits through a hole cut into the pile the lifting chain is attached to the hammer’s clamp. When the position of the hole and the length of the chain are well matched the positioning of the hammer on the pile is safe and quick. The site conditions were a bit tricky river water filled up the trench and limited maneuvering space but the light 50t crane with a light hammer ensured the working reach was optimal and much better than could have been achieved by excavator piling hammer. The video accompanying this article shows just how close the hammer works to the buildings.
 


So how does RF work?
When starting or stopping a vibratory hammer the eccentric weights rotation speed accelerates or decelerates. During this process the frequency of the hammer fluctuates and the hammer will cause resonance when passing through the natural resonance frequency of adjacent soil layers and buildings. An ICE resonance free hammer is equipped with a variable moment mechanism that ensures the spinning of the eccentric weights is canceled out at low RPM and only after an RPM of over 2000 is reached the position of the eccentric weights is adjusted to generate high frequency short distance vibrations.



Jacking 4 sheet piles at the same time:
The 2 videos below show the ICE-PVE Pressing machines operating in The Netherlands. The ICE-PVE pressing machine is a leader guided multifunctional piling rig that drives 4 sheet piles simultaneously. The 4 clamps press the piles down in sequence. The driving force of the press is 180t and the pulling force 240t. The working principle of the pressing technique is the use of the four hydraulic cylinders that push the sheet piles into the soil. The sheet piles are connected through standard inter-locks the piling rig is fitted with sensors that allows for accurate positioning of the piles ensuring the sheet pile wall’s verticality and integrity. This method is ideal for long sheet piles and enables very high daily production rates. If heavy driving conditions are encountered a small amount of water is injected under high pressure to assist the driving by fluidization. Pressing machines can drive Larrsen piles and Z profiles the clamps can be turned at different angles to fit these sheet piles’ different dimensions.

Pressing machines are for work in sensitive areas. During operation the pressing machine does not generate any vibrations. As the pressing machine presses the piles into the ground the ground is not disturbed and the impact on the surroundings is almost zero. The pressing machines can be installed on an ICE-Woltman 90PR Piling Rig. The 90PR has a mast with a height of max 36 meters and with the press installed can drive sheet piles with a maximum length of 30 meters. The 90PR’s Caterpillar C18 engine provides all the hydraulic flow required for the operation of the pile press.
 


Foundations Industry developments 
The foundation industry is seeing rapid changes sheet piles offerings are changing to include wider and longer piles combination walls with sheet pile-casing or sheet pile- king pile are becoming available piling equipment is making strides regulators are pushing for more environmentally friendly methods and design institutes are on board to bring real change to the market. This technology is very suitable for municipal tunnel projects and urban construction. We post regularly about this topic we hope you will come back to stay up to date with the latest application reports!
If you would like to read more please download the brochure:

https://www.icevibro.com/uploads/pdf/20170911.pdf