Hammer's Impact Force on Pile and Pile's Penetration

Methods of energy and momentum conservation, vibration theories, and model tests are employed to research the impact force of a hammer on a pile and the pile's penetration. An analytical formula of impact force of the hammer on pile is obtained. A comparison of results from the three methods finds that the analytical formula proposed by this article conforms well to practical situations. Research results show that if the hammer's impact energy remains unchanged, penetration increases with the increase of hammer weight and cushion stiffness. In addition, the impact force received by the pile head degrades with the increase of hammer weight, but increases with the increase of cushion stiffness. Impact time decreases with the increase of cushion stiffness, but increases with the increase of hammer weight. The model test shows that, when compared with a cotton cloth cushion, an elastic cushion's advantages lie in that the relatively small pile head impact force can achieve significant pile penetration. The cotton cloth is gradually compacted with the increase of blow counts; hence, the impact force the pile head receives tends to increase gradually.