Appraisal of ground vibration from civil engineering construction

Amplitude and style of ground vibration from two types of pile driving — vibrodriver (periodic) and drophammer (transient) — are considered for the analysis of deformation in a portal frame structure. It is argued that the three-dimensional character of the vibration should be determined in the form of a resultant vector and this requires the measurement of vibration in three directions at right angles together with information on the sense of the motion along each orthogonal axis of vibration. Such resultant vector data during the period of vibration are best processed and presented in the style of a suite of hemispherical projections that comprise upper and lower hemisphere forms, respectively embodying components of upward and downward vibrational motion. It is shown that analysis for the dynamic stability of a simple block foundation is assisted by reference to the hemispherical projection representation and by the use of ground surface acceleration data.