Numerical model to predict the propagation of particle velocity values during vibratory pile-driving

Vibratory-driving of piles, sheet piles and metallic profiles carries the bad reputation of being noisy and responsible for nuisances and disturbances due to ground vibrations. To try to understand, the propagation of the wave and to check the pertinence of the rules of various countries and Eurocode 3, measurements were carried out on Merville site, North of France. The subsoil consists of dense Flanders clay. All these piles were instrumented. The vibrations transmitted to the ground were recorded continuously. The paper presents the experimental attenuation curves of particle velocities as well as a finite element model to analyse wave propagation in the ground.