Application des techniques de prévision, d'instrumentation et de contrôle de battage aux ouvrages portuaires

The new developments of hydraulic hammers and the emergence of european competition cause in France a renew of interest for the use of driven pipe piles in civil engineering projects. ln that respect, procedures and techniques, which have been developed for more than 30 years and are now of current pract/ce in offshore, con be adapted to harbour and coastal engineering: The target penetration of the piles should be defined on the basis of a static computation, considering the sail data ava/lable on the site and the efforts applied : pile driving con be predicted using adequate and efficient procedures: determination of the soil resistance ta driving and modelization of the hammer-pile-soil system using the unidimensionnal propagation of stress woves theory; pile dr/ving con be instrumented and monitored in real time, gIving to the engineer fondamental indications on the the dynamic response of the soil and on the hammer operating behav/our, Dynamic data thus obtained con be reanalysed, and allow ta conc/ude on the acceptabiiity of the pile in case of premature refusaI. Recent projects /n Fronce and abroad have proved fiiot an efficient quality control con be applied ta pile driving operations, Some adaptations ta the french situation must be done, mainly on the definition of adequate sail survey methods and the creation of pile driving tests data banks,