TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
Upgrading SPT Analysis
PDI revamps the hardware and software for their
Standard Penetration Test analyzing package
It’s one of the rules of using software in your daily life: it’ll
eventually need to be upgraded. It’s why you constantly get
notifications from iTunes and Windows and every other
app on your phone or every other program on your computer.
Recently, U.S.-based Pile Dynamics, Inc. (PDI) revamped
both the hardware and software for their Standard
Penetration Test (SPT) analyzing package.
For many decades, the SPT has been normalized based
on the energy that it takes to drive this rod into the ground.
There are several ways of assessing energy, many of them are
empirical. The SPT Analyzer offers a way of measuring the
energy that is better than just estimating empirically.
“At the end of 2014, the Pile Driving Analyzer® PDA
system was completely redesigned,” saud Gina Beim, a consultant
with MCDA Consulting who works with PDI. The
newer version of the hardware, says Beim, is simpler, and the
look of it has also been adapted towards more recent trends
in mobile equipment.
“It’s now in its eighth generation and it’s got the look of
the tablet, with features like the pinch and the zoom, and
many of the things that any tablet does,” she said. “The SPT
Analyzer was similarly redesigned. So, it’s the same size of the
new PDA, has all that functionality, the pinch and the zoom
and all those features, and at the same time, the software that
powers the equipment was completely redesigned. Up until
recently, the SPT Analyzer was a simplified PDA that was
adapted for SPT testing. This time, they started from scratch
and made it really dedicated to the SPT hammer calibration.
So that made it so much easier for engineers who were only
focused on SPT hammer calibration to learn the software and
use it. And they can issue a report so much faster because
they don’t have to jump through as many hoops.”
Whatever test is used, says Beim, may have to do with
either soil conditions or tradition, but the SPT remains a
popular method. She says the calibration of SPT hammers
with a PDA-type device emerged, all those years ago, after the
development of dynamic load testing.
“In the 1960s and 1970s, this new way of assessing how
much a pile can support was created, researched and
invented, and that’s called a dynamic load test and that’s
based on measurement of force and velocity on the pile,” said
Beim. “Engineers realized that since they were also evaluating
energy transferred to the pile, that energy could be useful
for the SPT test calibration.”
Buying a PDA was a significant investment for engineers
who wanted to calibrate SPT hammers but whose business
model did not include assessing foundation capacity.
PDI then created an instrument that was simpler and more
affordable and was marketed to people who only wanted to
do SPT testing.
Of course, it’s also important to keep your SPT testing
equipment calibrated.
“Several of the Departments of Transportation in the
United States say if you’re going to use SPT testing to assess
the soil, the equipment you use needs to be calibrated every
two or three years,” said Beim.
Beim said the reaction has, so far, been positive.
“Pile Dynamics, the manufacturer, has a sister company
GRL Engineers that provides various deep foundationrelated
services, including SPT hammer calibration. The
engineers of that company have used the new software and
they love it,” said Beim.
And unlike a lot of software packages out there, PDI is
not going to go upgrade-crazy anytime soon, says Beim. This
upgrade should last for awhile.
“The electronics are state of the art. The tablet functionality
is the best you can get and the software has just been
redesigned. I don’t think there are plans to make any updates
in the near future; it’s a pretty good software package and the
equipment is working pretty well.”
By Jim Chliboyko
COURTESY OF PILE DYNAMICS, INC.
8 Q2 2016 www.pilingcanada.ca
/www.pilingcanada.ca
