A driven pile is installed by hammering a prefabricated pile (concrete, steel or timber) down to a preset depth or until the pile is set.
The pile is driven in through repeated hammering by a pile driving hammer (metal mass).
Progress is very fast to start with but the penetration rate declines the deeper the pile is driven in.
Depending on the ground material they can be driven down to a hard layer or be set in a firm layer or driven far enough that the skin friction of the pile will be enough for the structure.
Instrumentation has been developed that can monitor the pile installation display and record the drop height, energy, insertion per blow, mast inclination
and overall depth of the pile.
