Clutched Sheet Piles

[Lenius]

I have a problem with clutched sheet piles. After we have extracted our sheet piles, some of them are still joined. We want to declutdh these piles, because we can't drive the piles when they are joined.

Our solution now is to cut of one of the piles and use the other one. This results in a loos for us, because the cut of pile is scrap.

We have tried to pull the piles apart but it didn't work.

Our idea now is to build a machine that can give one of the piles an impact while the other one is hold in place. But we don't know if this is working.

I hope someone can help me or maybe give me some ideas how to declutch the piles.

 

[Zambo]

Why can't you drive in pairs?

If you can't drive in pairs it would have been easier to solve this problem while you were extracting (I suppose too late for that). How long are the sheet piles?

 

[Lenius]

If the piles are joined, they are to heavy to drive.

If the piles wouldn't declutch while extraction, we have tried to weld to keep one in place. But we have had no succes with this.

The length of the piles varies from 12 - 15m. The problem only occur with hot rolled piles because og the tight clutch.

 

[Zambo]

Your point about welding the piles during extraction was what I was thinking, but you tried that.

I am a bit surpised you could extract in pairs but now you cannot drive in pairs.But obviously you have already tried and given up on that.

I don't think much of the idea of holding the pairs in place and striking them, but perhaps worth a try.

Could you weld jacking points on each of the piles and then try jacking them apart. The problem is that you might only have 300mm stroke on the jack and I wouldn't know if once you got 300mm movement you could then pull them apart.

 

[Lenius]

The reason why we can extract the piles in pairs is because we often pre drill when we install in hard ground conditions. This makes it also easier to extract the piles.

We also tried using a jack to separate the piles. But the problem is that when the force gets high enough the pile twist and deform and do not declutch. Thats why I am thinking about give the pile an impact. An impact would be more effective then a continious force.