Implications Of New Code Versions To Pile Fatigue Assessment Available to Purchase

The aim of this paper is to present the methodology currently followed in the offshore industry for the prediction of the pile fatigue induced by pile hammering during installation. A few decades ago piles were thicker, of lower yield stress and hammers were less efficient. Today, to be cost effective, it is common to use high strength steel resulting in lower pile thickness and increased driving stress together with better hammer efficiency to reduce installation time. Hence fatigue damages are more important. Evaluation of fatigue damages depend on various parameters such as applied stresses, number of blows, Stress Concentration Factor (SCF) and S-N curves. It is shown how fatigue damages are dependant on the choice of the values used for the SCF and S-N curves and also on applied stresses by the hammer, and in the end the impact of these parameters on the residual available fatigue life for the in-place conditions.