Acoustics During the Vibratory Pile Driving of Sheet Piles: Measurement Conditions and Key Parameters of the Noise Generation

This paper studies the sound generation during the vibratory pile driving of double sheet piles for different crosssections with the aims to give guidelines how to make high-quality acoustic measurements and to find the keyparameters in this noise generation. These objectives are reached by studying the assumed hypotheses when performing the acoustic measurements and by using a beamforming system; details about the vibratory pile driving are also given to obtain reproducible and representative measurements. The experiment results confirm some previouslypresented hypotheses and show two key parameters involved in the sound generation: the space between the welds of the common interlock of a double sheet pile and the wall height above the soil of a neighbouring wall.