The Establishment of a Safe Method of Offshore Pile Driving in Hong Kong

Large diameter driven steel tubular piles have been used as the foundations for the recently completed Hong Kong Offshore LNG Terminal located in the southern waters of Hong Kong to the east of Soko Islands. A large number of PDA tests have been conducted for assessing the pile capacity of the offshore piles and gauging the development of pile resistance with time. This has provided a good opportunity to better understand the behaviour of offshore piles in Hong Kong. Analyses of the PDA test data are presented to explore the relationship of pile capacity predicted by the Case method and CAPWAP method and also variation of energy transfer and development of pile resistance over time after the end of initial driving. A simpler approach for describing the set-up curve of pile capacity is also proposed.