Development of pile driver and load set for pile group in centrifuge

When testing piles in a geotechnical centrifuge, it is more efficient to dr ive piles into the soil in centrifuge fright instead of placing piles prior to running the centrifuge in order to simulate the real conditions. A new pile driver with loading set used to drive and load piles in a centrifuge h as been designed and manufactured successfully by the authors. The apparatu s on the model container is light and can be maneuvered in the X-Y plane ea sily. With this apparatus, the piles can be driven or pushed into the soil in centrifuge flight at any position in the X-Y plane. Furthermore, the pil e group can be driven into the soil one by one, and the loading test of the pile group can be performed without stopping the operation of the centrifu ge.