Assessment of Hammer Energy Measurement for the Standard Penetration Test (SPT) Using Pile Driving Analyzer and Kallpa Analyzer Devices in Peru
Carmen Ortiz, Jorge Alva, José Oliden, Nelly Huarcaya, Grover Riveros, Roberto Raucana
TL;DR
This paper introduces a low-cost device called Kallpa for measuring energy in geotechnical tests, showing it performs as well as expensive commercial tools in Peru.
Contribution
The Kallpa system provides an affordable alternative to commercial energy measurement devices for Standard Penetration Tests.
Findings
Kallpa's sensor data strongly agrees with the Pile Driving Analyzer, validating its reliability.
The Energy Transfer Ratio for manual hammers averaged 58.9%, while automatic hammers ranged between 82% and 87%.
The Kallpa system enabled accurate estimation of soil relative density using corrected N60 blow counts.
Abstract
Energy measurement in dynamic penetration tests is key to correctly interpreting test results and ensuring comparable geotechnical data. Although commercial devices are widely used, their high cost limits adoption in developing regions such as Peru, affecting the accuracy of soil evaluation in many geotechnical studies. In this context, this research presents an energy measurement system called Kallpa, which uses low-cost electronic components to digitize sensor signals during Standard Penetration Tests (SPTs). Kallpa employs high-resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) with an advanced sampling frequency, processing and storing data via a Raspberry Pi 4 microcomputer. The sensors, including accelerometers and strain gauges, were calibrated and compared with the Pile Driving Analyzer (PDA) to validate their accuracy in the Kallpa system. This study involved sixteen Standard…
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Taxonomy
TopicsGeotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures · Geotechnical Engineering and Soil Mechanics · Geotechnical Engineering and Analysis