When a hammer with initial motion collides with a stationary pile, the transfer of energy is most efficient when the two masses are comparable. That is the reason why some codes limit the ratio of weight of hammer to the weight of pile to be more than 0.5.
If the weight of hammer is too low, most of energy during hammer driving is distributed to the hammer and this causes tension induced in hammer and results in inefficient transfer of energy.
Advertisements
This question is taken from book named – A Self Learning Manual – Mastering Different Fields of Civil Engineering Works (VC-Q-A-Method) by Vincent T. H. CHU.
If you have a query, you can ask a question here.