Comparative study of drop-hammer pile-driving processes in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand

Pile-driving is one of the common processes usually found in many construction projects. In the developing countries, a drop-hammer pile-driving method is widely employed in small construction projects. However, there are some similarities and differences in this common process in terms of machines, materials, and procedures, used in the South-East Asian counties. This research then aims to explore the pile-driving processes in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand to compare pile-driving works in small construction projects for an operation improvement via the technology transfer. The study starts from the preliminary site investigation on pile-driving processes in Thailand and Indonesia. Next, the data are collected by interviewing the site engineers, observing and capturing actual processes in three countries, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Factors influencing operation of pile-driving works such as types of machines and pile shapes are investigated.Data representing work mechanisms of the machines are captured as well as cycle times of each process. The cycle times include four minor processes, setting a pile, driving a pile, welding a joint of two connected piles, and the machine movement. Based on the cycle times, statistical analysis is done to identify the performances of each machine in each process. Simulation analysis is then performed to find the overall performance of these machines. From the exploration, it is found that drop hammers are the common pile driving machines use in small construction projects in the observed countries. Their series of processes are similar but their machine components and operation mechanisms are different. Structures of drop hammers found in Indonesia and made in forms of simple space frames whereas structures of drop hammers found in Malaysia and Thailand are made in forms of space trusses. In the case of machine supports, steel rails are equipped in the drop hammers in Thailand while steel pipes are equipped in the drop hammers in Indonesia and Malaysia. According to the differences, these machines require different times for installation, movement and dismantling. In the case of piles, triangle-shape, square-shape, and I-shape are the popular pile-shapes used in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, respectively. The analysis presents that drop hammers found in Indonesia and Malaysia utilize mechanisms that provide an ease in moving the machines but with lower weight of rams, they produce lower driving energy. On the other hand, drop hammers found in Thailand provide high driving energy due to their heavy rams but require longer time in machine movement. Combination of the advantages of the drop hammers is recommended for performance improvement. However, the real experiment is needed to be conducted in the similar conditions. The major limitations in this research are that (a) there are few numbers of data in some processes and, (b) the machines used to compare the performance are selected and their characteristicsare not exactly the same. For example, the machines in Thailand are larger than the others.