Glossary of Piledriving and Foundation Construction Terms
Welcome to the APE Gloassary for piledriving and foundation construction terms. This is a great place to look for terms that you may be unfamiliar with when working with or researching piledriving technologies. This glossary also contains terms unrelated to piledriving, but that are frequently used on and around foundation construction projects. If you have a question or have term that you would like to add and do not know who to call please contact the APE Headquarters in Washington at (800) 248-8498. Business hours are from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific Time. For less immediate inquiries, or if you would like an APE sales representitive to get in contact with you, please visit the APE Contact Request Form.
| TERMS | DEFINITIONS |
| J-Side | Side or skin damping value used in wave equation analysis. |
| J-Tip | Tip or toe damping value used in wave equation analysis. |
| Jack Hammer | Electric or pneumatic equipment with pointed or flat cutting edge. Used to penetrate and break up hard surfaces. |
| Jack Test | A high capacity hydraulic jacking system used to apply loads to a pile under test. See Test Pile. |
| Jacked Pile | Pile driven into the ground by applying force between the top of the pile and a stable object above. |
| Jacking | 1. A means of imposing a static driving force on a pile by using jacks. Used extensively to install piles in underpinning of structures. A jacked pile. 2. The means of precisely transferring load from another source (either dead weight or a reaction platform) in the performance of a pile load test. |
| Jaw Bite | Describes the status of the jaws of a vibratory pile driver/extractor. The rule is that all teeth of the jaws must be in the work or gripping the pile. No piles should be allowed to drive unless all jaw teeth are engaged in the pile. Failure to grip all teeth in the work could result in injury or death due to the pile slipping out of the jaws. See Pile Safety Line. Failure to grip all teeth into the pile could result in premature jaw wear or damage to the jaws due to side loading. Side loading of jaws could break the jaw casting. |
| Jaw Recovery | Safely releasing and resetting they hydraulic clamp jaw pressure to assure proper grip on a pile. |
| Jaws | Devices that interface with and are used to clamp a vibratory driver/extractor to a pile. See Spud Clips, Gibs, Side Channels. |
| Jetting | The use of a water or air jet to facilitate the placing or driving of a pile by means of hydraulic displacement of parts of the soil. In some cases, a high-pressure air jet may be used, either alone or with water. Also called Water Jet. |
| Jetty | A work constructed out from a harbor entrance of mounds or heaps of rubble, fascine or mattress work with rubble or stone or a reinforced concrete wall to prevent littoral drivt from forming a bar across a harbor entrance. Also see Groin. |
| Jib Boom | Hinged extension attached to the upper end of the crane boom to provide addtional boom length. |
| Jill Poked | The term when the boom of a crane is poked through a window or opening for rigging and lifting objects, equipment, etc. in or out of that enclosed area. |
| Jilly | A float made of timbers, bolted or strapped together for workers to stand on while working at the water surface. |
| Journeyman | Person who has completed apprenticeship training for a construction trade and is skilled in that field. |
