About

“…thanks for your continued hosting of important documents like these. In this modern information age, it is hard to believe that important knowledge could simply vanish through disuse, but the sad fact is that it happens. Your efforts are a bulwark against the creep of ignorance.” J. Ledlie Klosky, Ph.D., P.E., civil engineering professor

Welcome to vulcanhammer.net! This site is a comprehensive resource for geotechnical and marine engineers, contractors, owners and equipment specialists.  We offer two specific sets of resources:

• Geotechnical Downloads, the most popular feature of the site, where you can obtain information and software on a wide variety of topics relating to geotechnical and marine engineering and construction.
• Geotechnical Courses: The presentation slides and other material from two university level courses on soil mechanics and foundations.

We also have our “general resources” including the following:

• A search engine at the bottom of each page to find information;
• A Facebook Group where you can interact with us and others;
• A brief history and an overview of the philosophy behind this site.

Thanks for visiting our site. Bookmark us and come back often.

History of the “vulcanhammer” family of sites

Our sites have a long history, at least in internet terms.

• The idea for a site about Vulcan Iron Works, the longest running manufacturer of pile driving equipment, was discussed as early as 1995. At that time the company was in the process of changing ownership; that took place the following year when Vulcan was merged into a subsidiary of Cari Capital Company.
• The merger did not result in a site for Vulcan. Meanwhile, on 1 July 1997, the webmaster initiated The Wave Equation Page for Piling, the first for the family of sites. More information on this, from the tenth anniversary celebration of the site, is here. The companion site vulcanhammer.org was started in August 1997.
• Although it had acquired the domain name vulcanhammer.com, by 1998 it became obvious that Vulcan would not be producing such a site. In May of that year The Wave Equation Page for Piling began a section on Vulcan Iron Works Inc.
• In April 1999 the Vulcan section of the site was moved to paid hosting. In the meanwhile the geotechnical information that is the hallmark of this site was growing.
• In January 2000 the domain name vulcanhammer.com was added, and changed to vulcanhammer.net in May 2001. The domain name vulcanhammer.com is now the website for Vulcan Foundation Equipment, which manufactures and supports the Vulcan product line.
• In 2004 the website chet-aero.com was added for some Warrington family history, and also to feature information about the design and construction of airfields and airfield pavements.
• In October 2007 the information on Vulcan Iron Works was separated from this site and placed into its own site, vulcanhammer.info. That site also hosts the information on the wave equation and pile dynamics that started this site.
• In November 2016 the Marine related documents were moved to Chet Aero Marine.

Today the vulcanhammer site family remains a key resource not only for those using Vulcan pile driving equipment but also for the geotechnical and marine engineering and construction industries.