This paper presents a new shaker design for the Gentle Driving of Piles method. Specifically, a lab-scale vibratory device has been developed that can simultaneously apply axial and torsional vibrations, both possessing frequency-amplitude decoupling. This design was implemented and tested in a lab-scale experimental campaign, where both pile and soil were extensively instrumented. The monitoring of the dynamic pile and soil behaviours during driving with various installation settings is of utmost importance to comprehend the governing mechanisms of the process. In that manner, the optimization of pile installation may be realized both for axial vibratory driving and GDP. In this work, the frequency-amplitude decoupling is pivotal, as it is showcased that both enhanced installation performance and reduced power consumption can be attained with proper selection of the installation settings and exploitation of high-frequency torsion.

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More than 6,000 infants develop hydrocephalus in East Africa every year. Magnetic Resonance Imaging is the preferred technique to diagnose hydrocephalus. In countries such as Uganda, MRI is unaffordable at even major referral hospitals. In order to provide a sustainable diagnostic tool we are developing an inexpensive and easy-to-use MRI system that yields images of sufficient quality to diagnose hydrocephalus. This paper describes our first prototype of such a scanner. We explain the lessons that we have learned from this prototype and how we used these to come up with an improved design. We also describe a dataset that has been obtained with this scanner that will be made publically available.@en