A follower is an extension between the pile head and the hammer that transfers the blow to the pile in which the pile head cannot be reached by the hammer or is under water .For construction of driven piles, the piling frame and hammer are normally erected on existing ground level but not at the base of pile caps.
However, H-piles are designed to be terminated near the base of pile caps. If piles are driven at ground level, a certain length of H-piles is wasted and cut when constructing pile caps. In this connection, pile followers are used so as to save the wasted section of H-piles because followers can be removed during subsequent construction of pile caps.
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.