Measuring shear and compression wave velocities of soil using bender–extender elements

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (7) ◽  
pp. 792-812 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. C. Leong ◽  
J. Cahyadi ◽  
H. Rahardjo

Piezoceramic elements have been used for laboratory measurement of wave velocity in soil and rock specimens. Shear-wave piezoceramic elements (bender elements) are commonly used to measure shear wave velocity for the determination of small-strain shear modulus. Compression-wave piezoceramic elements (extender elements), on the other hand, are less commonly used as compression wave velocity is less frequently measured. In this paper, the performance of a pair of bender–extender elements for the determination of both shear and compression wave velocities is examined with respect to the resolution of the recorder, bender–extender element size. and excitation voltage frequency. The evaluation showed that the performance of the bender–extender elements test can be improved by considering the following conditions: (i) the digital oscilloscope used to record the bender–extender element signals should have a high analog to digital (A/D) conversion resolution; (ii) the size of the bender–extender elements plays an important role in the strength and quality of the receiver signal, especially for compression waves; and (iii) using a wave path length to wavelength ratio of 3.33 enables a more reliable determination of shear wave velocity.

2019 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 02001
Author(s):  
Troyee Tanu Dutta ◽  
Masahide Otsubo ◽  
Reiko Kuwano ◽  
Takeshi Sato

For the accurate design of structures subjected to both static and dynamic loadings, elastic wave velocity and small strain stiffness are essential parameters. Numerous techniques have been developed to estimate wave velocities of geomaterials. Bender elements which are widely adopted for wave velocity measurements are invasive in nature and are not suitable for coarse-grained materials. In the present study, new design configuration of disk transducer has been introduced to measure both vertical and horizontal wave velocities for coarse granular soils considering multidirectional oscillation of propagating waves. An innovative arrangement of both compression and shear type elements has been installed in a large-sized triaxial apparatus having rectangular specimens of size 236×236×500 mm to assess the wave velocities. The materials described are Toyoura sand (D50 = 0.24 mm) and Oiso gravel (D50 = 11.8 mm). This arrangement enables measurements of nine types of wave velocities, and thus the stiffness anisotropy to be quantified. For Oiso gravel, horizontal wave velocities are greater than vertical wave velocities for both shear and compression waves. For Toyoura sand, shear wave velocities are higher in horizontal direction of propagation, whereas similar compression wave velocities are observed from both horizontal and vertical directions.


2010 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 709-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Long ◽  
Shane Donohue

A database of research-quality piezocone cone penetration test (CPTU) and shear wave velocity, Vs, information for Norwegian marine clays has been assembled to study the small-strain stiffness relationships for these materials and to examine the potential use of CPTU and Vs data in combination for the purposes of characterizing these soils. Data for sites where high-quality block sampling was carried out have mostly been used. Improvements have been suggested to existing correlations between the small-strain shear modulus, Gmax, or Vs and index properties for these soils. Recent research has shown that CPTU corrected cone tip resistance, qt, and especially the pore pressure measured during CPTUs, u2, and Vs can be measured reliably and repeatably and are not operator or equipment dependant. Therefore, a new soil classification chart involving the normalized cone resistance, Qt, and normalized shear wave velocity, Vs1, or Vs1 and Δu/[Formula: see text] (where u is the pore-water pressure and [Formula: see text] is the in situ vertical effective stress) is presented. Using this chart it is possible to clearly distinguish between clays of different overconsolidation ratios (OCRs).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry George Poulos

Abstract This paper describes an approach for utilizing in-situ measurements of shear wave velocity Vs to carry out preliminary and check design calculations for shallow and deep foundations. For estimates of foundation movements, Vs can be used directly to estimate the small-strain stiffness of the soil or rock strata, while for ultimate capacity calculations, use is made of empirical correlations between Vs and penetration resistance measures, which in turn are correlated to the foundation resistance characteristics. The approach is applied to a series of published tests on shallow footings, and on a series of pile load tests for a very tall building. For these cases, comparisons of the calculated with the measured load – settlement behaviour indicates that the suggested approach provides a reasonable, albeit somewhat conservative, level of agreement.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 1142-1149
Author(s):  
Pedro Paulo ROSSIGNOLI ◽  
Marcus Antônio Rossi FELICIANO ◽  
Bruno Watanabe MINTO ◽  
Marjury Cristina MARONEZI ◽  
Ricardo Andres Ramirez USCATEGUI ◽  
...  

The goal of this study was to describe and compare B mode and elastographic characteristics of the pectineus muscle of healthy dogs with dysplastic dogs. Thirty-one dogs (62 limbs) with hip dysplasia and 17 nondysplastic dogs (34 limbs) were evaluated. The hip dysplasia score was defined according to the Fédération Cynologique Internationale. Using B mode, echotexture and echogenicity of different regions of the pectineus muscle were evaluated. By means of ARFI elastography, qualitative (elastogram) and quantitative (shear wave velocity) tissue stiffness was assessed. B mode findings demonstrated a hyperechoic and heterogeneous pattern of the pectineus tissue in dogs with hip dysplasia, with compromised muscular delimitation and loss of its normal sonographic appearance, indicating the disease (P < 0.001). In the elastogram, it was observed that dogs with hip dysplasia showed less deformable pectineus muscle, with red colors (rigid). In quantitative evaluation, the different regions evaluated presented similar shear wave velocities; in dysplastic patients, shear wave velocities were higher compared to nondysplastic animals, with values higher than 2.85 m/s being strong indicators of the disease. Values of shear wave velocity were also influenced by the grade of dysplasia and age of the patients; however, there was no correlation with the depth of the evaluated area or body weight. It was concluded that pectineus muscle in dogs with hip dysplasia presents B mode and elastographic changes when compared to normal animals, demonstrating that these techniques might aid the evaluation of diseased dogs.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Holly Joanne Godfrey

<p>We use continuous seismic data from permanent and temporary, broadband and short-period stations that were operating during 2001 and 2008 to investigate the subsurface velocity structure of the Tongariro Volcanic Centre (TgVC) of New Zealand, particularly the highly active but poorly understood Ruapehu and Tongariro Volcanoes.  Stacks of cross-correlation of two concurrent ambient noise seismograms can be used to estimate the interstation Green's Function, i.e., the impulse response of the earth between the two receivers. The Green's Functions are used to retrieve the dispersion relation (frequency-dependent velocity) of surface waves at different periods, which reflects the shear-wave velocity structure in the Fresnel volume of the propagating surface waves. Several studies have used dispersion measurements from ambient noise cross-correlations to investigate the shallow subsurface shear-wave velocity structure of active volcanoes around the world. Most use vertical components to retrieve the Rayleigh waves, but it is becoming increasingly common to use the horizontal seismogram components in addition to the vertical, giving further constraints to Rayleigh-wave measurements and introducing data relating to Love waves.  We compute 1,048,968 daily cross-correlations for 955 viable station pairs across the two periods, including all nine-components of the cross-correlation tensor where possible. These daily functions are then stacked into 7458 full-stacks, of which we make group velocity dispersion measurements for 2641 RR-, RZ-, TT-, ZR- and ZZ-component stacks. Cross-correlation quality varies across the networks, with some station pairs possibly contaminated with timing errors.  We observe both the fundamental and rst higher-order modes within our database of dispersion measurements. However, correctly identifying the mode of some measurements is challenging as the range of group velocities measured reflects both presence of multiple modes and heterogeneity of the local velocity structure. We assign modes to over 1900 measurements, of which we consider 1373 to be high quality.  We invert fundamental mode Rayleigh- and Love-wave dispersion curves independently and jointly for one dimensional shear-wave velocity profiles at Ruapehu and Tongariro Volcanoes, using dispersion measurements from two individual station pairs and average dispersion curves from measurements within specifi c areas on/around the volcanoes. Our Ruapehu profiles show little velocity variation with depth, suggesting that volcanic edifice is made of material that is compacting and being hydrothermally altered with depth. At Tongariro, we observe larger increases in velocity with depth, which we interpret as different layers within Tongariro's volcanic system. Slow shear-wave velocities, on the order of 1-2 km/s, are consistent with both P-wave velocities from existing velocity pro files of areas within the TgVC, and the observations of worldwide studies of shallow volcanic systems that used ambient noise cross-correlation.  A persistent observation across the majority of our dispersion measurements is that group velocities of the fundamental mode Love-wave group velocity measurements are slower than those of fundamental mode Rayleigh-waves, particularly in the frequency range of 0.25-1 Hz. Similarly, first higher-order mode Love-wave group velocities are slower than first higher-mode Rayleigh-wave velocities. This is inconsistent with the differences between synthetic dispersion curves that were calculated using isotropic, layered velocity models appropriate for Ruapehu and Tongariro. We think the Love-Rayleigh discrepancy is due to structures such as dykes or cracks in the vertical plane having greater influence than horizontal layering on surface-wave propagation. However, several measurements where Love-wave group velocities are faster than Rayleigh-wave group velocities suggests that in some places horizontal layering is the stronger influence.  We also observe that the differences between the Love- and Rayleigh-wave dispersion curves vary with the azimuth of the interstation path across Ruapehu and Tongariro Volcanoes. Some significant differences between Rayleigh-wave velocities of measurements with different interstation orientations are also observed, as are differences between Love-wave velocities. This suggests a component of azimuthal anisotropy within the volcanic structures, which coupled with the radial anistropy makes the shear-wave velocity structures of Ruapehu and Tongariro Volcanoes anisotropic with orthorhombic symmetry. We suggest that further work to determine three-dimensional structure should include provisions for anisotropy with orthorhombic or lower symmetry.</p>


Author(s):  
Yichuan Zhu ◽  
Zhenming Wang ◽  
N. Seth Carpenter ◽  
Edward W. Woolery ◽  
William C. Haneberg

ABSTRACT V S 30 is currently used as a key proxy to parameterize site response in engineering design and other applications. However, it has been found that VS30 is not an appropriate proxy, because it does not reliably correlate with site response. Therefore, the VS30-based National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program site maps may not capture regional site responses. In earthquake engineering, site resonance, which can be characterized by the fundamental mode with a site period (Tf) and its associated peak amplification (A0), is the primary site-response concern. Mapping Tf and A0 is thus essential for accurate regional seismic hazard assessment. We developed a 3D shear-wave velocity model for the Jackson Purchase Region of western Kentucky, based on shear-wave velocity profiles interpreted from seismic reflections and refractions, mapped geologic units, and digital-elevation-model datasets. We generated shear-wave velocity profiles at grid points with 500 m spacing from the 3D model and performed 1D linear site-response analyses to obtain Tf and A0, which we then used to construct contour maps for the study area. Our results show that Tf and A0 maps correlate with the characteristics of regional geology in terms of sediment thicknesses and their average shear-wave velocities. We also observed a strong dependency of A0 on bedrock shear-wave velocities. The mapped Tf and A0 are consistent with those estimated from borehole transfer functions and horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio analyses at broadband and strong-motion stations in the study area. Our analyses also demonstrate that the depth to bedrock (Zb) is correlated to Tf, and the average sediment shear-wave velocity (VS-avg) is correlated to A0. This implies that Zb and VS-avg may be considered as paired proxies to parameterize site resonance in the linear-elastic regime.


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