Analytical Study Of The Spectral Analysis Of Surface Waves Method At Complex Geotechnical Sites

Analytical Study of the Spectral-analysis-of-surface-waves Method at Complex Geotechnical Sites

The Spectral-Analysis-of-Surface-Waves (SASW) method is an accepted means of measuring shear wave velocity (VS). In some settings, SASW measurements have produced results that were inconsistent with results from other methods of measurement. The effectiveness of the SASW methodology at complex geotechnical sites was investigated to identify site conditions where the SASW approach may produce erroneous results. Analytical simulations of surface wave measurements were performed. A traditional SASW methodology (global analysis), and a more rigorous approach (array analysis) were used to generate experimental dispersion curves. The effectiveness of these approaches was evaluated by comparing the experimental results to the true dispersion curve. The global analysis yielded dispersion curves that tend to underestimate surface wave velocities at long wavelengths. The array approach worked well for both simple, gradually increasing VS profiles as well as for some complex profiles with large VS contrasts. In some cases both the global and array analysis produce an experimental dispersion curve that is not consistent with the theoretical dispersion curve, especially for soft-over-stiff profiles, a common profile encountered in the field. These results have implications for earthquake site response analysis.

Unsaturated Soils: Research and Applications

These volumes contain the contributions to the Second European Conference on Unsaturated Soils, E-UNSAT 2012, held in Napoli, Italy, in June 2012. The event is the second of a series of European conferences, and follows the first successful one, organised in Durham, UK, in 2008. The conference series is supported by Technical Committee 106 of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering on Unsaturated Soils. The published contributions were selected after a careful peer-review process. A collection of more than one hundred papers is included, addressing the three thematic areas experimental, including advances in testing techniques and soil behaviour, modelling, covering theoretical and constitutive issues together with numerical and physical modelling, and engineering, focusing on approaches, case histories and geo-environmental themes. The areas of application of the papers embrace most of the geotechnical problems related to unsaturated soils. Increasing interest in geo-environmental problems, including chemical coupling, marks new perspectives in unsaturated soil mechanics. This book will provide a valuable up-to-date reference across the subject for both researchers and practitioners.

Geophysical Characterization of Sites