Evaluation of Shear-Wave Velocity in Granular Soil Using Bender Element and Resonant Column

Document Type : Articles

Authors

1 Department of Civil Engineering, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran

2 School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Shear wave velocity, Vs, is a useful soil mechanical property for determining the low shear strain (γ ≈ 0.0001%) elastic shear modulus, which is required for both static and dynamic response analyses of earth structures. It is an important geotechnical soil property for the design and analysis of geotechnical structures. It can be employed to determine the maximum or small-strain (≤10-3%) dynamic shear modulus (Gmax or G0) of the soil mass. Vs can be easily obtained using laboratory or in situ testing techniques. Laboratory tests can be carried out on undisturbed soil samples by simulating the field stress conditions or reconstituted soil samples from a site. However, obtaining good quality undisturbed samples of granular soil deposits is very difficult and moderately expensive. In most geotechnical investigations, the seismic properties (P- or S-wave velocity and the dynamic elastic properties) of granular soil layers from in situ tests (such as the seismic cone penetration test) cannot be determined because of the high cost of undisturbed specimens and the need for highly specialized personnel and equipment. There is increasing interest in the use of Vs to study soil particle properties (e.g. shape, elastic properties, gradation) and the soil state and fabric (e.g. void ratio, boundary stress). In the current study, the bender element and resonant column tests were conducted on sand-gravel specimens. A bender element is an electro-mechanical transducer composed of two-layers of piezo-ceramic plates that are cross-sectionally polarized. This allows for straightforward wave velocity measurement of soil specimens. The BE converts electrical energy to mechanical energy (movement). The resonant column device is commonly used in the laboratory to measure the low-strain properties of soil. This includes the dynamic properties (shear modulus and damping ratio) of soil specimens at strain levels of 10-6 to 5×10-3 conducted according to ASTM standards. In the RC test, Vs can be calculated using the solution of the equation for the linear vibration of a column-mass system. The RC device is the most reliable laboratory method for measurement of Vs. The aim of this research was to explain the effects on Vs of the relative density, mean effective stress, grading characteristics, consolidation stress ratio and initial fabric anisotropy produced during specimen preparation. Five gradations of gravelly and sandy material were used to study the influence of grading characteristics, consolidation stress ratio, depositional method, relative density and mean effective stress on the dynamic properties of granular soil. The pure sand was clean, uniformly-graded fine sand with a mean grain size of 0.6 and a silt content of less than 1% that was classified as SP according to the unified soil classification system (USCS). The pure gravel was uniformly-graded soil with a maximum particle size of less than 16 mm that was classified as GP according to the USCS. The measured values from the resonant column and bender element tests also were compared. Comparison of Vs-BE and Vs-RC shows that the results obtained by both techniques were in acceptable agreement for all specimens; however, there was a slight difference between the two techniques at low values of Vs in which Vs-BE was consistently lower than the corresponding values of Vs-RC. The results of these tests were employed to develop a generalized relationship for predicting the Vs of granular soil. The Vs model was validated using experimental data from the current study and from previous studies. The results indicate that the proposed model is capable of predicting the Vs of granular soil.

Keywords

References

  1. Kramer, S.L. (1996) Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering. Prentice Hall. Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
  2. Shirley, D.J. (1978) An improved shear wave transducer. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 63(5), 1643–1645.
  3. Pennington, D.S. (1999) The Anisotropic Small Strain Stiffness of Cambridge Gault Clay. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Bristol.
  4. Lawrence, Jr, F.V. (1965) Ultrasonic Shear Wave Velocities in Sand and Clay (No. RR-R65-05). Massachusetts Inst. of Tech Cambridge Dept. of Civil Engineering.
  5. Shirley, D.J. and Hampton, L.D. (1978) Shear-wave measurements in laboratory sediments. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 63(2), 607–613.
  6. Dyvik, R. and Madshus, C. (1985) Lab measurements of Gmax using bender elements. Proceedings of the ASCE Annual Convention on Advances in the Art of Testing Soils under Cyclic Conditions. pp 186-196.
  7. Leong, E.C., Yeo, S.H. and Rahardjo, H. (2005) Measuring shear wave velocity using bender elements. Geotechnical Testing Journal, 28(5), 488–498.
  8. Lee, J-S. and Santamarina, J.C. (2005) Bender Elements: Performance and Signal Interpretation. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 131(9), 1063–1070.
  9. Camacho-Tauta, J.F., Cascante, G., Viana, D.A., Fonseca. A. and Santos J.A. (2015) Time and frequency domain evaluation of bender element systems. Geotechnique, 65(7), 548–562.
  10. Chan, C.M. (2010) Bender element test in soil specimens: Identifying the shear wave arrival time. Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 15,1263–1276.
  11. Rahman, M.E., Pakrashi, V., Banerjee, S. and Orr, T. (2016) Suitable waves for bender element tests: Interpretations, errors and modelling aspects. Periodica Polytechnica Civil Engineering, 60(2), 145–158.
  12. Gu, X., Yang, J., Huang, M., and Gao, G. (2015) Bender element tests in dry and saturated sand: Signal interpretation and result comparison. Soils and Foundations, 55(5), 951–962.
  13. Arulnathan, R., Boulanger, R.W. and Riemer, M.F. (1998) Analysis of Bender Element Tests. Geotechnical Testing Journal, 21(2), 120–131.
  14. Jovičić, V., Coop, M.R. and Simić, M. (1996) Objective criteria for determining Gmax from bender element tests. Geotechnique, 46(2), 357-362.
  15. Viggiani, G. and Atkinson, J.H. (1995) Stiffness of fine-grained soil at very small strains. Geotechnique, 45(2), 249–265.
  16. Chan, C.M. (2012) On the intepretation of shear wave velocity from bender element tests. Acta Technica Corviniensis - Bulletin of Engineering, 5(1), 29.
  17. Kim, T., Zapata-Medina, D.G. and Vega-Posada, C.A. (2015) Analysis of Bender Element signals during triaxial testing. Revista Facultad de Ingenieria Universidad de Antioquia, 76, 107-113.
  18. Mancuso, C. and Vinale. F. (1988) Propagazione delle onde sismiche: teoria e misura in sito. Atti del Convegno del Gruppo Nazionale di Coordinamento per gli Studi di Ingegneria Geotecnica, 115-138.
  19. Brignoli, E.G., Gotti, M. and Stokoe, K.H. (1996) Measurement of Shear Waves in Laboratory Specimens by Means of Piezoelectric Transducers. Geotechnical Testing Journal, 19(4), 384-397.
  20. Sanchez, S.I., Roesset, J.M. and Stokoe, K.H. (1986) Analytical Studies of Body Wave Propagation and Attenuation. Texas Univ. at Austin Geotechnical Engineering Center.
  21. Gajo, A., Fedel, A. and Mongiovi, L. (1997). Experimental analysis of the effects of fluid—solid coupling on the velocity of elastic waves in saturated porous media. Geotechnique, 47(5), 993-1008.
  22. Kawaguchi, T., Mitachi, T. and Shibuya, S. (2001) Evaluation of shear wave travel time in laboratory bender element test. 15Th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 1, 155–158.
  23. He, H. and Senetakis, K. (2016) The effect of grain size on Gmax of a demolished structural concrete: A study through energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis and dynamic element testing. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 89, 208–218.
  24. Ferreira, C., da Fonseca, A. and Santos, J.A. (2006) Comparison of Simultaneous Bender Elements and Resonant Column Tests on Porto Residual Soil. In: Soil Stress-Strain Behavior: Measurement, Modeling and Analysis. pp 523–535.
  25. Camacho-Tauta, J., Cascante, G., Santos, J.A. and Viana Da Fonseca, A. (2011) Measurements of shear wave velocity by resonant-column test, bender element test and miniature accelerometers. Proceedings of the 2011 Pan-Am Geotechnical Conference 1–9.
  26. Youn, J.U., Choo, Y.W. and Kim, D.S. (2008) Measurement of small-strain shear modulus Gmax of dry and saturated sands by bender element, resonant column, and torsional shear tests. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 45(10), 1426–1438.
  27. Camacho-Tauta, J.F., Reyes-Ortiz, O.J. and Jimenez Alvarez, J.D. (2013) Comparison between resonant-column and bender element tests on three types of soils. Dyna., 80(182), 163–172.
  28. Souto, A., Hartikainen, J. and Özüdogru, K. (1994) Measurement of dynamic parameters of road pavement materials by the bender element and resonant column tests. Geotechnique, 44(3), 519–526.
  29. Hoyos, L.R., Suescún-Florez, E.A. and Puppala, A.J. (2015) Stiffness of intermediate unsaturated soil from simultaneous suction-controlled resonant column and bender element testing. Engineering Geology, 188, 10–28.
  30. ASTM D-18. (2008) Standard Test Method for Laboratory Determination of Pulse Velocities and Ultrasonic Elastic Constants of Rock.
  31. Pennington, D.S., Nash, D.F. and Lings, M.L. (2001) Horizontally Mounted Bender Elements for Measuring Anisotropic Shear Moduli in Triaxial Clay Specimens. Geotechnical Testing Journal, 24(2), 133–144.
  32. Kumar, J. and Madhusudhan, B.N. (2010) A note on the measurement of travel times using bender and extender elements. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 30(7), 630–634.
  33. Arroyo, M. and Greening, P.D. (2002) Phase and amplitude responses associated with the measurement of shear-wave velocity in sand by bender elements: Discussion. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 39(2), 483–484.
  34. Kumar, J. and Madhusudhan, B.N. (2010) On determining the elastic modulus of a cylindrical sample subjected to flexural excitation in a resonant column apparatus. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 47(11), 1288–1298.
  35. Chung, R.M., Yokel, F.Y. and Drnevich, V.P. (1984) Evaluation of Dynamic Properties of Sands by Resonant Column Testing. Geotechnical Testing Journal, 7(2), 60-69.
  36. Drnevich, V.P., Hardin, B.O. and Shippy, D.J. (1978) ‘Modulus and damping of soils by the resonant column method’. In Dynamic Geotechnical Testing, ASTM Spec. Tech. Publ., 654, 91 – 121.
  37. Moayerian, S. (2012) Effect of Loading Frequency on Dynamic Properties of Soils Using Resonant Column. Master's Thesis, University of Waterloo.
  38. Li, X.S., Yang, W.L., Shen, C.K. and Wang, W.C. (1998) Energy-Injecting Virtual Mass Resonant Column System. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 124(5), 428–438.
  39. Khan, Z., El Naggar, M.H. and Cascante, G. (2011) Frequency dependent dynamic properties from resonant column and cyclic triaxial tests. Journal of the Franklin Institute, 348(7), 1363–1376.
  40. Deschenes, M.R. (2015) Drive Plate Mass Polar Moment of Inertia in Stokeo Type Resonant Column Devices. PhD Diss. Undergraduate Honors Theses, University of Arkansas.
  41. Cabalar, A.F. (2010) Applications of the oedometer, triaxial and resonant column tests to the study of micaceous sands. Engineering Geology, 112(1-4), 21–28.
  42. Chong, Song-Hun, and Jin-Yeon Kim. (2017) Nonlinear vibration analysis of the resonant column test of granular materials. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 393, 216–228.
  43. Senetakis, Kostas, and Huan He. (2017) Dynamic characterization of a biogenic sand with a resonant column of fixed-partly fixed boundary conditions. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 95, 180–187.
  44. Madhusudhan, B.N. and Senetakis, K. (2016) Evaluating use of resonant column in flexural mode for dynamic characterization of Bangalore sand. Soils and Foundations, 56(3), 574–580.
  45. El Mohtar, C.S., Drnevich, V.P., Santagata, M. and Bobet, A. (2013) Combined resonant column and cyclic triaxial tests for measuring undrained shear modulus reduction of sand with plastic fines. Geotechnical Testing Journal, 36(4), 1–9.
  46. Cai, Y., Dong, Q., Wang, J., Gu, C. and Xu, C. (2015) Measurement of small strain shear modulus of clean and natural sands in saturated condition using bender element test. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 76, 100–110.
  47. Gu, X. (2012) Dynamic Properties of Granular Materials at the Macro and Micro Scales. Ph.D. Thesis, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
  48. Carlton, B.D. and Pestana, J.M. (2016) A unified model for estimating the in-situ small strain shear modulus of clays, silts, sands, and gravels. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 88, 345–355.
  49. Hardin, B.O. and Black, W.L. (1967) Sand stiffness under various triaxial stresses. J. Soil Mech. Found. Div., 92(2), 27–42.
  50. Toros, U., Hiltunen, D.R., Campos, L.A., Roque, R., McVay, M.C. and Birgisson, B. (2008) Characterization of Time-Dependent Changes in Strength and Stiffness of Florida Base Materials. Final Report for Contract BD545-44, Florida Department of Transportation, October, 224 pp.
  51. Maleki, M. and Bayat, M. (2012) Experimental evaluation of mechanical behavior of unsaturated silty sand under constant water content condition. Engineering Geology, 141, 45–56.
  52. Borhani, A. and Fakharian, K. (2016) Effect of particle shape on dilative behavior and stress path characteristics of chamkhaleh sand in undrained triaxial tests. International Journal of Civil Engineering, 14(4), 197–208.
  53. Ladd, R.S. (1978) Preparing Test Specimens Using Undercompaction. Geotechnical Testing Journal, 1(1), 16–23.
  54. ASTM D-4767. (2011) Standard Test Method for Consolidated Undrained Triaxial Compression Test for Cohesive Soils.
  55. ASTM D4254. (2006) Standard Test Methods for Minimum Index Density and Unit Weight of Soils and Calculation of Relative Density.
  56. ASTM D-4253 (2013) Standard Test Methods for Maximum Index Density and Unit Weight of Soils Using a Vibratory Table.
  57. Leong, E.C., Cheng, Z.Y. (2016) Effects of Confining Pressure and Degree of Saturation on Wave Velocities of Soils. International Journal of Geomechanics, ASCE 16(6):1–10.
  58. Lee, C.J. and Huang, H.Y. (2006) Wave velocities and their relation to fabric anisotropy during the shearing of sands. Geotechnical Engineering, 37(1):13–27.
  59. Gu, X., Yang, J. and Huang, M. (2013) Laboratory measurements of small strain properties of dry sands by bender element. Soils and Foundations, 53(5):735–745.
  60. Liu, X., Yang, J., Wang, G. and Chen, L., (2016) Small-strain shear modulus of volcanic granular soil: An experimental investigation. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 86, 15–24.
  61. Panuška J, Frankovska J (2016) Effect of a Void Ratio on the Small Strain Shear Modulus Gmax for Coarse - Grained Soils. Procedia Engineering, 161, 1235–1239.
  62. Zhou, W., Chen, Y., Ma, G., Yang, L. and Chang, X. (2017) A modified dynamic shear modulus model for rockfill materials under a wide range of shear strain amplitudes. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 92, 229–238.
  63. Jia, J. (2018) ‘Dynamic and Cyclic Properties of Soils’. In: Soil Dynamics and Foundation Modeling. Springer, Cham.
  64. Choo, H. and Burns, S.E. (2015) Shear wave velocity of granular mixtures of silica particles as a function of finer fraction, size ratios and void ratios. Granular Matter, 17(5), 567–578.
  65. Bayat, M. and Ghalandarzadeh, A. (2018) Stiffness Degradation and Damping Ratio of Sand-Gravel Mixtures under Saturated State. International Journal of Civil Engineering, 16(10), 1261–1277.

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 01 January 2019
  • Revise Date: 10 February 2021
  • Accept Date: 26 December 2020

Share

How to cite

Statistics