Dyn Soil Prop Imp

RIVAS
SCP0-GA-2010-265754
RIVAS
Railway Induced Vibration Abatement Solutions
Collaborative project
TEST PROCEDURES FOR THE DETERMINATION

OF THE DYNAMIC SOIL CHARACTERISTICS
Deliverable D1.1
Submission Date: 22/12/2011
Project coordinator:
Bernd Asmussen
International Union of Railways (UIC)
asmussen@uic.org
RIVAS_WP_13_D_11_V06
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Title
Domain
Date
Authors
Partners
Document Code
Version
Status
RIVAS WP 1.3 Deliverable 1.1

WP 1.3
22 December 2011
Jeroen Houbrechts, Mattias Schevenels, Geert Lombaert, Geert
Degrande, Werner Rcker, Vicente Cuellar, Alexander Smekal
K.U.Leuven, BAM, CEDEX, Trafikverket , ISVR, ADIF, D2S
rivas_wp_1_3_d1_1_v06
6
Final
Dissemination level:
Project co-funded by the European Commission within the seventh framework programme
Dissemination level
PU Public
PE Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)
RE Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services)
CO Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)
Document history
Revision Date
1
01/06/2011
2
14/07/2011
3
28/09/2011
4
12/10/2011
5
21/10/2011
6
22/12/2011
Description
rivas_wp_1_3_d1_1_v01.docx
rivas_wp_1_3_d1_1_v02.docx
rivas_wp_1_3_d1_1_v03.pdf
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Accurate prediction of railway induced vibration and assessment of the efficiency of vibration
mitigation measures within the RIVAS project requires detailed knowledge of the dynamic soil
characteristics.
Within the frame of the project, it is assumed that the soil can be modelled as a layered elastic
halfspace, where the material properties vary only in the vertical direction, and that small strain
behaviour prevails in the case of railway induced vibrations with relatively low amplitude. Within
each layer, linear elastic isotropic constitutive behaviour is assumed; anisotropic constitutive behaviour would better represent the formation process, but is not generally used in state-of-the-art
numerical models and geophysical prospection methods.
Apart from the layer thickness, five parameters need to be determined for each layer: the shear
and dilatational wave velocity, the material damping ratios in shear and dilatational deformation,
and the mass density. The depth upto which these parameters should be investigated depends
on the lowest frequency of interest and on the soil profile (stiffness).
After a brief description of wave propagation in elastic media and the dependence of the constitutive soil behaviour on the strain level, the report discusses classical laboratory and in situ tests,
which results can be used for soil characterization and a first estimate of dynamic soil characteristics based on empirical relations. Main emphasis is going to a detailed description of small
strain dynamic laboratory tests and seismic in situ tests that can be used to determine dynamic
soil characteristics.
The report concludes with a recommended course of action to determine dynamic soil characteristics within the frame of the RIVAS project, which is minimally based on a study of geological
maps and historical geotechnical investigations, a first estimate of dynamic soil characteristics
using empirical relations, soil characterization (e.g. mass density) using classical soil mechanics
tests and seismic in situ testing (a combination of surface wave and seismic refraction methods). If budget permits, it is further recommended to perform an intrusive in situ test (cross-hole,
up-hole, down-hole or SCPT) in order to enhance profiling depth and resolution, as well as to
perform dynamic laboratory tests on undisturbed samples to determine complementary dynamic
soil characteristics and to evaluate their strain dependency.
It is emphasized that, within RIVAS, estimations of dynamic soil characteristics based on empirical relations cannot replace their determination by means of in situ or laboratory tests. It is further
recommended that impact loads are also measured when performing seismic in situ tests, so that
the transfer functions of the soil are available and can be used for validation of the dynamic soil
characteristics derived from the test.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION
11
2 WAVE PROPAGATION IN ELASTIC MEDIA
13
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13
2.2 Elastodynamic equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13
2.3 Dilatational and shear waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15
2.4 The direct stiffness method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
2.5 Free vibration problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
2.5.1 Homogeneous halfspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
2.5.2 Layered halfspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18
2.6 Forced vibration problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20
2.6.1 Homogeneous halfspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20
2.6.2 Layered halfspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
23
2.7 Presence of ground water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
24
2.8 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25
3 CONSTITUTIVE BEHAVIOUR OF SOILS
27
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
27
3.2 Small and large strain behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
27
3.3 Modelling of the soil behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
28
3.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31
4 CLASSICAL SOIL MECHANICS TESTS ON (UN)DISTURBED SAMPLES
33
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
33
4.2 Index properties of soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
33
4.2.1 Water content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
33
4.2.2 Bulk and dry density (or unit weight) of an intact soil . . . . . . . . . . . .
34
4.2.3 Soil particles density, particles unit weight and specific gravity of soil solids
35
4.2.4 Void ratio, porosity and relative density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
35
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4.2.5 Grain size distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
36
4.2.6 Plasticity of soils, Atterberg limits, consistency and plasticity index . . . . .
37
4.2.7 Overconsolidation ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
38
4.3 Strength of soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
38
4.3.1 Unconfined compression test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
38
4.3.2 Unconsolidated undrained triaxial compression test . . . . . . . . . . . . .
39
4.3.3 Consolidated drained triaxial compression test
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
40
4.3.4 Consolidated undrained triaxial compression test . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
40
4.3.5 Direct shear box test
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
40
4.4 Compressibility and deformation of soils: oedometer testing . . . . . . . . . . . .
41
4.4.1 Consolidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
41
4.4.2 Swelling and swelling pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
42
4.5 Application in the scope of dynamic soil characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
42
5 CLASSICAL IN SITU TESTS
43
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
43
5.2 Cone penetration and piezocone penetration tests (CPT, CPTU) . . . . . . . . . .
43
5.3 Standard penetration test (SPT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
44
5.4 Comparison of CPT and SPT tests results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
44
5.5 Application in the scope of dynamic soil characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
45
6 DYNAMIC LABORATORY TESTS
47
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
47
6.2 Resonant column test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
47
6.2.1 Physical principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
47
6.2.2 Resonant column device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
48
6.2.3 Test procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
48
6.2.4 Results of resonant column tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
49
6.3 Bender element test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
51
6.3.1 Physical principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
51
6.3.2 Interpretation of the tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
52
6.3.3 Recommended procedure for BE test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
53
6.4 Cyclic simple shear test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
53
6.4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
53
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6.4.2 Apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
54
6.4.3 Test applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
56
6.4.4 Typical test results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
56
6.5 Cyclic triaxial test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
59
6.5.1 Introduction and applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
59
6.5.2 Laboratory equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
60
6.5.3 Test procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
62
7 SEISMIC IN SITU TESTS
63
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
63
7.2 General guidelines for seismic in situ methods
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
63
7.3 Seismic refraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
64
7.4 Down-hole testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
68
7.5 Up-hole testing
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
69
7.6 Cross-hole testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
70
7.7 Seismic cone penetration test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
72
7.8 Suspension PS logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
74
7.9 Spectral Analysis of Surface Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
77
7.10 Seismic tomography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
82
8 DYNAMIC SOIL CHARACTERISTICS FROM EMPIRICAL RELATIONS
87
8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
87
8.2 Dynamic properties from classical soil mechanical properties . . . . . . . . . . .
87
8.2.1 Small strain shear modulus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
87
8.2.2 Estimation of shear modulus degradation curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
91
8.2.3 Small strain phase velocities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
92
8.2.4 Small strain material damping
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
94
8.3 Small strain shear wave velocity from CPT and SPT results . . . . . . . . . . . .
96
9 RECOMMENDATION FOR RIVAS TEST PROCEDURE
99
9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
99
9.2 Recommended procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
99
REFERENCES
101
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1. INTRODUCTION
The aim of the RIVAS project is to reduce the environmental impact of railway induced vibrations
by providing a set of vibration mitigation measures. These measures may affect either the rolling
stock, the track, or the soil below or in the immediate vicinity of the track. Accurate prediction of
railway induced vibration and assessment of the efficiency of vibration mitigation measures requires detailed knowledge of the dynamic soil characteristics. The assessment of the influence of
the dynamic soil properties on the performance of mitigation measures is covered in WP1.3. This
deliverable D1.1 of the RIVAS project identifies the most influential dynamic soil characteristics,
as well as in situ and laboratory test procedures for their determination. Parametric studies on
the influence of dynamic soil characteristics on the performance of vibration mitigating measures
will be performed in WP3 and WP4, considering sites that are representative for different soil
conditions in Europe, as well as test sites that are selected for in situ testing within WP3 and
WP4.
Accurate prediction of railway induced vibration requires detailed knowledge of the dynamic soil
characteristics. The constitutive behaviour of soil under dynamic loading is complex. Soil is a
discontinuous material, where the pores of the solid skeleton can be partly saturated with water.
Laboratory tests show that the soil behaviour is anisotropic and nonlinear. For cohesionless dry
soils, the nonlinear soil behaviour can be neglected when the shear strain is smaller than 105 .
This is the case for free field vibrations in induced by railway traffic.
Soil is frequently modelled as a layered elastic halfspace, where the material properties vary only
in the vertical direction. The assumption of horizontal soil layers is motivated by the fact that the
formation of a soil layer is governed by phenomena affecting large areas of land, such as erosion,
sediment transport, and weathering processes [23]. Within each layer, linear elastic isotropic constitutive behaviour is usually assumed, whereas anisotropic constitutive behaviour would better
represent the formation process, but is not generally used in state-of-the-art numerical models.
This report focuses on laboratory and in situ test methods to determine the dynamic soil characteristics under small strain dynamic loading, as prevailing in the case of railway induced vibrations
with relatively low amplitude. Vibration investigations begin with studies of archive records like
geological maps and results of geotechnical investigations including all available drillings, samplings, laboratory and in situ testing. Although crucial, this task is straightforward and therefore
not covered in this report.
The report is subdivided in 9 sections. Section 2 provides a brief description of wave propagation
in elastic media, resulting in a set of parameters that are needed for the numerical modelling of
railway induced vibrations. Section 3 explains how the constitutive soil behaviour depends on the
strain level. The report subsequently focuses on classical laboratory test in section 4, classical in
situ tests in section 5, dynamic laboratory tests in section 6 and seismic in situ tests in section 7.
Section 8 provides empirical relations that can be used to obtain rough estimates of the dynamic
soil characteristics. Section 9 provides recommendations concerning specific methods to be used
within the frame of the RIVAS project.
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2. WAVE PROPAGATION IN ELASTIC MEDIA
2.1
Introduction
For the prediction of railway induced vibrations in the free field, relatively low strain levels in the
soil prevail, so that the constitutive behaviour can be represented by a linear elastic relation.
The soil is commonly modelled as a horizontally layered halfspace, where the material properties
only vary in the vertical direction. Each layer is assumed to be homogeneous (i.e. with material
characteristics that do not depend on position) and isotropic (i.e. with material properties that do
not depend on direction).
In this section, the elastodynamic equations in a homogeneous linear elastic isotropic medium,
including displacement-strain, constitutive and equilibrium equations are briefly recapitulated, as
to arrive at the Navier equations and the definition of longitudinal and shear waves. The direct
stiffness method is introduced as a very efficient methodology to study wave propagation problems in a horizontally layered halfspace, with a wide range of applications ranging from the study
of surface waves, forced vibrations and the amplification of seismic waves. The direct stiffness
method is subsequently employed to study surface waves and forced vibrations in a homogeneous and a layered halfspace, employing two sites that have been defined as reference sites
within WP4 of RIVAS. Practical guidelines are given on how to model with very good accuracy
wave propagation in saturated porous media media at low excitation frequencies by using an
equivalent dry medium representing the frozen mixture. The section ends with a summary of
dynamic soil characteristics that have to be determined in each layer, as well as an indication of
the required depth and resolution of the soil profile to be determined.
2.2
Elastodynamic equations
In a Cartesian frame of reference, the components of the displacement vector at a position x and
at time t are denoted as ui (x, t). The components ij (x, t) of the small strain tensor are related
to the displacements by the following linearized strain-displacement relations:
1
ij = (ui,j + uj,i)
2
(1)
Herein, ui,j denotes the derivative of ui with respect to the j -th spatial coordinate.
The dynamic equilibrium of the elastic medium is expressed as:
ji,j + bi =
ui
(2)
where bi are the body forces and is the density. A dot above a variable denotes differentiation
with respect to time.
For an isotropic linear elastic material, the constitutive relation relating the Cauchy stress tensor
ij to the small strain tensor ij , reads as:
ij = kk ij + 2ij
(3)
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where kk is the volumetric strain, ij is the Kronecker delta and and are the Lam constants.
These constants are related to the Youngs modulus E and the Poissons ratio as follows:
E
(1 + )(1 2)
E
=
2(1 + )
=
(4)
(5)
When performing calculations in the frequency domain, frequency independent hysteretic material damping in the soil can be modelled by means of the correspondence principle [69, 74],
introducing energy dissipation by means of complex Lam coefficients:
( + 2) = ( + 2)(1 + 2p i)
= (1 + 2s i)
(6)
(7)
where p and s represent the frequency independent hysteretic material damping ratio for the
dilatational waves and the shear waves, respectively. This will be further elaborated in section 3.
A linear elastodynamic problem on a domain with a boundary is defined by the linearized
strain-displacement relations (1), the equilibrium equations (2) and the constitutive equations (3).
These equations are complemented with initial and boundary conditions to define the elastodynamic problem.
Naviers equations result from the introduction of the constitutive equations (3) and the straindisplacement relations (1) in the equilibrium equations (2):
( + )uj,ij + ui,jj + bi =
ui
(8)
which represent equilibrium equations in terms of displacements only, and also need to be complemented by initial and boundary conditions. It can be proven that equation (8) can alternatively
been written in vector notation as:
( + 2) u u + b =
u
(9)
where the operator is defined as {/x, /y, /z}T , and u, u, and u denote the
gradient, the divergence, and the curl of u.
In the following, body forces are not accounted for and the homogeneous Navier equation is
used:
( + 2) u u =
u
(10)
In classical elastodynamics [3], it is customary to explain the physical meaning of the Navier
equation by a Helmholtz decomposition of the displacement vector into two parts: the first component is the gradient of a scalar function , while the second component is the curl of a vector
function :
u = +
(11)
As the three displacement components are written in terms of four scalar potential functions ,
x , y , and z , an additional relation must hold. According to Achenbach [4], the vector
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satisfies = 0. Using the Helmholtz decomposition (11), the homogeneous Navier equation
(10) is transformed in the following set of uncoupled partial differential equations:
( + 2)2 =
2 =
(12)
(13)
defining the propagation of dilatational and shear waves, respectively.
2.3
Dilatational and shear waves
Equation (12) describes the propagation of the dilatational (or: longitudinal, irrotational, primary,
P-) wave in terms of the scalar potential . In the dilational wave, the particles move parallel to
the wave propagation direction (figure 1a). Equation (12) can alternatively be written as:
Cp2
2 =
(14)
with
Cp =
+ 2
=
(15)
the dilatational wave velocity and M = + 2 the constrained modulus.
(b)
(a)
Figure 1: (a) Dilatational and (b) shear wave.

Equation (13) describes the propagation of the shear (or: transverse, equivoluminal, rotational,
secondary, S) wave in terms of the vector potential . In the shear wave, the particles move
perpendicular to the wave propagation direction (figure 1b). Equation (13) can alternatively be
written as:
2 =
Cs2
(16)
with
Cs =
(17)
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the shear wave velocity.

The ratio s of the body wave velocities Cs and Cp only depends on Poissons ratio :
Cs
=
s=
Cp
1 2
2 2
(18)
The ratio 1/s of the dilatational wave velocity to the shear wave velocity is plotted in figure 2 as a
function of Poissons ratio.
5
Velocity ratio []
0
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
Poisson ratio []
0.4
0.5
Figure 2: Variation of the longitudinal wave velocity (dashed line) and Rayleigh wave velocity in
a halfspace (dashed-dotted line) as a function of Poissons ratio, normalized to the shear wave
velocity (solid line).
The use of complex Lam coefficients according to the correspondence principle, leads to complex phase velocities Cp and Cs and complex wavenumbers kp = /Cp and ks = /Cs , where
is the circular frequency. The imaginary part of the wavenumbers corresponds to wave attenuation due to hysteretic material damping. This will be further elaborated in section 3.3.
According to equations (12) and (13), the dilatational motion uncouples from the rotational part of
the disturbance. The uncoupling of dilatational and shear waves only occurs in a homogeneous
medium when the influence of body forces is neglected. In a layered medium, coupling occurs at
the interfaces between layers.
2.4
The direct stiffness method
While analytical solutions have been derived [40] for some problems involving wave propagation
in a homogeneous halfspace, such solutions do not exist for layered media. Numerical tools such
as the direct stiffness method [40, 41] are therefore used. The direct stiffness method is based on
the transfer matrix approach, initially proposed by Thomson [91] and Haskell [30], and recast into
a stiffness matrix formulation by Kausel and Rosset [41]. The method has also been referred to
as a spectral element formulation by Doyle [18, 19, 20] and Rizzi and Doyle [72, 73].
The direct stiffness method is based on a transformation from the time-space domain to the
frequency-wavenumber domain. In the frequency-wavenumber domain, exact solutions can be
obtained for the Navier equations governing wave propagation in a homogeneous layer or a
homogeneous halfspace. These solutions are used to formulate element stiffness matrices for
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homogeneous layer and halfspace elements. Element stiffness matrices express the relation
between the displacements and tractions on the boundaries of an element. The stiffness matrix
of a layered soil is obtained from the assembly of element stiffness matrices. The direct stiffness
method can be regarded as a special form of the finite element method, using exact solutions as
shape functions. Due to the use of these specific shape functions, wave propagation is treated
exactly and there is no need to subdivide homogeneous layers into multiple layer elements.
As an alternative to the direct stiffness method, the thin layer method can be used [41]. The
thin layer method is based on the use of polynomial shape functions to represent the vertical
variation of displacements and tractions. Compared to the direct stiffness method, the thin layer
method leads to mathematically more tractable stiffness matrices involving only polynomial functions instead of transcendental functions. Due to its approximative nature, the thin layer method
requires a small thickness of the layer elements compared to the smallest relevant wavelength.
Furthermore, the method is only applicable to a layered soil supported by a rigid stratum. A hybrid
formulation, where thin layer elements are coupled to a halfspace element, offers a solution, but
again leads to transcendental functions in the stiffness matrix.
The direct stiffness method and the thin layer method can be used to solve a wide variety of
problems, including amplification of waves in layered media, the computation of dispersive wave
modes in layered media, and the computation of the forced response of layered media due to
harmonic or transient loading. Both the direct stiffness method and the thin layer method have
been implemented in the ElastoDynamics Toolbox (EDT) in Matlab [78].
2.5
Free vibration problems
Surfaces waves or Rayleigh waves are the natural modes of vibration of a (homogeneous or
layered) halfspace. While the eigenmodes of a finite structure occur only at certain frequencies,
surface waves in a semi-infinite medium occur at all frequencies at specific wavenumbers or
phase velocities. These phase velocities and the corresponding mode shapes are found as the
solutions of an eigenvalue problem involving the stiffness matrix of the homogeneous or layered
halfspace. The eigenvalue problem is transcendental, has an infinite number of solutions, and
must be solved by search techniques.
2.5.1 Homogeneous halfspace
For a homogeneous halfspace with zero material damping, the characteristic equation reduces
to the classical cubic equation that was first formulated by Rayleigh [68]. In this case, a single
non-dispersive Rayleigh wave exists with a phase velocity CR approximately equal to [3]:
CR
0.862 + 1.14
Cs
1+
(19)
Figure 2 also shows the ratio CR /Cs of the Rayleigh wave velocity in a homogeneous halfspace
and the shear wave velocity as a function of Poissons ratio. It can be seen that the Rayleigh wave
velocity is very close to the shear wave velocity for a realistic range of Poissons ratios. As inferred
from the cubic characteristic equation and the approximation in equation (19), the Rayleigh wave
velocity in a homogeneous halfspace does not depend on the frequency; Rayleigh waves in a
homogeneous halfspace therefore are non-dispersive.
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Layer
h
[m]
Cs
[m/s]
Cp
[m/s]
[-]
[-]
[kg/m3 ]
250
1470
0.025
0.025
1945
Table 1: Dynamic soil characteristics at the site in Horstwalde.
12
15
(a)
12
1
0
1
Displacement []
15
(b)
Depth [m]
Depth [m]
Depth [m]
Depth [m]
The soil profile of the reference site in Horstwalde (Germany) as proposed in WP4 of RIVAS, is
used to illustrate the free vibration properties of a homogeneous halfspace. Table 1 summarizes
the dynamic soil characteristics at this site. The high value for Cp reflects the saturation of the
soil. The dispersion curve (figure 5a) shows that for a homogeneous halfspace, the Rayleigh
wave velocity does not depend on the frequency. Figures 3 and 4 show the real and imaginary
part of the horizontal and vertical component of the Rayleigh wave mode in the homogeneous
halfspace at frequencies of 20, 40, 60 and 80 Hz. These figures show that the vertical and
horizontal components are 90 out of phase, indicating that particles move on elliptical paths.
The depth upto which the waves have significant motion depends on the frequency and is about
one Rayleigh wavelength R = CR /f , with f the frequency in Hz.
12
1
0
1
Displacement []
15
(c)
12
1
0
1
Displacement []
15
(d)
1
0
1
Displacement []
Figure 3: Real (solid line) and imaginary (dashed-dotted line) part of the horizontal component of
the Rayleigh wave mode for the site in Horstwalde at a frequency of (a) 20 Hz, (b) 40 Hz, (c) 60
Hz and (d) 80 Hz.
2.5.2 Layered halfspace

In a layered halfspace, multiple dispersive Rayleigh modes occur. As an example, the phase
velocity and mode shape of the Rayleigh waves at the reference site in Lincent (Belgium), as
proposed in WP4 of RIVAS, are calculated. The dynamic soil characteristics at this site are
summarized in table 2. As the influence of material damping on the phase velocity is negligible,
material damping is not accounted for.
Figure 5b shows the dispersion curves of the layered site in Lincent. Two major differences with
the dispersion curve of a homogeneous halfspace can be observed. Firstly, in a layered soil,
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12
15
(a)
12
15
1
0
1
Displacement []
(b)
Depth [m]
Depth [m]
Depth [m]
Depth [m]
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12
1
0
1
Displacement []
15
(c)
12
1
0
1
Displacement []
15
(d)
1
0
1
Displacement []
Figure 4: Real (solid line) and imaginary (dashed-dotted line) part of the vertical component of
the Rayleigh wave mode for the site in Horstwalde at a frequency of (a) 20 Hz, (b) 40 Hz, (c) 60
Hz and (d) 80 Hz.
Layer
1
2
3
h
[m]
Cs
[m/s]
Cp
[m/s]
[-]
[-]
[kg/m3 ]
1.4
2.7
128
176
355
286
286
1667
0.044
0.038
0.037
0.044
0.038
0.037
1800
1800
1800
Table 2: Dynamic soil characteristics at the site in Lincent.

multiple solutions of the eigenvalue problem exist, corresponding to multiple Rayleigh waves.
Secondly, the surface waves are dispersive due to the variation of the dynamic soil characteristics
with depth. A first dispersive Rayleigh mode appears at zero frequency with a phase velocity that
varies between the Rayleigh wave velocity of the underlying halfspace and the Rayleigh wave
velocity of the top layer. At low frequencies, the Rayleigh waves reach very deep and their phase
velocity equals the Rayleigh wave velocity of the halfspace. At high frequencies, the motion is
concentrated near the surface and dominated by the properties of the top layer. Higher order
surface waves appear at higher (cut-on) frequencies with a phase velocity that varies between
the shear wave velocity of the underlying halfspace and the top layer. At this site, for example, a
single Rayleigh wave exists at 10 Hz, while 6 Rayleigh modes appear at 80 Hz. [!htb]
Figures 6 and 7 show the real and imaginary part of the horizontal and vertical components of
the mode shape of the fundamental Rayleigh wave at frequencies of 20, 40, 60 and 80 Hz. It
can be noticed that, at high frequencies, the wave travels only through the top layers. It can also
be observed that soft top layers reduce the total depth of a Rayleigh wave for a given frequency.
At a frequency of 20 Hz, for example, the motion in the layered soil is concentrated between the
surface and a depth of 4 m while for the halfspace this limit would be closer to 20 m.
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400
400
300
300
Phase velocity [m/s]
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200
100
200
100
20
(a)
40
60
Frequency [Hz]
80
100
20
(b)
40
60
Frequency [Hz]
80
100
12
15
(a)
12
1
0
1
Displacement []
15
(b)
Depth [m]
Depth [m]
Depth [m]
Depth [m]
Figure 5: Phase velocity of the Rayleigh waves at (a) the homogeneous site in Horstwalde and
(b) the layered site in Lincent.
12
1
0
1
Displacement []
15
(c)
12
1
0
1
Displacement []
15
(d)
1
0
1
Displacement []
Figure 6: Real (solid line) and imaginary (dashed-dotted line) part of the horizontal component of
the Rayleigh wave mode for the site in Lincent at a frequency of (a) 20 Hz, (b) 40 Hz, (c) 60 Hz
and (d) 80 Hz.
2.6
Forced vibration problems
While the propagation of shear and dilatational waves in a homogeneous full space is uncoupled,
interaction between both types of waves occurs at the surface of a halfspace and at the interfaces
between layers. This interaction leads to the emergence of Rayleigh waves that travel along the
surface of a halfspace. This subsection deals with the transient response of a soil medium.
2.6.1 Homogeneous halfspace

The response of a homogeneous halfspace due to a harmonic load is best illustrated by means
of transfer functions. Figure 8 shows the transfer functions between a surface point load and
the vertical displacement at the surface, and this for soils without and with material damping.
These transfer functions are computed for the soil profile from the site in Horstwalde, of which the
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12
12
15
1
0
1
Displacement []
(a)
15
(b)
Depth [m]
Depth [m]
Depth [m]
Depth [m]
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12
1
0
1
Displacement []
15
(c)
12
1
0
1
Displacement []
15
(d)
1
0
1
Displacement []
Figure 7: Real (solid line) and imaginary (dashed-dotted line) part of the vertical component of
the Rayleigh wave mode for the site in Lincent at a frequency of (a) 20 Hz, (b) 40 Hz, (c) 60 Hz
and (d) 80 Hz.
Dimensionless displacement [ ]
Dimensionless displacement [ ]
properties are given in table 1. The material damping ratio (for both shear and dilatational waves)
is equal to 0.025 in the case with damping. The resulting vertical displacement u
G
zz at the soils
surface is computed up to a frequency of 100 Hz and a distance of 50 m (figure 8). The results are
made dimensionless in such a way that they only depend on the Poissons ratio and the material
G = rC 2 uG and expressed as
damping ratio: the dimensionless displacement is defined as u
zz
s zz
a function of a dimensionless frequency defined as
= r/Cs, where r is the source-receiver
distance.
0.5
0.5
20
40
60
80
100
Dimensionless frequency []
(a)
0.5
0.5
120
20
40
60
80
100
Dimensionless frequency [ ]
120
(b)
Figure 8: Real (solid line) and imaginary (dashed line) part of the vertical displacement at the
surface of the site in Horstwalde (a) without and (b) with material damping due to a vertical
harmonic point load at the surface.
Since the amplitude of Rayleigh waves decreases exponentially with depth, they only dominate
the response close to the surface. The dominance of Rayleigh waves in the response at the
surface is observed in figure 8. In the case without material damping, the amplitude of the dimenG increases proportionally to r 0.5 (or that the actual displacement uG
sionless displacement u
zz
zz
decays proportionally to r 0.5 ). In the case with material damping, the response is considerably
lower, especially at high dimensionless frequencies (i.e. at large distances and high frequencies).
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The transient response of a homogeneous halfspace due to an impulsive load is illustrated in

figure 9, which shows the norm of the soil displacement vectors due to an impulsive point load
on the surface at x = 0. The dilatational wave has very small displacements due to the low
compressibility of the material and is therefore not distinguishable on this figure. The shear wave
is clearly visible and travels in directions around 45 . Near the surface, the Rayleigh wave clearly
dominates the response. It can be observed that the Rayleigh wave velocity is slightly less than
the shear wave velocity.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Figure 9: Transient response to an impulsive vertical point load at the surface for the site in
Horstwalde at (a) 0.02 s, (b) 0.04 s, (c) 0.06 s and (d) 0.08 s.
The dominance of Rayleigh waves at large distances can be explained by considering damping
mechanisms. As waves propagate through the medium, their amplitude decreases. This attenuation is due to material and geometrical damping. Geometrical or radiation damping is caused
by the expansion of the wavefronts, resulting in the spreading of energy over an increasing area.
Both types of damping are observed in the equation for plane harmonic waves due to a point
source:
u (r, ) = Ar
exp
r
2

r
exp i t
C
(20)
in which r n represents the geometrical attenuation of waves in a homogeneous halfspace, with

r the distance traveled and n = 0.5 for Rayleigh waves, n = 1 for body waves at depth, and n = 2
for body waves along the surface [70]. Due to the relatively weak geometrical damping of surface
waves, they dominate the wave field at the soils surface in the far field. The factor exp (2r/)
represents the attenuation due to material damping. The relative importance of material and
geometric damping is illustrated in table 3, which compares the amplitude of a Rayleigh wave at
the site in Horstwalde if only material damping is accounted for, with the amplitude of the same
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wave if only geometric damping is accounted for. These amplitudes are valid for a Rayleigh wave
with unit amplitude at r = 1 m. It is inferred that the effect of material damping increases with
frequency and distance, while the effect of geometrical damping only increases with distance.
4m
Geometrical Material
10 Hz
50 Hz
100 Hz
0.500
0.500
0.500
0.981
0.910
0.828
16 m
0.250
0.250
0.250
0.910
0.624
0.390
64 m
0.125
0.125
0.125
0.673
0.138
0.019
Table 3: Amplitude of a Rayleigh wave at the site in Horstwalde at different frequencies and
distances from the point source, if the effect of geometric or material damping is considered
separately. These values are valid for a wave with unit amplitude at 1 m from the source.
2.6.2 Layered halfspace

The transient response of a layered soil due to an impulsive load is illustrated in figure 10, which
shows the norm of the soil displacement vectors due to an impulsive point load on the surface at
x = 0, for the Lincent site. Figure 10a clearly shows the dilatational and shear wave. A reflected
dilatational wave at the second interface and a head wave between the dilatational and shear
wave are also visible. The figure also shows a transmitted dilatational wave in the halfspace,
which travels with a higher velocity than in the top layers.
Figure 10 clearly shows that the motion is concentrated in the soft top layers. This figure also
shows the dominance of dispersive Rayleigh waves in the surface response.
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(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Figure 10: Transient response to an impulsive vertical point load at the surface for the site in
Lincent at (a) 0.02 s, (b) 0.04 s, (c) 0.06 s and (d) 0.08 s.
2.7
Presence of ground water
In the presence of ground water, the pores between the solid skeleton may be completely saturated with water. Wave propagation in saturated (isotropic) poroelastic media can be described
by Biots poroelastic equations [11, 12]. Biots theory demonstrates the existence of two dilatational waves and a single shear wave in saturated porous media, which are dispersive and involve
coupled motion of the pore fluid and the solid skeleton. The behaviour of a saturated poroelastic medium strongly depends on the excitation frequency, where the transition between low and
high frequency behaviour is defined by means of a characteristic frequency that is inversely
proportional to the permeability of the soil.
In the low frequency range, a saturated poroelastic medium behaves as a frozen mixture without relative motion between the solid skeleton and the pore fluid; there is a single dilatational
wave propagating at a velocity Cp0 and a shear wave propagating at a velocity Cs0 . In the high
frequency range, there are two propagating dilatational waves (P1 and P2) with velocities Cp1
and Cp2 , with in-phase motion between the solid skeleton and the pore fluid in the P1-wave and
out-of-phase motion in the P2-wave; there is also a shear wave propagating at a velocity Cs [77].
At intermediate frequencies, the wave velocities depend on the frequency, varying from Cp0 to
Cp1 for the P1-wave, from 0 to Cp2 for the P2-wave and from Cs0 to Cs for the S-wave.
For typical soils, the characteristic frequency is in the order of several kHz, which is much higher
than the frequency range of interest (upto 250 Hz) for railway induced vibrations. Therefore,
the behaviour of a saturated poroelastic medium can be represented by a frozen mixture and
modelled as a mono-phasic or equivalent dry elastic medium, provided that the density and the
incompressibility of the saturated soil layers are accounted for [77]. This is accomplished by using
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equivalent Lam coefficients eq and eq that are defined as follows:
eq =
(21)
eq = +
Kf
n
(22)
with Kf the bulk modulus of the pore fluid and n the porosity, as well as the mixture density
mixture density eq :
eq = nf + (1 n) s
(23)
with f the density of the pore fluid and s the density of the solid grains. This finally results in the
following shear wave velocity and dilatational wave velocity of the frozen mixture:
nf + (1 n) s
s
s
+ 2 + Knf
eq + 2eq
=
=
eq
nf + (1 n) s
Cs0 =
Cp0
eq
=
eq
The value of Cp0 is close to the longitudinal wave velocity Cf =
2.8
(24)
(25)
p
Kf /f in water.
Conclusion
Assuming that the soil can be modelled as a horizontally layered halfspace and that the constitutive behaviour in each layer can be represented by a linear elastic isotropic law, apart from its
thickness, five parameters should be defined for each layer: the Lam coefficients and , the
hysteretic material damping ratios s and p in shear and dilatational deformation, and the soil
density . Equivalent information is also contained if, in stead of the Lam coefficients, the shear
wave velocity Cs and the dilatational wave velocity Cp , or any other independent set of two elastic
constants (e.g. Youngs modulus E and Poissons ratio , or the constrained modulus M and
Poissons ratio ) are defined. Since both in situ tests as laboratory tests usually measure the
velocities directly, it is preferred to certainly report this set of parameters.
The dynamic soil characteristics need to be determined upto a depth that depends on the frequency range of interest and the stiffness of the soil. It is generally recommended that the
dynamic soil characteristics are certainly determined upto a depth of 20 m, and if possible upto
30 m (which also corresponds to the minimum depth of investigation as defined in EC8 for the
seismic analysis of buildings). When low frequencies are of interest, or in the case of stiff soils,
investigation upto larger depths might be necessary. The minimum spatial resolution should correspond with physical interfaces between soil layers. As the stiffness in the soil usually increases
with depth (also in soil layers that look homogeneous), a finer resolution down to 1 m is preferred
(but can only be obtained with intrusive geophysical tests, as will be explained in section 7).
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3. CONSTITUTIVE BEHAVIOUR OF SOILS
3.1
Introduction
Soil behaviour is very complex to model accurately. Most soils consist of nonlinear, elasto-plastic,
anisotropic materials, which slide or crack at large deformations. The behaviour depends on the
rate of deformations, historic loadings, initial stresses, etc.
Section 3.2 discusses the parameters that describe small strain soil behaviour and the effect of
larger strains on these parameters. Subsection 3.3 deals with the modelling of the constitutive
soil behaviour.
3.2
Small and large strain behaviour
Figure 11 shows a typical stress-strain path for a soil under cyclic loading. Hysteresis loops are
observed: the stress-strain path followed in the unloading phase differs from the original loading
path. This hysteresis effect represents the dissipation of energy in the soil. Energy is dissipated
through several mechanisms, such as friction between solid particles in the skeleton and relative
motion between the skeleton and the pore fluid.
Figure 11: Typical stress-strain path for a soil under cyclic loading.
In small strain regime, the stress-strain relation for soils is approximately linear. The small strain
shear modulus 0 is represented in figure 11 by the slope of the tangent to the stress-strain
curve at a zero strain. It can be seen on this figure that, at small strain levels, the material
indeed behaves linearly as the stress-strain curve closely follows the tangent at zero strain. As a
consequence, almost no hysteresis effect is present at these strain levels.
At strain levels around 105 , soils typically exhibit a softening nonlinearity, or a decrease in modulus as strain increases. This degradation can be seen in figure 11 as the decrease of the secant
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modulus with increasing strain. This shear modulus degradation also causes progressively larger
hysteresis in the stress-strain relation, leading to strain dependent material damping. The shear
modulus and damping ratio at larger strains are denoted by and , respectively.
Various authors have investigated the variation of the shear modulus and the material damping
ratio of soil with the strain level under cyclic loading. Seed et al. [81] have presented the modulus
reduction and material damping curves for sandy soils shown in figure 12. The modulus reduction
curve, shown in figure 12a, represents the ratio /0 of the (equivalent) shear modulus and the
small-strain shear modulus 0 as a function of the shear strain . The material damping curve,
shown in figure 12b, represents the material damping ratio as a function of the shear strain .
It is observed that the material damping ratio does not converge to zero for small strain levels,
but that a small strain material damping ratio 0 remains. This small strain material damping is
caused by differential motion between adjacent soil particles.
0.25
Damping ratio [ ]
Ratio /0 [ ]
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
6
10
(a)
10
10
10
Shear strain [ ]
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
6
10
10
(b)
10
10
10
Shear strain [ ]
10
Figure 12: (a) Modulus reduction and (b) material damping curves for sandy soils.
It can also be inferred from figure 11 that the stress-strain curve becomes horizontal at very large
strains. This behaviour ultimately leads to failure.
Figure 13 gives the typical strain levels at which the soil behaviour changes. It shows that below strains of 105 , soils behave elastically. Above this strain level, soils typically start showing
nonlinear elastic behaviour. At these strain levels no residual strains are recorded upon release
of stresses. At strains around 104 , soils typically start behaving plastic. Strain repetition starts
having an effect at strains over 103 and failures are only recorded at strains over 102 .
Train induced vibrations typically cause strains below 104 , except in the ballast, subballast and
embankment of the track. It can therefore be concluded that plastic effects, strain repetition
effects and failure are not relevant in the calculation of the surface response at larger distances.
Train induced vibrations can therefore be modelled with the small strain parameters.
3.3
Modelling of the soil behaviour
The effect of energy dissipation is represented by a material damping model. In structural mechanics, a viscous damping model is frequently used. The effect of viscous damping can be
explained by means of a Kelvin-Voigt model, which considers a damped sprung mass system. If
a harmonic excitation and response are considered, the Kelvin-Voigt model leads to the following
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Figure 13: Soil behaviour at different strain levels [37].

frequency domain representation:
= ( + i ) ,
(26)
in which and
represent the complex shear stress and strain, respectively. It can be noted
that both the modulus and phase of the shear modulus depend on the excitation frequency. The
corresponding hysteresis loop is shown in figure 14. The phase difference between strain and
stress determines the width of the loop and hence the energy dissipation. A maximum amount
of energy is dissipated when the phase difference is /2. According to equation (26), the phase
difference approaches /2 for high frequencies.
The energy dissipated per unit volume of material during one cycle is equal to:
W () =
Re ( ) Re ()
dt = 2
(27)
The maximum strain energy stored per unit volume of material is:
1 2
W =
2
(28)
The energy dissipated by the system per cycle is proportional to the frequency. Viscous damping
is consequently rate dependent: the energy dissipation, the damping ratio and specific damping
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Figure 14: Hysteresis loop as calculated with the Kelvin-Voigt model.

capacity increase with the frequency:
1 W
=
4 W
2
s () = 2 () =
() =
(29)
(30)
In earthquake engineering, material damping is usually assumed to be rate independent in the

low frequency range. Rate independent material damping is sometimes referred to as hysteretic
material damping [39, 47, 48], although viscous damping also involves a hysteresis effect. A
simple modification to the Kelvin-Voigt model leads to rate independent damping. The desired
model has a complex shear modulus, which is independent of the excitation frequency. Considering equation (26), this can be achieved by introducing a damping constant that is inversely
proportional to the driving frequency:
(31)
Inserting Eq.(31) in Eq.(26) leads to the correspondence principle:
= (1 + is ) = (1 + 2is )
(32)
The same strategy can be adopted for the behaviour of the soil under longitudinal deformations:
( + 2) = ( + 2) (1 + 2ip )
(33)
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3.4
Conclusion
In subsection 3.2 it was explained that the small strain soil behaviour can be modelled by two constants, the shear modulus and the damping ratio. For the strain levels that are reached for train
induced vibrations, these small strain characteristics are sufficient to model the soil behaviour. In
subsection 3.3 it was explained that the soil is typically modelled with a Kelvin-Voigt model, which
is adapted with the correspondence principle to result in rate independent behaviour.
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4. CLASSICAL SOIL MECHANICS TESTS ON (UN)DISTURBED

SAMPLES
4.1
Introduction
Historical data about soil properties at a certain site typically concern classical soil mechanical properties. Since such properties can be used to estimate dynamic soil characteristics, this
section provides an overview of the classical soil mechanical properties and corresponding measurement techniques. Moreover, classical soil mechanical tests are necessary to estimate the
mass density of the soil.
The section starts in subsection 4.2 with an overview of index properties of soils and corresponding laboratory tests. Subsection 4.3 then discusses the estimation of the soil strength and
subsection 4.4 discusses the estimation of the soil compressibility.
In section 8, it is discussed how to use these soil mechanical properties to estimate the small
strain dynamic properties.
4.2
Index properties of soils
4.2.1 Water content

The water content is an index parameter that relates the amount of water present in a quantity of
soil to its dry weight. Water content or moisture content w is therefore defined as the ratio of the
weight Ww of pore or free water in a given mass of soil material to the weight Ws of the dry solid
soil particles, and can be written as follows:
w=
Ww
Ws
(34)
According to CEN ISO /TS 17892-1:2004, a soil is considered dry when no further water can
be removed at a temperature within the interval of 105 5 C. Water content is determined by
drying the soil specimen in an oven at that temperature (or similar, depending on the standard:
110 5 C, in ASTM D2216) to a constant weight, that means, as long as water is present to
evaporate.
Table 4 gives recommended minimum soil sample weights that are required to provide reasonably
reliable water content determinations.
For highly organic soils, soils containing appreciable amounts of gypsum or other minerals, certain clays, and some tropical soils, an oven temperature of 105C is too high, as it may lead to
changes in the soil characteristics. In these cases, a temperature of 50 C to 60 C is recommended.
According to EN 1997-2, the extent to which the water content measured in the laboratory on the
soil as received is representative of the in situ value should be checked to take into account
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Maximum size of soil particles

(95-100% passes the given
sieve)
Recommended minimum
sample weight
[g]
Balance sensitivity
[g]
N .40 (0.420 mm)

N 4 (4.75 mm)
12.5 mm
50 mm
10 to 200
300 to 500
300 to 1000
1500 to 3000
0.01
0.1
0.1
1.0
Table 4: Recommended minimum wet soil sample weights [14].

the effects of the sampling method, transport and handling, specimen preparation method and
laboratory environment.
4.2.2 Bulk and dry density (or unit weight) of an intact soil
Bulk density is defined as the mass of soil, including the water within the voids of the soil skeleton,
per unit volume. Thus, bulk weight or unit weight is the mass density multiplied by gravity and
most of the times refers to the in situ unit weight. Bulk unit weight can be expressed as follows:
Ws + Ww
= g
V
(35)
in which V is the total volume. For completely saturated soils, the bulk mass density equals:
= (1 n) s + nw
(36)
in which w is the mass density of water, s is the mass density of the soil particles and n is the
porosity. The latter two are discussed in subsection 4.2.3.
Dry unit density is defined as the mass of soil particles solely, leaving out the water within the
voids, per unit volume. The dry unit weight d is the mass density multiplied by gravity, and can
be defined as:
d =
Ws
V
(37)
Dry unit weight of soils relates to the degree of packing of the particles; thus, it plays an important
role in compaction control and is the proper density parameter to correlate to many other parameters, such as friction angle and compressibility. Bulk unit weight is useful in the assessment of
the in situ overburden stresses at a certain depth of an unsaturated soil profile, due the absence
of buoyancy effect of the hydrostatic water pressure.
CEN ISO/TS 17892-2 standard describes three procedures to determine the bulk unit weight of
a soil: on one hand, the linear measurement method, consisting of direct measurements of the
external shape of a specimen (prisms or cylinders); and on the other, the immersion in water and
the fluid displacement methods. The former consists of the determination of the bulk density and
dry density of a specimen by measuring its mass in air and its apparent mass when submerged in
water. The latter consists of the determination of the bulk density and dry density of a specimen
of soil by measuring mass and displacement of water or other appropriate fluid after immersion.
These two methods are suitable for rock specimens, when lumps of material are available.
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4.2.3 Soil particles density, particles unit weight and specific gravity of soil solids
The soil particles density and the particles unit weight s refer to the average density and unit
weight of the mineral constituents of the soil particles themselves. These parameters are properties of the constituent minerals and therefore do not depend on packing of the soil skeleton. It
can be expressed as:
Ws
Vs
s =
(38)
The specific gravity of the soil particles Gs , also known as relative density, is a dimensionless
parameter defined as the ratio of the density of the soil particles to the density of water at a
temperature of 4 C under atmospheric pressure conditions (101.3 kPa). The definition can be
likewise expressed in terms of the ratio of unit weights instead, as follows:
Gs =
s
w
(39)
Specific gravity is not useful as a criterion for soil classification because the variation is rather
small for most common minerals, such as clay minerals, quartzitic, feldspar or calcareous minerals, ranging between 2.60 and 2.80. However, care must be taken when working on gypsiferous
rock masses (gypsum mineral has a specific gravity roughly of 2.3) or on mine engineering, where
rare minerals are present.
The most common method to experimentally determine the specific gravity, known as the pycnometer test, is described in CEN ISO/TS 17892-3:2004 standard. It basically consists of the
determination of the volume of a known mass of soil by the fluid displacement method, using a
pycnometer which is provided with a glass stopper and a capillary rising tube.
4.2.4 Void ratio, porosity and relative density
The void ratio e is defined as the volume of voids Vv within the soil skeleton to the volume of soil
particles Vs , not the volume of the soil skeleton as a whole, and can be written as:
e=
Vv
Vs
(40)
Quite more commonly in applications involving stiffer porous media than soils, such as rock cores,
the measurement of the ratio of voids is determined by the porosity n, and is defined as the ratio
of volume of voids to the bulk volume of the soil, i.e., the external volume of the soil skeleton as
a whole V . Commonly, porosity can be found as a percent rather than a ratio:
n=
Vv
V
(41)
Using equation (40), a relation between the void ratio and the porosity can be found:
n=
e
1+e
(42)
Typical values of void ratio for granular soils range between 0.35 for well-graded dense and 0.9
for poorly-graded in a loose state. In soft clays from deltaic or marine deposits void ratios can
reach values higher than 2.
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It is of interest to determine the state of density of a soil as it occurs in nature or in a laboratory

experiment with respect to the densest or loosest states in which the soil can exist, i.e., the degree
of packing of the soil skeleton. For granular cohesionless soils, the parameter to describe this
soil state is the relative density DR , which is expressed in terms of the void ratio of the soil in
the state of interest, related to the maximum emax and minimum void ratios emin that the soil can
undergo, and is expressed as:
DR = 100
emax e
emax emin
(43)
The maximum void ratio is determined with the minimum density test and the minimum void ratio
with the maximum density test. ASTM D4254 and ASTM D4253 describe these tests.
4.2.5 Grain size distribution

Due to both physical and chemical weathering processes, rock masses decay on one hand into
granular particles, ranging from boulders, gravels, sands and silts; and on the other hand into
clays, as a result of chemical action that yields new minerals other than the original rock-forming
minerals. Clay minerals are the smallest soil particles, with a planar structural arrangement and
mean sizes ranging from hundredths of a micron to tens of a micron. From a practical point of
view, soil fraction with mean size up to 0.002 mm is considered as clay.
As a result, such a huge gradation of sizes, from large boulders down to tiny particles composed
of clay minerals, plays an important role on the behaviour of the soil. Hydraulic conductivity,
compressibility, and shear strength are related to the grain size distribution of the soil. However,
engineering behaviour is dependent upon many other factors (such as effective stress, stress
history, mineral type, structure, plasticity, and geological origin) and cannot be based solely upon
gradation.
When studying the grain size distribution, a soil can be first split up into two main fractions: coarse
or granular fraction, including boulders, gravels and sands; and fine fraction, with grain size up to
roughly 0.06-0.08 mm, including silts and clays, which exhibits cohesion due to the water affinity
of the particles.
The particle size distribution test is based upon dividing into discrete classes of particle size. It
can be determined by sieving and sedimentation (by hydrometer). For soils with less than 10%
of fines, the sieving method is applicable, whereas for soils with more than 10% of fines can
be analyzed by a combination of both sieving and sedimentation. A standard method for the
determination of the grain size distribution can be found in ISO/TS 17892-4:2004. Moreover,
ASTM D6913-04 (2009) standard describes the method using sieve analysis and ASTM D42263(2007) describes the method when analyzed by a combination of both.
The determination of soil by grain size distribution by sieving is accomplished by setting up a
stack of sieves in which each is fitted on a second one whose mesh opening is commonly half
the size of the opening of the first. A known weight of soil is added to the top and the set of
sieves is shaken thoroughly for several minutes and the weight of the soil retained on each sieve
is measured. Commonly, the passing of the smallest mesh opening sieve corresponds to the
fines fraction.
Even though sieves with much smaller meshes are available, at those scales the force of gravity
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on particles turns quite small in comparison with electrostatic or adsorption forces. This combination of factors makes it impractical to use small sieve sizes for fine soils.
Sedimentation (or hydrometer method) consists of mixing a small amount of soil sample with water in a long graduated glass cylinder, together with a dispersant to deflocculate the clay particles.
After shaking vigorously, the various sizes of soil particles will settle at rates according to their
sizes (as stated in Stokes law). As a result, the initially uniform density of the suspension will
begin to vary from top to bottom, becoming more dense at the bottom of the cylinder. At any
given level in the suspension, the density, which is measured at intervals by means of a hydrometer, will change with time in a pattern dependent upon the size distribution of the soil. Stokes
law determines a relationship among the size, the particles specific gravity and the steady fall
velocity, so that the percentage of the particles finer than a certain given value can be worked out
by the readings of the hydrometer.
With the joint information provided by the sieve and hydrometer analysis, the distribution by weight
of grain sizes in the soil under study can be plotted in terms of cumulative percentage finer than
each sieve size by weight and on a logarithmic scale to cover the various orders of magnitude.
4.2.6 Plasticity of soils, Atterberg limits, consistency and plasticity index

Unlike granular soils with negligible content of fines, the mechanical behaviour of fine soils is
strongly dependent upon its water content and, as a consequence, it is useful to measure the
qualitative mechanical response of finer-grained soils by means of simple empirical tests, that in
turn, yield an insight of the mineral constituents for the soil under study.
A soil is considered to behave in a plastic way when it can be molded or worked and will maintain
the new shape without either returning to its original shape or fracturing and cracking. At low
water contents states the soil becomes brittle and crumbles when worked, while at higher water
contents the soil turns into a viscous material.
This is a macroscopic characteristic of clays in a certain range of water contents, which is strongly
dependent upon the clay minerals involved. In fact, clay minerals carry a certain net negative
charge in their surface as a result of both isomorphous substitution and of a break in the continuity
of the structure at its edges. The unbalanced charge at the surface causes great affinity for
captions and other polar molecules, such as water, where potential expansivity can be involved.
The Swedish chemist Atterberg devised two simple laboratory method to establish the water
content at a certain state of consistency. These water contents are called the plastic and the
liquid limits. Both CEN ISO/TS 17892-12:2004 and ASTM D4318 describe the procedure for
determining both limits.
The plastic limit wp is the water content at the transition between semi-solid and plastic mechanical behaviour. With a water content equal to the plastic limit, the soil crumbles when rolled into
a cylinder of 3.2 mm in diameter. The plastic limit test consists, therefore, of taking small rolls of
the clay and remould it between the hand and a non-porous plate until the soil becomes difficult
to roll, due to the steady desiccation.
The liquid limit wl is the water content at the transition between plastic and fluid-like behaviour.
Once again, this is a descriptive state rather than an absolute boundary. At the water content
equal to the liquid limit, the soil becomes fluid under a standard dynamic shear stress. In brief,
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a remoulded soil sample is placed in a special cup and divided into two halves with a standard
grooving tool. An arbitrary value of 25 blows to close the sides of the groove is taken to represent
this consistency state.
The liquidity index Il is used to describe the relative consistency state of a natural clay, being to
some extent, analogous to the relative density for granular soils. The liquidity index relates the
existing water content of a soil sample w to the water content of the clay at its liquid and plastic
limits. It is defined as follows:
Il = 100
w wp
wl wp
(44)
Heavily desiccated clays near the surface might well have a negative liquidity index, whereas
marine and deltaic soft young clay deposits might have a liquidity index higher than 100%, with
water contents over the liquid limit.
Accordingly, the consistency index Ic is defined as:
Ic = 100
wl w
wl wp
(45)
And the plasticity index Ip is defined as:
Ip = w l w p
(46)
4.2.7 Overconsolidation ratio

The overconsolidation ratio (OCR) for a given soil is defined as the ratio of the highest vertical
effective stress at which the soil has been subjected in the past, to the present in situ vertical
effective stress. A clay is said to be normally consolidated if the current effective overburden
pressure is the maximum pressure which the layer has ever been subjected to at any time in its
history, whereas a clay layer is said to be overconsolidated if the layer was subjected at one time
in its history to a greater effective overburden pressure than the present pressure.
Overconsolidation of a clay stratum may have been caused, among others, due to weight of an
overburden of soil which has eroded, weight of a continental ice sheet that melted or desiccation
of layers close to the surface. Experience indicates that the natural moisture content is roughly
close to the liquid limit for normally consolidated clay soil, whereas for the overconsolidated clay
is close to the plastic limit.
4.3
Strength of soils
4.3.1 Unconfined compression test

The unconfined compression strength can be determined on a cylinder of intact soil sample, as
described in ASTM D2166 and CEN ISO/TS 17892-7:2004 standards. After removal from the
sample tube and trimming, an intact soil specimen is placed in a compression loading frame,
and the loading plate is advanced at a rate of 0.5 to 2% of axial strain per minute. The results
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Consistency
Unconfined compression
strength (kPa)
Undrained
shear strength (kPa)
Very soft
soft
Medium
Stiff
Very stiff
hard
Less than 25
25 to 50
50 to 100
100 to 200
200 to 400
Over 400
Less than 12.5

12.5 to 25
25 to 50
50 to 100
100 to 200
Over 200
Table 5: Classification of clays in term of its unconfined compression strength [89].

are presented as a stress-strain curve. The maximum stress is calculated and recorded as the
maximum unconfined compression strength qu .
This test determines the undrained shear strength of saturated clays or cohesive soils of sufficient
low permeability to keep itself undrained during loading. The undrained shear strength cu is
defined as one half of the unconfined compression strength and represents the natural cohesion
of the soils and is strongly dependent on the in situ mean effective stress of the sample. Table 5
shows a classical classification of clays in terms of its unconfined compression strength [89].
4.3.2 Unconsolidated undrained triaxial compression test

This test is mainly recommended for clayey saturated soils. The soil sample is encased with a
rubber membrane and isolated at the base of a cell. The cell is filled up with water and placed
in a compression loading frame. There is a vertical loading piston inserted in the cell cap that
moves frictionlessly. The loading frame plate is adjusted so that the piston is in contact both with
the load cell at the top and the soil sample at the bottom.
The test covers two phases: in the first one, the soil sample is subjected to an isotropic confining
pressure by pressurizing the cell water. However, note that, whenever the soil sample is saturated,
no effective pressure is transmitted to the soil skeleton; in the second phase, a displacement
transducer is attached to the cell and the compression loading frame is turned on at a rate similar
to that of the unconfined compression test. Simultaneous load and displacement readings are
taken and plotted. The test is performed with no drainage during both phases.
The whole test usually comprises a set of three specimens representative of a sample. Theoretically, this test yields the same results as the unconfined compression tests on saturated soils,
as the cell pressure has no effect on the soil skeleton. However, the cell pressure minimizes
the disturbance during sampling, though, leading to more reliable values of the undrained shear
strength.
CEN ISO/TS 17892-8:2004 standard describes broad good practice of this test. Further details
can be found in ASTM D2850 standard as well.
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4.3.3 Consolidated drained triaxial compression test

This test is carried out with the same triaxial equipment as described above and is suitable for all
types of soils. It is aimed at obtaining the strength parameters of the soil, namely, the effective
friction angle and the effective cohesion.
The test procedure covers three phases:
1. Saturation, by means of pressurizing the water in the soil skeleton through the drainage
valve, so the air bubbles get dissolved in the pore water;
2. Consolidation, the cell pressure is raised at a certain value and the soil specimen is allowed
to drain all the excess pore pressure until the specimen is isotropically fully consolidated at
an effective pressure;
3. Failure, the loading frame is turned on to apply the vertical deviator load with the piston.
The higher the consolidation pressure is, the higher the failure load of the sample. The
deviator load is applied at a slow rate so as the excess pore pressure be dissipated through
the drainage valve.
The stress conditions at failure for a number of specimens can be plotted by Mohr circles. The
best linear fit of the circles yields the strength envelope. The intercept of the strength envelope
and the angle of its slope yield, respectively, the effective cohesion and the internal friction angle.
Alternatively, with the help of Lambe or Cambridge parameters, stress paths of the test results
could be used for further assessment of the soil behaviour.
4.3.4 Consolidated undrained triaxial compression test

This test differs from the previous one basically in the way the soil is subjected to failure, as in
the latter is performed under undrained conditions. A pore pressure gauge is attached to the
drainage valve to monitor the development of the pore pressure in the soil skeleton, that in turn,
allows pore pressure corrections when plotting the effective Mohr Circles at failure. Apart from
the strength parameters, this test provides the Skempton parameters and therefore judgment on
the dilatancy behaviour of the soil. Likewise, it is suitable for all types of soils.
CEN ISO/TS 17892-9:2004 standard covers the procedure consolidated triaxial tests, both drained
or undrained conditions, within the scope of geotechnical investigation.
4.3.5 Direct shear box test

The test method consists of placing the test specimen, either cylindrical or square, in a direct
shear device, applying a stress normal to the shearing plane. After unlocking the frames that
hold the specimen, one frame is displaced with respect to the other at a constant rate of shear
deformation. The shearing force and horizontal displacement are recorded at intervals as the
specimen is sheared. If the effective strength parameters are required, the test is performed
under consolidated drained conditions with a shearing load applied slowly enough not to create
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excess pore pressures. in case the undrained shear strength is required, it is performed under
unconsolidated undrained conditions, at a quick shearing rate to prevent drainage.
Details of the test procedure can be found in CEN ISO/TS 17892-10:2004 standard.
4.4
Compressibility and deformation of soils: oedometer testing
4.4.1 Consolidation
When any soil is subjected to an increase in pressure, a readjustment in the soil structure occurs,
leading to much larger deformations than in other common construction materials. Furthermore,
when a load is applied on a saturated fine-grained soil, the strain response is not instantaneous,
but it takes time for the water that takes up space in the voids to flow outwards until the equilibrium is gradually regained. It is therefore a transient flow process coupled with the strain-stress
behaviour of the soil, caused by an external load.
This process is called consolidation and is of major engineering concern, as a lack of its assessment might compromise construction deadlines and maximum expected settlements.
The oedometer test is the main laboratory test to determine both the compressibility (how much
a soil reduces its volume) and the consolidation coefficient (how fast the process develops) of
saturated fine-grained soils.
It consists of a circular disk of soil sample fitted to a metal ring and is in direct contact with
two incompressible porous disks at its top and bottom, being the permeability of the disks much
greater than that of the soil. It is a one-dimensional process, as the lateral strain is prevented and
permeable boundaries are at the bases.
The sample is placed inside a cell filled up with water with a cap that keeps from evaporation.
Once the cell is placed in a loading yoke and a displacement transducer is attached to the yoke,
a vertical loading sequence is applied. The consolidation test in an oedometer proceeds by
applying a sequence loads in a roughly geometric progression with a typical load sequence as
follows: 10, 20, 40, 80, 150, 300, 600 and 1000 kPa. Additionally, unloading sequence is tested
as well, but skipping some of the intermediate steps.
Every loading or unloading step consists of measuring at intervals the cumulative settlement just
after the load increment is applied with the loading yoke. The coefficient of consolidation and the
oedometric modulus can be derived from the settlement-log time curve (consolidation curve).
On the other hand, the oedometric curve can be obtained by plotting the final void ratios at each
loading and unloading step. This curve provides rough assessment on the overconsolidation
ratio, compressibility of the soil tested and relationships between the level of stress and the value
of the oedometric modulus.
Fair guidance of the test procedure can be found in CEN ISO/TS 17892-5:2004 and ASTM D2435
standards for one-dimensional consolidation tests.
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4.4.2 Swelling and swelling pressure

Additionally, the oedometer apparatus allows the determination of swelling properties of expansive clayey soils, such as the free swelling index and the swelling pressure. The former is defined
as the percentage of vertical free expansion when an expansive soil is saturated (in fact, a low
vertical load is applied, generally 5 kPa); the latter is defined as the vertical pressure required to
make up for the potential swelling when the sample gets saturated. The standards above cover
much of this procedure.
4.5
Application in the scope of dynamic soil characteristics
As explained in subsection 2.8, the bulk density is one of the five soil parameters that are
necessary to model vibration propagation. This density can only be measured by classical soil
mechanical tests.
bulk density
CEN ISO/TS 17892-2
Other parameters can be used to estimate the other dynamic characteristics, through the use of
empirical relations. These empirical relations are discussed in section 8.2 and use the following
mechanical properties:
w
wl
Ip
e
n
cu
OCR
water content
liquid limit
plasticity index
void ratio
porosity
undrained shear strength
overconsolidation ratio
CEN ISO /TS 17892-1:2004,

CEN ISO/TS 17892-12:2004
CEN ISO/TS 17892-12:2004
ASTM D7263 - 09
ASTM D7263 - 09
CEN ISO/TS 17892-8:2004
-
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5. CLASSICAL IN SITU TESTS
5.1
Introduction
This section deals with in situ tests that are used to obtain estimates for classical soil mechanical
parameters. The most important of such methods are the (piezo-) cone penetration test and the
standard penetration test. The first is discussed in subsection 5.2, the latter in subsection 5.3.
Subsection 5.4 gives a comparison of the results of both tests.
5.2
Cone penetration and piezocone penetration tests (CPT, CPTU)
The cone penetration test (CPT) as a method of ground exploration is only applicable to soft
soils extending, at most, to medium stiff soils, and without any sizeable proportion of medium
to large gravel size particles. In fact, the use of static penetrometers (cone penetrometers) in
parallel to dynamic penetrometers (DPH and DPSH types) showed that static tests may very well
show resistances on the unsafe side, whenever gravels or carbonated nodules are present in the
ground. On the other hand, since the test is carried out pushing the cone penetrometer into the
soil at a constant rate of penetration (usually 2 0.5 cm/s) according to [2], the soil resistance
adequate to perform the test is quite limited.
The cone penetrometer (formerly designed as static penetrometer) comprises the cone and, if
appropriate, a cylindrical shaft or friction sleeve. The penetration resistance of the cone qc , and
whenever appropriate, the local friction on the friction sleeve are measured. Usually the cone
has a 60 angle, with a face area of 10 cm2 (35.7 mm diameter), and it is provided with a mantle
located above the cone with a length of 99 mm (improved Delft cone), forming a so-called compound cone. The friction sleeve, located 69 mm above the mantle, with a diameter of 35 mm
and a length of 133 mm, was introduced by Begemann in 1965 [15].
Mechanical and electrical CPTs are in use, depending upon the means of measuring cone resistance and side friction, with the shape of the cone differing according to the method in use, and
this is to be taken into account when it comes to interpret the results of the test in terms of soil
parameters.
The piezocone penetration test (CPTU) is an electrical CPT, which includes additional instrumentation to measure the pore water pressure during penetration at the level of the base of the cone
[2]. Current knowledge concerning cone penetration testing in clays necessitates that measured
qc values be corrected for pore water pressure effects acting in unequal areas of the cone geometry [66], thus obtaining qt . Consequently, piezocones are required if a truly proper assessment
of cone resistance is to be attained. Unfortunately, when it comes to correlate cone penetration
test results to other soil parameters all sources of data do not usually provide such data, and qc
values have to be used in the statistical analyses.
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5.3
Standard penetration test (SPT)
According to [2] the objectives of the standard penetration test (SPT) are the determination of the
resistance of soil at the base of a borehole to the dynamic penetration of a split barrel sampler
(or solid cone) of standard dimensions and the obtaining of disturbed samples for identification
purposes. The sampler shall be driven into the soil by dropping a hammer of 63.5 kg mass onto
an anvil or drive head from a height of 760 mm. The number of blows (N ) necessary to achieve
a penetration of the sampler of 300 mm (after its penetration under gravity and below a seating
drive) is the penetration resistance.
In [1] specifications are given on how the SPT test shall be carried out and its results reported.
If the results are to be used for quantitative evaluations or for comparison purposes, the energy
ratio Er for the equipment has to be known. Er is defined as the ratio of the actual energy Emeas
(measured energy during calibration) delivered by the drive weight assembly into the drive rod
below the anvil, to the theoretical energy Etheor as calculated for the drive-weight assembly. The
measured number of blows N shall be corrected accordingly [1]. Other corrections, such as the
energy losses due to the rod length and the effect of effective overburden pressure in sands or
those related to the use of liners or a solid cone should also be taken into account [1]. After these
corrections, the normalized value N60 is obtained.
With respect to SPT tests some additional comments may be made:
Apart from the different corrections that the results of the tests have to be subjected to, as
established in [1], the standard penetration test is highly dependent on the care and quality
of the work effected to clean and stabilize the hole before the test is performed.
On the other hand, the presence of granular elements, whose size is comparable or larger
than the diameter of the barrel sampler may produce a blow count which is not directly
related to the stiffness or compactness of the material being tested.
It is then possible, when it comes to make statistical analyses of SPT tests performed around the
world that the results are closely dependent upon features like the ability of people in charge of
the borings or the proportion and size of the gravels or nodules within the strata.
5.4
Comparison of CPT and SPT tests results
Typical values of qc /N ratios for different types of soils, using alternatively, Fugro, Delft and
Begemann cones are given in [35]. Nevertheless, a simple relationship has been widely used in
practice, as given in [56]:
qc [kPa] = N
(47)
in which is a soil dependant constant which equals 400 for sands and 300 for clays and has
dimensions of kPa over number of hits. Using this relationships, the results of CPT and SPT
tests in clayey and sandy soils can be compared, although it is highly recommendable to carry
out directly the tests in the soil under study and make the appropriate comparison of results.
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5.5
Application in the scope of dynamic soil characteristics
The parameters obtained by classical in situ tests can be used to estimate dynamic characteristics, through the use of empirical relations. These empirical relations are discussed in section
8.2.
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6. DYNAMIC LABORATORY TESTS
6.1
Introduction
This section provides an overview of laboratory tests that are commonly used to estimate the
dynamic soil properties.
Laboratory tests have some advantages over in in situ tests. Laboratory tests generally enable
to measure properties with a high accuracy, they allow for the controlled drainage of pore water,
they allow to measure properties at other confining stress than those in situ and they can reach
high strain levels, which allows to measure the nonlinearity of the material. On the other hand,
laboratory tests require soil sampling, which inevitably leads to disturbance of the soil. Furthermore, laboratory tests measure soil properties in discrete points only. Due to the heterogeneous
nature of the soil, laboratory tests may yield results that are not representative for the entire test
site.
The most frequently used soil dynamic laboratory tests are the resonant column test (section 6.2),
the bender element test (section 6.3), the cyclic shear test (section 6.4), and the cyclic triaxial test
(section 6.5).
The most important differences between the different dynamic laboratory tests are the stress and
deformation levels that are reached in the soil, as can be seen in figure 15. Since soils typically
behave nonlinear, it is advisable to reproduce the actual stress levels that occur in situ. The in
situ stresses are therefore an indication for what test should be used.
4
10
10
10
10
10
10
WAVE PROPAGATION
RESONANT COLUMN
CYCLIC SIMPLE SHEAR
CYCLIC TRIAXIAL
CYCLIC TORSIONAL SHEAR
Figure 15: Deformation range in dynamic laboratory tests.
6.2
Resonant column test
6.2.1 Physical principles

In the resonant column test, a cylindrical column of soil is tested dynamically. The column of
soil is torsionally excited. The torsional eigenfrequency of the column is observed as well as the
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decay of amplitudes after switching off the excitation. By these experiments the shear modulus
and the shear material damping ratio of the soil can be determined as a function of the confining
pressure and the shear strain amplitude.
6.2.2 Resonant column device
(b)
(a)
Figure 16: (a) Resonant column device and (b) open resonant column device, showing the
electro-magnetic driving unit on top of the soil column.
Figure 16 shows a resonant column device. The device consists of:
a column of soil in a rubber membrane
a fixed bottom
a free top plate and permanent magnets
a triaxial/pressure cell
coils, as part of the electromagnetic drive system
a pneumatic air-pressure system
control devices, measuring equipment, sensors and a computer
Figure 17 indicates these components on a schematic picture of a resonant column device.
6.2.3 Test procedure

A soil sample is prepared and placed on the base plate. The resonant column device is completed, the pressure cell is closed and air pressure is applied to the soil specimen and the whole
pressure cell. After some time, the dynamic excitation, with a certain voltage and frequency, is applied. The frequency is varied, either automatically or by hand. Automatically driven, a frequency
response spectrum is obtained. The frequency of the maximum output amplitude is taken as
the resonance frequency or the approximate eigenfrequency. Driven by hand, first the frequency
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Figure 17: Schematic view of the resonant column device.

range of resonance is found by the highest amplitudes. Then the eigenfrequency is found by tuning the excitation to get a 90 phase delay between driving force and head rotation. Both methods
yield the torsional eigenfrequency of the soil column. After the excitation is switched off, the soil
column shows a free decaying vibration which is recorded.
The same procedure is applied for other excitation amplitudes. At the end, a new pressure is
applied to the pressure cell and the soil column. The same experiments are repeated for different
cell pressures.
6.2.4 Results of resonant column tests

The damping can be determined either from the frequency response function by evaluating the
bandwidth of the resonance peak, or from the decay of the free vibration by the logarithmic
decrement method.
The evaluation of the shear modulus requires some more information. The vibrating system is a
column with an end mass. The moment of inertia of the soil column and the top assembly must
be known. The moment of inertia of the top is determined by calibration tests. With all information
of the resonant column device, the measured eigenfrequency is evaluated by using the frequency
equation of the fixed-free torsional column with a top mass (mass momentum). By that the shear
modulus of the soil is obtained for each pressure and each strain level. The shear strain has to be
calculated from the acceleration, the accelerometer position and the dimensions of the column.
Some results of the resonant column tests are shown in figures 18 and 19. The results in figure
18 clearly show the shear modulus degradation with increasing strain. The results in figure 19
show the material damping ratio increase with increasing shear strain.
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Figure 18: The shear modulus degradation, as measured with the resonant column test.
Figure 19: Material damping ratio as a function of the shear strain, as measured with the resonant
column test.
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6.3
Bender element test
The bender element (BE) technique is a widely used method to generate and receive P- and
S-waves in soil specimens which propagate from one end to the other of the specimen parallel to
its length. Figure 20a shows the dimensions of the soil specimen: the diameter D and the length
H (length); and those of the bender elements: their length Lt , penetration length Lc and width
W [98]. Figure 20b shows the two pedestal of a triaxial apparatus for testing 2 inch diameter
specimen, in which two bender elements (transmitter and receiver) are inserted.
(a)
(b)
Figure 20: (a) Bender element dimensions [98] and (b) bender elements inserted in the top caps
of 2 inch triaxial equipment.
The use of piezoceramic bender elements for testing soil samples was firstly described by Shirley
and coworkers [84] and [85] and a detailed model for determining shear wave velocity Cs in triaxial
soil samples was presented later on by Dyvik and Madshus [21]. Since then, BEs have been
used to obtain Cs values with other geotechnical apparatus, such as the oedometer, the direct
shear apparatus or the resonant column. A complete list of references covering the use of BE in
different geotechnical laboratory equipments to obtain Cs values, has been elaborated by Viana
da Fonseca et al. [94].
6.3.1 Physical principle

Bender elements are bimorph electric actuators that are polarized in the direction of their thickness (0.5 mm in figure 21) [98]. Two ceramic elements are bounded together with a flexible shim
of metal, such as nickel, acting as an electrode. When a driving voltage is applied on a bimorph
piezoelectric element, one layer elongates and the other shortens, producing a bend in the whole
element. On the other hand, when a deformation is applied, the piezoelectric element generates
a voltage. There are two different types of bender elements (figure 21): parallel connected and
serial connected. In a parallel type connection, polarization direction in both layers of a bimorph
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actuator becomes identical whereas, in a series type, polarization is opposite. The result is such
that a parallel connected element is twice as effective as a serial connected element in generating
mechanical energy and is therefore used for transmission. On the other hand, the generated voltage upon deformation is larger in a serial type connection, which is therefore used for reception.
By using serial type connection in parallel benders and parallel type connection in serial benders,
the bender body can be compressed or extended as a whole, thus enabling it to measure P-wave
velocity as shown by Lings and Greening [57].
Figure 21: Bender element actuators [98].
6.3.2 Interpretation of the tests

A bender element test consists of the application of a user-defined input voltage function to the
transmitter to generate a S- or P-wave and the recording of the wave by the receiver, resulting in
an output signal [94]. Most earlier studies using BEs used a single square-wave pulse, as the
one shown in figure 22a. However, sine-wave pulses, as shown in figure 22b, have become more
popular [98].
Currently there are four different approaches to identify the arrival time of the wave in the receiver;
three of them (SS, PP, CC) operate in the time domain and one (FD) in the frequency domain.
The start to start method SS is based on the identification of the instant of the first inflection of
the output signal (figures 22a and 22b). It is the simplest and most commonly used method,
but the interpretation is subjective [94]. In the peak to peak method PP, the time difference
between the first peak of the transmission wave and the corresponding peak of the received
wave is measured. As shown in figure 22b, it tends to give a propagation velocity slightly lower
than the SS method. In the cross-correlation method CC, the cross-correlation between the
transmitted and the received signal is calculated and the position at the maximum amplitude is
taken as the propagation time. In this method, as in the PP method, it is important to ensure that
the transmitted wave retains its shape when passing into the soil. That condition constitutes a
problematic aspect for those techniques. The frequency domain method FD calculates the cross
spectrum of the transmitting and receiving waves and plots the phase angle against frequency.
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(a)
(b)
Figure 22: Examples of time signals and results: (a) a square pulse input and its response to
determine the P-wave velocity in a triaxial specimen with the SS method and (b) a sine pulse and
its response to determine the S-wave velocity in a triaxial specimen by the SS method (270 m/s)
and the PP method (250 m/s).
The arrival time is then calculated from the slope of the phase spectrum. However, because the
scatter in the FD method is quite large [98], it is advised not to interpret the results with only this
method.
6.3.3 Recommended procedure for BE test

In [98], a standard BE test methodology, incorporating the advantages and disadvantages of
the different techniques previously discussed, is proposed. Recommendations are given in that
reference to obtain the same value when time domain methods are used and the conditions that
should be fulfilled to get appropriate values when the FD method is adopted are identified. As
pointed out in [94] the combined use of time domain and frequency domain methods can aid
effectively in the analysis and interpretation of BE tests.
6.4
Cyclic simple shear test
6.4.1 Introduction
The direct simple shear (DSS) apparatus was developed in the 1960s at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) by Landva and Bjerrum. It was designed to simulate the condition in a thin
shear zone separating two essentially rigid masses sliding with respect to each other. This condition approximates the behaviour of some landslides that occur along a planar surface or along
horizontal or gently inclined portions of a slip surface [90]. The simple shear test is also the
laboratory test which best fits an earthquake loading, as shown in figure 23.
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Figure 23: Earthquake loading of a soil element [87].

Silver and Seed [86] used a cyclic simple shear apparatus for low strain amplitude tests to explore
deformational behaviour and the shear stress-shear strain relationship respectively of sand under
cyclic loads.
6.4.2 Apparatus
Figure 24 shows two commercially available cyclic shear testing devices. The simple shear or
direct simple shear apparatus produces an anisotropic normal stress state by external forces and
cell pressure on a rectangular or round specimen. Horizontal movement at the bottom of the
sample relative to the top induces the shear strain. The structure supporting the specimen in
lateral direction follows the movement, allowing horizontal deflection during shear but avoiding
deformation in lateral direction during consolidation. The shear strain over the specimen volume
is considered to be nearly constant. Because the diameter of the sample remains constant, any
change in volume is a result of vertical displacement of the upper pedestal.
(a)
(b)
Figure 24: Cyclic shear testing devices at BAM: (a) GIESA mbh and (b) GEONOR, Inc.
Two systems for the lateral support of the specimen are feasible (figure 25). In the first construction a number of steel, aluminium or brass rings slide across each other during the shearing stage
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of the test. The second option is to support the specimen laterally by a spring construction. Low
internal friction and high stiffness of the spring against changes in diameter allow to deform the
shear frame with the specimen in axial direction and so to avoid wall friction.
(a)
(b)
Figure 25: Lateral support of specimen by (a) a spring construction [34] and (b) slip rings [33].
(a)
(b)
Figure 26: Example of set-up for simple shear test equipment and concept of direct simple shear
on test specimen.
A schematic picture of the components of a simple shear apparatus is shown in figure 26. Its
main parts are (numbers correspond to the figure):
1. The container for the specimen: a rubber membrane reinforced with a spiral winding or slip
rings. The standard sample is 70 mm in diameter, but tests can also be performed on 50
mm diameter samples. The container is positioned on a pedestal with the same top cap as
used in the triaxial test apparatus.
2. Two actuators, one for the vertical and one for the horizontal load. The horizontal and
vertical actuators are fixed to the frame, which supplies the reaction forces.
3. Load cells to measure the vertical and lateral load.
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4. The fixed upper frame.

5. The lower frame, which can translate quasi-statically or dynamically in the lateral direction.
To avoid sliding between the soil sample and the filters on the top cap or the base pedestal
the arrangement of some pins is required (figure 26b).
6. Two displacement transducers to monitor the vertical and horizontal displacements.
7. The control and data acquisition system.
6.4.3 Test applications

Cyclic simple shear testing is useful in the investigation of stress-strain relationships and the
shear strength for a range of soil types. The simple shear test apparatus allows shear tests
under different conditions. Firstly, tests at a constant height or constant volume are possible.
This means that during shear the specimen volume, and therefore the height, is kept constant
by adjusting the vertical load. The resulting change in vertical stress is equal to the pore water
pressure that would occur in undrained conditions with constant normal stress. The second option
is testing at a constant normal vertical load and thus a constant normal stress (CNL). This kind of
test simulates completely drained conditions. The third option is to drive tests at a constant strain
rate.
The cyclic simple shear apparatus is often used in soil dynamics as it can simulate loading conditions to research the stability under seismic events, the degradation of shear stress under cyclic
loading or the liquefaction potential of non-cohesive soils under cyclic loading. With high accuracy
measurements, the test can also be used to determine the shear modulus and material damping
ratio.
It is not possible to avoid variations from the aspired constant stress state at the border of the
specimen [31]. The irregular distribution of normal and shear stresses in border areas is notably
higher at high deformation levels.
It replicates the in situ conditions in the soil specimen. Samples are inevitably disturbed when
placed in the testing device. Furthermore, it is difficult to obtain constant compaction of granular
samples. For this reason, the simple shear apparatus is often only used in research. Commercial
laboratories generally use the cyclic triaxial apparatus.
When comparing results from the cyclic simple shear tests with results from the cyclic triaxial
tests, the different stress states in both tests have to be considered. At the same normal stress
acting on failure plane the mean principal stress m differs between both test. In cyclic triaxial
test it equals the consolidation stress c , but in a cyclic shear test m = 1/ (3 (1 + 22 )) with
2 = K0 1 [87].
6.4.4 Typical test results
Typical test results for stress or strain controlled cyclic simple shear test with on ore two way
loading with Berliner sand are shown in the following figures. Figure 27 shows results from a
strain controlled test with strain amplitude = 1.5% on a dense sand sample. One can notice
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a further compaction of the dense sample and a decreasing shear stress over time. The normal
stress is kept constant at 200 kN/m2 during the shear stress application.
Figure 27: Strain controlled test with Berliner sand, drained, two way loading at = 1.5%,
compactness D = 60%, normal stress 200 kN/m2 .
Figure 28 shows results from a stress controlled, one way test with a shear stress between
0 and 40 kN/m2 on a loose sand sample. Shear strains accumulate but the accumulation rate
decreases.
Figure 29 shows a stress controlled, two way test with a shear stress between -40 and 40 kN/m2 .
Here the sample volume and sample height respectively is kept constant, so the test simulates
undrained conditions. Shear strains accumulate also but the accumulation rate increases with
growing number of cycles. The normal stress tends to zero.
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Figure 28: Stress controlled test with Berliner sand, drained, one-way load = 40 kPa, compactness D = 14%, normal stress 200 kN/m2 .
Figure 29: Stress controlled test with Berliner sand, drained, two-way load = 40 kPa, compactness D = 60%, normal stress 400 kN/m2 .
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6.5
Cyclic triaxial test
6.5.1 Introduction and applications

The dynamic triaxial test is one of the most used dynamic laboratory tests due to its versatility and
to its easiness in the reproduction of complex stress paths. The main applications of the dynamic
triaxial tests are the determination of the liquefaction potential, the determination of the dynamic
deformation modulus and damping and the determination of the resilient modulus. Especially the
determination of the strain dependent deformation modulus and damping are important in the
scope of railway induced vibrations.
Determination of the liquefaction potential
This kind of tests must be performed in saturated samples in load-control tests. The liquefaction potential is determined by the analysis of the increase of axial deformations or of the pore
pressure during the test.
Determination of dynamic deformation modulus and damping as a function of deformation
This kind of tests must be performed in saturated samples (both remoulded and unaltered) in
load controlled or axial deformation-control tests.
In a load controlled test, the load is applied according to a predetermined law, usually a sinusoidal
cyclic load, and the result is the evolution of the induced deformations. The main objective of
these tests is to know the number of cycles necessary to get the failure of the material or a
determined level of deformation for different stress ratios or different confinement pressures.
In an axial deformation controlled test, the deformation is varied in a predetermined way and the
result is the load, or the stress, necessary to obtain the prescribed deformation in each cycle.
The main aim of these tests is to analyze the change in the soil mechanical properties during the
load application.
The deformation modulus is usually determined as the secant modules which is numerically equal
to the slope of the secant of a stress-strain curve, as it can be seen in figure 30a.
The material damping ratio is obtained according to equation (30). The cyclic shear test allows
to determine the areas W and W directly as the cycle area and the area outlined by the triangle
OAB, respectively.
It is important to remark that, in a load controlled test, permanent deformations can be accumulated which makes that to define the hysteretic cycle the distance between two consecutive
deformation pikes must be smaller than 0.2% of axial deformation. This fact is known as cycle
closure error and can be seen in figure 30b.
Determination of resilient modulus
Traffic loads typically have a very short application time. After removal of the load, part of the
previously induced deformation is canceled but the other part remains. The first is called the
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(a)
(b)
Figure 30: (a) Theoretical stress-strain curve for one cycle and (b) stress-strain curve of a cycle
in a load controlled test with cycle closure error.
resilient deformation, the latter is the permanent deformation. The resilient modulus is defined as
the ratio between the applied deviatoric strain and the resilient deformation.
In the following figure, corresponding to one cycle of a test, the permanent and resilient deformations are indicated.
Figure 31: Permanent and resilient deformations in a cyclic test.
6.5.2 Laboratory equipment

The laboratory equipment necessary to perform dynamic triaxial tests is constituted by (figure 32)
a triaxial cell, transducers to measure the load, displacement and pore water pressure, equipment
for the application of a confinement pressure, equipment for the application of the cyclic loading
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and for the control capable of applying a uniform sinusoidal deformation at a frequency range of
0.1 to 2 Hz, and equipment for data recording, capable to register 40 points per cycle.
Figure 32: Components of triaxial equipment (ASTM D-3999-91).

The measurement of deformations must be done very carefully so that probe and plate deformations, or mistakes due to lack of precision in the probe preparations are not included in the
measured deformation. To avoid such mistakes, the axial and diameter deformation transducers
are placed inside the triaxial cell, as indicated in figure 33.
Figure 33: Position of axial and diameter deformation transducers inside the triaxial cell.
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6.5.3 Test procedure

The procedure to perform a dynamic triaxial test has the following steps:
1. The probes are prepared. The probes can be unaltered or remolded. In case of remoulded
probes, the density and water content of the material must be indicated previously. In all
the cases, the maximum particle size must be less than 1/6 of probe diameter.
2. All the material pores are filled with water so that the pore water pressure during the loading
action can be measured correctly.
3. The material is consolidated under the desired initial effective stress state. This stress
situation can be isotropic or anisotropic.
4. The dynamic loading is imposed in non drained conditions to simulate the real conditions,
for instance of an earthquake, where the soil permeability inhibits water drainage.
If the test is made to obtain the liquefaction potential, a deviatoric sinusoidal load is applied
which can be less than the confinement pressure.
If the aim of the test is to determine the deformation modulus and the camping, the test
can be done controlling the load or the axial deformation. In the case of axial deformation
control, the axial deformation applied is convenient to be smaller than 104.
To obtain the variation curve of deformation modulus and camping with the deformation
level, different test with different probes can be done. Another alternative is to use only
one probe and to apply increasing deformation amplitudes during predetermined number
of cycles.
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7. SEISMIC IN SITU TESTS
7.1
Introduction
This section provides an overview of in situ methods that are commonly used to estimate the
small strain dynamic soil properties.
Field tests have some important advantages over laboratory tests. Firstly, they do not require
sampling and consequently do not disturb the soil. Secondly, field tests provide data that are
measured over a large volume of soil. Since soils are typically heterogeneous, this results in the
averaging of soil parameters, in such a way that the test results lead to simulations that approximate the overall soil response. Finally, in situ tests employ strain levels that are comparable to
levels of interest for railway vibrations.
On the other hand, in situ tests also have some disadvantages. Firstly, they do not allow to test
the soil under any other than the present conditions. Also, they do not allow for the controlled
drainage of pore water. These two disadvantages are important when significant alterations to the
current conditions, or very low frequency loads are expected. This is not the case for train induced
vibrations. A third disadvantage is that in situ tests often do not measure properties directly but
use theoretical analysis or empirical relations to derive the desired parameters. These derivations
introduce an extra source of uncertainty. Besides, it is often impossible for in situ measurements
to reach the same level of accuracy as obtained in laboratory tests.
One should always be aware of the epistemic uncertainty of estimated soil properties [47]. Many
sources give rise to this uncertainty, examples are the spatial variability of the properties, the
inherent and induced anisotropy, the nonlinearity of the material, the soil disturbance due to
drilling and sampling, and testing or interpretation errors. While some of these errors can be
limited, others cannot. One should always keep this uncertainty in mind, and if possible quantify
its magnitude.
This section starts with general guidelines for in situ tests in subsection 7.2. The remaining
subsections each focus on a particular test method; subsection 7.3 deals with seismic refraction,
subsection 7.4 with the down-hole method, subsection 7.5 with the up-hole method, subsection
7.6 with the cross-hole method, subsection 7.7 with the seismic cone penetration test, subsection
7.8 with PS suspension logging, subsection 7.9 with the Spectral Analysis of Surface Waves test
and subsection 7.10 with seismic tomography.
7.2
General guidelines for seismic in situ methods
As explained in section 3, soils typically behave nonlinear. This means that measured parameters
depend on strain levels that are reached in the soil. It is therefore advised that tests always aim
to replicate stress-strain conditions and apply anticipated cyclic loading levels. In the scope of
train induced vibrations, these loading levels should induce small strain levels, in the order of
magnitude 106 105 .
Seismic geophysical tests are often based on the measurement of body wave velocities, others
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are based on surface wave velocities. The procedures of in situ tests therefore involve the creation of transient or steady-state elastic waves and the observation of these waves at one or several locations. Several sources can be used to generate the waves: sledgehammers, mechanic
hammers, explosions, dropweights, etc. These sources create dilatational, shear and surface
waves. The importance of a particular wave type depends on the type of excitation. Explosions
and vertical impacts are rich in P-wave content while lateral impacts create more S-waves. The
type of excitation also determines the frequency range of the excitation. One should choose the
source that excites the entire frequency range of interest. If there is no such source type, different
types of loading, as to cover the entire frequency range, can be combined.
As explained in subsection 2.3, pressure waves travel faster than shear waves. Consequently, the
pressure waves arrive first at the receiver locations and the detection of their arrival is therefore
fairly straightforward. Due to wave reflection and refraction, P-waves continue to arrive at the
receiver location for some time after the first arrival. When the first S-waves arrive, reflected or
refracted P-waves are usually still recorded. The detection of the S-wave arrival time is therefore
more cumbersome. A common procedure to facilitate the detection of S-waves is to apply two
impulses with opposite direction. Depending on the excitation and the measurement direction,
the S- or P-waves will then have a 180 phase difference.
The strain levels that are reached in in situ tests are rather low. This implies that the recorded
vibration signals will be weak and therefore, low signal to noise ratios (SNR) can be expected.
Due to geometric and material damping, the response will decrease with increasing distance
from the source. Hence, the lowest SNRs will be observed at large distances from the source.
In fact, the SNR of the recorded signals will often be very low. Therefore, techniques to enhance
the signal quality are often used. A possible technique is the stacking of records from different
impulses.
7.3
Seismic refraction
The seismic refraction method is a non-invasive test method, used for the determination of the
P-wave velocity Cp of the different subsurface layers and the thickness of each layer. The use of
the refraction method dates back to 1914 in Germany. Initially it was used for military purposes,
and later on often applied in oil exploration as well.
Physical principle
The method is based on the physical principle of seismic refraction. Seismic refraction is the phenomenon that describes the directional change of a wave when it crosses an interface between
two layers with different mechanical properties. This change in direction is described by Snells
law (figure 34):
Cp1 sin 1 = Cp2 sin 2
(48)
in which Cp1 and Cp2 represent the phase velocities in the top and bottom layer, respectively. 1
and 2 represent the angles between the ray path and the vertical in the top and bottom layer,
respectively. The critical angle is the incident wave angle 1 for which the refracted wave travels
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Cp1
Cp1
Cp2
Cp2
2
(a)
(b)
Figure 34: Snells law: (a) incident, reflected and transmitted wave and (b) critically refracted
wave.
horizontally (2 = 90 ):
c = arcsin
Cp2
Cp1
(49)
An incident wave with angle c refracts at the interface in such a way that it travels along the
interface. It travels along this interface with a velocity Cp2 . This wave creates a disturbance on
the interface and, as a result, an upward wave propagates in the layer above it. According to
Snells law, this wave has an angle c . This situation is explained in figure 35. The impact leads
to body waves, initially only in the top layer (t1 till t2 ). At a certain moment, the wavefront hits the
interface and waves are refracted. This is happening at t3 , but the wave under the critical angle
has not hit the interface yet. At t4 , the wave with the critical angle hits the interface, which creates
the wave along the interface. This critically refracted wave travels with a velocity Cp2 > Cp1 and
creates at its wavefront an upward wave, traveling with velocity Cp1 in the top layer. Between t4
and t9 , the upward waves arrives at points at the surface after the direct body wave did. From
point xc on, the refracted waves arrive first and are followed by the direct wave. This happens
somewhere between t9 and t10 .
Test procedure
For the seismic refraction test, seismic energy is generated by an artificial source located on
the surface, usually by an impact on a metal plate. This energy travels through the subsurface
layers as described in figure 35. The waves are detected on the surface using a linear spread of
geophones or accelerometers spaced at regular intervals, and it is the observation of the travel
times of direct and refracted arrivals that gives information about the subsoil velocity layers (figure
36).
The maximum depth reached by this method depends on the distance between the geophones
and the relative distances between the geophones and the different shooting points. The ideal
conditions for data acquisition are maintaining a small spacing between geophones to obtain a
good resolution, and a maximum relative distance of the shooting point large enough to reach the
desired depth (bearing in mind that a greater distance allows to reach a larger depth). In section
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direct wave first
t1
xc
refracted wave first
impact
t2
t12
c
Cp1
t11
t3
Cp2 > Cp1
t4
t5
t6
t7
t8
t9
t10
Figure 35: Seismic refraction principles. The wavefronts are represented by the dashed lines, the
wave paths with the solid arrows.
Figure 36: Simple two-layer model example. Direct and critically refracted waves and the time
distance diagram showing the first and secondary breaks from these ray paths [49].
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2 it was recommended that soil properties should be known to a depth of about 20 m. For a soil
with one layer with thickness H on top of a halfspace, the point xc can be computed as:
xc = 2H
Cp1 + Cp2
Cp2 Cp1
(50)
If any prior knowledge of the soil stratigraphy is available, this equation can be used to determine
the distance between the furthest receiver and the shooting point. As an example, consider a
soil that has a layer with a P-wave velocity around 250 m/s on top of a half space with a Pwave velocity of 1000 m/s at a depth of 20 m. The point xc is then located at 52 m from the
source. The number of receivers located farther than 52 m from the source, should be sufficient
to accurately measure the slope of the last line segment in the distance-arrival time diagram. The
other receivers should be evenly distributed between the shooting point and the furthest receiver.
Soil parameter estimation from measurement data

For generating the travel time graphs it is necessary to manually pick up the first arrivals for each
geophone register. The STA/LTA technique may facilitate the detection of this first arrival time
[97]. Travel time versus distance graphs are then plotted with all shots for the same spread. The
different slopes in this graph provide information about the wave velocities in the layers and the
intersect between line segments gives information about the depth of the layers (figure 36). Two
different inversion methods can be employed. The first technique is called time-term inversion
or intercept-time method, and it employs a combination of linear least squares and delay time
analysis to invert the first arrivals for a velocity section [49]. A more complex inversion method
is the reciprocal method or plus-minus time analysis method and is based on the travel time
reciprocity and the determination of the crossover point [62]. In this second method it is necessary
to have overlap between two opposite registered shots.
Advantages and disadvantages

The seismic refraction test is a popular test because of its simplicity and because of the low costs
involved. It is a non-invasive test, meaning that no boreholes or cone penetrations are necessary.
This is a significant benefit of the test, since boreholes are expensive and cone penetration tests
may have difficulties penetrating hard layers.
However, there are some disadvantages to the seismic refraction test. Firstly, the test assumes
that the P-wave velocity increases monotonically with depth. Layers that are softer than the layer
above cannot be detected with the seismic refraction test. When the underlying layer is softer,
wave paths will become more vertical and therefore no critically refracted wave can exist. Not
only will the soft layer be impossible to detect, it will also make the underlying layers seem deeper
than is effectively the case. Secondly, the assumed horizontality of the layers can lead to wrong
estimations of the P-wave velocities when the layers are actually inclined, as the assumed wave
path is not valid for inclined layers. This problem is overcome by measuring the arrival times in
two directions from the source. Finally, one should be aware that blind spots can be caused by
layers that are too thin or layers that have a too low impedance contrast with the overlying layer.
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An important advantage of the seismic refraction test is that it can be combined with the SASW
test (section 7.9). Both tests use the same test set-up and measurement data. They differ only
in the postprocessing of these data. Combining the postprocessing of the two tests has some
important synergies. This will be elaborated in subsection 7.9.
7.4
Down-hole testing
Seismic down-hole tests measure the shear and dilatational wave velocities by placing vibration
receivers in a borehole and measuring the arrival times of both types of waves.
Test procedure
Figure 37 shows a schematic of the test setup. The test starts with the drilling of a borehole
and the installation of a vibration source next to it. A vibration receiver is then clamped to the
borehole wall at a certain depth z1 . This receiver may be a geophone or an accelerometer. Next,
the excitation source is used to generate dilatational and shear waves, of which the arrival is
detected by the receiver in the borehole. Pressure sensors are installed at the source, to serve
as a trigger for the start of the measurements. To reduce the uncertainty due to noise, the test
is repeated a number of times. The results of all tests are stacked to obtain a higher SNR. The
receiver is then lowered into the borehole, with steps z that are typically between 0.5 and 1 m.
The test is repeated for every receiver depth zi .
Figure 37: Down-hole method.

If enough sensors are available, then an alternative to this stepwise procedure is to install a
series of sensors simultaneously in the borehole. This procedure allows for a faster execution of
the down-hole test.
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As for the seismic refraction test, the STA/LTA technique may be used to facilitate the arrival
time detection. The detection of the arrival of S-waves is more cumbersome than for P-waves,
because they arrive later. Reversing the polarization of the waves can again be helpful for the
detection of the S-wave arrival time.
The detected arrival times can be used to plot the arrival time of the P- and S-waves versus the
depth of the receiver. This plot holds the information of the shear and dilatational wave velocities,
which can be calculated for every receiver interval as:
Cpn =
zi+1 zi
tp,i+1 tp,i
(51)
for the P-wave velocity, in which zi is the depth of receiver i and tp,i is the arrival time of the
P-wave at receiver i. The formula for the S-wave velocity is the same, but uses the arrival times
of the S-waves.
Caution is needed when the distance between the excitation source and the borehole is large.
When the ray path deviates considerably from the vertical, the difference in travelled distance for
two sensors can no longer be approximated by the difference in depth.

The advantage of the down-hole method is that it provides fairly accurate results, with a high
spatial resolution. The disadvantage over the SCPT method is the elevated cost of the method.
7.5
Up-hole testing
Seismic up-hole tests measure the shear and dilatational wave velocities by placing an excitation
source in a borehole and measuring the arrival times of both types of waves at the surface.
Test procedure
The up-hole test is very similar to the down-hole test. Figure 38 shows the test setup. The
excitation source is now located in the borehole and the vibrations are recorded at the surface.
The test thus starts with the drilling of a borehole and the installation of a vibration receiver, a
geophone or an accelerometer, next to it. An excitation source is then lowered into the borehole.
The possibilities for the excitation source are limited due to the fact that it has to be useable in a
confined space. To generate P-waves, a vertical source needs to be used, this can for example
be a falling weight. To generate S-waves, a rotary source may be used.
As for the down-hole method, the test is repeated a number of times for every excitation depth.
The different data records are then stacked to obtain a higher SNR.
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Figure 38: Up-hole method.

The soil parameter estimation procedure is completely analogous to that of the down-hole method.
The travel times are known and so are the traveled distances. Equation (51) is therefore still applicable, as are the comments concerning the distance between the receiver and the borehole.

The advantage of the up-hole method is that it provides fairly accurate results, with a high spatial
resolution. The disadvantage over the SCPT method is the elevated cost of the method.
7.6
Cross-hole testing
The cross-hole method uses two or more boreholes, with an excitation source in one borehole
and receivers in the others. Using more than two boreholes makes the method more reliable and
makes the method useable for material damping estimations.
Test procedure
The method starts with the drilling of the required number of boreholes. In soft soils, the boreholes
typically need a lining, preferably made of plastic tubing. There are two ways of performing the
cross-hole method. The first method starts with the drilling of the complete boreholes. After the
drilling of the boreholes, the source and receivers are installed at a certain depth and stepwise
lowered into the hole. In the second method, the drilling is also done stepwise. After each drilling
step, the source and receiver are installed at the bottom of the borehole and the experiment is
executed.
As for the up-hole method, one can use a falling weight or a rotary source as excitation. For
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the cross-hole test, the rotary source can be used to create horizontally polarized shear waves
and the falling weight can be used to create vertically polarized shear waves. The combination
of both can identify an anisotropic soil model, with a different vertical and horizontal shear wave
velocity. An explosive source can be used to generate dilatational waves. High frequency signals
are preferred, so that near field effects are avoided.
(a)
(b)
Figure 39: Cross-hole method.
The other boreholes are used for the installation of vibration receivers, for which geophones or
accelerometers may be used. The receivers are lowered to the same depth as the excitation
source, which means that horizontally traveling waves are measured. To ensure a good coupling
between soil and receiver, a backfill material may be needed. This is not needed if the drilling is
also done stepwise.
When all receivers and the excitation source are installed at the same depth, the experiment can
start. The excitation source is activated, triggering the data acquisition and the ground motions
are recorded in each of the receiving boreholes. This process is repeated until a sufficiently
high SNR is obtained by stacking the time signals. The averaged time signals are used for the
determination of the arrival time and the motion intensity. The latter is needed for the estimation
of the material damping ratio. The source and receiver are then lowered further in the borehole.
Typical step lengths are between 0.5 and 1m.
When measurements are done to depths over 20m, it might be necessary to measure the inclination of the holes. This inclination has an effect on the distance between boreholes, which
becomes significant for large depths. If the inclination is measured, the cross-hole method can
be used up to depths of 50 to 80m.
The wave velocities can be estimated in a very similar way as for the up- and down-hole method.
The traveled distance x equals the distance between the excitation borehole and the receiver
borehole and the travel time t(z) at depth z is measured. The dilatational or shear wave velocity
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then becomes:
Cp/s (z) =
x
t(z)
(52)
When multiple receiver boreholes are used, then the difference in arrival time between receiving
boreholes is used. This is more reliable than using the travel time between the source and the
receivers, since it eliminates the errors due to a trigger delay. When multiple boreholes are used,
the method can also be used to estimate the material damping ratio. For this purpose, one
considers the decrease in amplitude of the vibrations with increasing distance from the source.
After correction for the effect of geometric damping, the remaining amplitude decrease is due to
the effect of material damping.

Because multiple boreholes are needed, the method is very expensive. However, results for the
wave velocities are of good to very good quality.
One has to be aware of the risk that refracted waves, traveling through nearby stiffer layers, may
arrive before the direct horizontal wave. This risk increases when layers are thin and when the
receiving boreholes are further from the transmitting borehole. This makes the spacing between
the boreholes a crucial test parameter. The numerical accuracy increases when the boreholes are
well separated, but a large distance between the boreholes increases the likelihood that refracted
waves arrive before the the direct waves.
A disadvantage of the method is the assumption of horizontal layers. When this assumption does
not hold, the results will be incorrect. Another disadvantage is the difficulty of estimating the
damping properties. To obtain a reasonable accuracy, the receivers need to be clamped to the
borehole wall very well.
7.7
Seismic cone penetration test
The Seismic Cone Penetration Test (SCPT) is a variant of the classical cone penetration test
[6, 32, 39]. It is an invasive test and allows for an estimation of the dilatational wave velocity and
the shear wave velocity, with corresponding material damping ratios.
Test procedure
Figure 40 shows the configuration of a typical cone, used in seismic cone penetration tests. The
cone is equipped with two receivers (triaxial geophones or accelerometers), vertically separated
by typically 1 m. This cone is pushed into the soil. A seismic source is installed next to the
penetration point of the cone. Vertical or horizontal hammer impacts on a foundation are typically
used as a source. Dependent on the direction of the hammer impact, P-waves or S-waves propagate through the soil along the shaft. The complete test setup is illustrated in figure 41. The
lateral offset between the source and the seismic cone is typically between 1.0 and 1.2 m. In
order to ensure that the loading beam is coupled to the soil, it is loaded by the weight of the CPT
truck. When a horizontal load is applied, rollers can be placed between the beam and the truck
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35.682
(A=10 cm)
43.702
(A=15 cm)
35.682
(A=10 cm)
47.873
(A=18 cm)
Triaxial sensor
(top part)
Triaxial sensor
(bottom part)
60
Cone tip
43.702
(A=15 cm)
to avoid energy leakage to the truck. It has been demonstrated that these rollers lead to shear
wave amplitudes that are three to four times higher than without them.
189
1033
392
260
720
370
1482
[mm]
Figure 40: Typical cone used for Seismic Cone Penetration Tests.
Side view
Front view
Lateral offset
Static
load
Mechanical
hammer
Sledge
hammer
x
Beam
Triaxial
accelerometers
1
Seismic cone
penetrometer
Figure 41: Seismic Cone Penetration Test setup.

The test is started by pushing the cone into the soil, to its initial depth. A mechanical hammer or
sledgehammer is then used to generate the impact on the foundation. This triggers the recording
of the vibrations in the two receivers in the cone. The passage of the resulting waves at the
receivers is recorded and stored on a computer. The cone is then pushed one step further into
the soil and the experiment is repeated. The step length is usually 0.5 or 1 m. These SCPTs can
reach as deep as conventional SPTs.

The wave velocity is estimated from the arrival times of the waves at both receivers or from the
phase of the transfer function between both receivers. For the first method, one can choose a
typical point on the time history, such as the first significant upward peak and look for this point
in the two time signals. Other possibilities are the first sudden rise or the first through of the time
function. The latter uses the auto- and cross-correlation spectra to estimate the transfer function.
The material damping ratio of the soil can be estimated from the modulus of the transfer function,
provided that the effect of geometrical attenuation is properly eliminated. In order to estimate the
variation of the soil properties with depth, the test is repeated for various cone penetration depths.
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This technique has the advantage that a high resolution can be obtained. Another advantage
is that it does not require a borehole, nor the difficulties associated with placing sensors in a
borehole. However, being an invasive method, the cone might be unable to penetrate hard layers,
placing a potentially unacceptable limit on the measurement depth.
7.8
Suspension PS logging
The use of a suspended probe in a borehole to obtain the P- and S-wave velocities in an ongoing
way is a relatively new method, dating back to the 1950s [95]. It is a technique that fulfills the
need of measuring shear wave velocities in deep, uncased boreholes.
Physical principle
The suspension PS logging test is similar to the up-hole test. However, to be able to reach large
depths, the source and receivers of the vibration are both lowered into the borehole. Neither the
receivers, nor the source are coupled to the borehole wall but are suspended in the borehole fluid.
The receivers therefore record the waves (P PR P and P SR P), in which the subscript
R refers to refracted waves on the walls of the borehole. For this critical refraction phenomenon
to happen, the shear wave velocity Cs in the soil has to be larger than the P-wave velocity Cf
in the fluid. When Cs < Cf there is no wave conversion P SR P and it is not possible to
measure the shear wave velocity in the ground by means of this procedure.
Test procedure
In order to move both the receivers and a source down the borehole, a probe (figure 42a) is hung
from a cable into the borehole and suspended in a borehole filled with water (or drilling fluid).
The source of vibration and the sensors are not linked to the borehole walls, but use water (or
drilling fluid) as a coupling with the ground. The method determines directly the average velocity
Cs (or Cp ) of the 1 m high soil column, located between the two horizontal geophones (or vertical
accelerometers).
The impulsive source of vibration generates a horizontal point force, normal to the boring walls.
The created wave field (figure 42b) can approximately be considered as produced by a point
force located within an infinite, elastic medium, provided that the wave length is much larger
than the borehole diameter d. The predominant radiation of S-waves occurs in the direction of
the borehole axis, whereas that of the P-wave is normal to it (figure 43).
An electromagnetic exciter (figure 44) is used to generate an impulsive force that is transmitted
through the water (or the drilling fluid) to the ground. In order to reach a maximum transmission efficiency (close to unity), it is necessary that the vibration source has a low mechanical
impedance and an apparent density similar to that of water (or drilling fluid).
The geophones (figure 45) are suspended in the drilling fluid so that, because of the apparent
density of the sensor which equals that of the drilling fluid, neutral buoyancy occurs and the
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(a)
(b)
Figure 42: (a) Suspension PS velocity logging system and (b) mode of soil deformation within a
half-space due to a horizontal impulse.
Figure 43: Radiation pattern of a single point force and conceptual displacement features of a
borehole induced by S-waves with wave length much higher than the borehole diameter d [43].
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(a)
(b)
Figure 44: (a) Electromagnetic exciter for the indirect-excitation type source and (b) principle of
the indirect excitation type source [43].
displacement U of the geophone equals that of the displacement UW of the drilling fluid. On
the other hand, the drilling fluid displacement equals the borehole wall displacement, provided
that the wavelength is much larger than the borehole diameter d. Consequently, the geophone
displacement also equals the soil displacement.
Figure 45: Principle of suspension type detector [43].

Figure 46 shows a time signal as recorded by the aforementioned receivers and generated by the
discussed excitation source. In this figure, HN and HR stand for the signals captured by the horizontal geophones when activating the horizontal wave source in the normal (N) and reversed (R)
direction. V in turn represents the signals of the near and far vertical accelerometers, generated
when striking horizontally in the normal direction.

As for all tests that measure the wave velocities by measuring vibrations in different receivers, the
shear wave velocity Cs can be determined from the distance between the horizontal geophones
(1 m) divided by the time difference of the peak values of the S-wave signals captured by each
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Figure 46: Example of measured time history.

receiver. The same procedure is used to obtain Cp values from the signals recorded by the near
and far accelerometers.
By calibrating the two horizontal geophones of the probe it is possible to identify particle velocities
induced by S-waves. Dividing those velocities by their corresponding Cp values, shear strains
can be estimated at each depth. Shear strain levels less than 108 were determined at different
depths [93].

The major advantage of the method is the depth to which it can be used, maximum depths up to
700 m have been reported.
The test duration depends on the desired spatial resolution. The conventional test is executed by
lowering the probe one meter at a time. In this case, there is no overlapping of the soil intervals
for which average velocities are measured and one can approximately measure 100 soil intervals
in 2.5 hours. If the resolution is increased, by using a step of half a meter, the test time is almost
doubled. In some tests, and for certain depth intervals, intervals of 0.2 m have been used. In
both cases a SIRT (Simultaneous Iterative Reconstruction Technique) analysis routine can be
used [60] to perform a least-squares inversion of the overlapping average velocities at each one
meter depth interval.
7.9
Spectral Analysis of Surface Waves
The Spectral Analysis of Surface Waves (SASW) test is a non invasive test method to determine
the dynamic shear modulus and the material damping ratio of shallow soil layers [58, 100]. The
SASW method has been used to investigate pavement systems [59], to assess the quality of
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ground improvement [16], to determine the thickness of waste deposits [42], and to identify the
dynamic soil properties for the prediction of ground vibrations [52, 54, 67].
Physical principle
The method relies on the measurement of surface waves, which were discussed in section 2.5.
Surface waves propagate in the horizontal direction and decay exponentially with depth. For low
frequencies, the wavelength of the surface waves is large and the surface waves reach deep soil
layers. These layers are generally stiff and weakly damped, resulting in a high phase velocity
and a low attenuation coefficient. For high frequencies, the wavelength of the surface waves
is smaller and the surface waves travel through shallow soil layers. These layers are generally
softer and more strongly damped, resulting in a lower phase velocity and a higher attenuation
coefficient. As a consequence, the phase velocity and attenuation coefficient of surface waves
vary with the frequency and are determined by the variation of the soil properties with depth.
Test procedure
The SASW method consists of three steps. First, an in situ measurement is performed where surface waves are generated by means of a falling weight device, an impact hammer, or a hydraulic
shaker. The response is measured by means of accelerometers or geophones located at the
soils surface. Priority should be given to vertically measuring sensors and a good coupling of the
sensors to the ground is crucial. Second, the experimental dispersion curve CRE () and attenuation curve AE
R () (i.e. the phase velocity and the attenuation factor as a function of the frequency)
are determined from the measurement data. Three different procedures to obtain this dispersion
curve will be discussed further, in order of increasing complexity. In the third step, an inverse
problem is solved in order to find a soil profile corresponding to the experimental dispersion and
attenuation curves. This will be discussed later.
The oldest and most basic method is to apply a steady-state harmonic force with frequency f on
the surface and use a receiver to find the distance to the nearest point that moves in phase with
the excitation source. The distance between the source and the receiver is then assumed to equal
one wavelength . The wave velocity CRE is calculated as f . Performing this experiment for various frequencies provides the data required to find the experimental dispersion curve. Compared
to the following methods, this first method is inefficient and is therefore not recommended.
A more efficient estimate of the surface wave velocity is obtained by means of Nazarians method
[58], where an impulsive source and a line of multiple receivers are used. The wave velocities are
estimated from the phase of the transfer functions between pairs of receivers. The H1 estimator
of the transfer function
is used for this purpose [22]. The accuracy of the estimator increases
proportionally to N , with N the number of events recorded (e.g. hammer impacts). For each
receiver pair, the phase velocity of the surface wave is estimated as:
CRE () =
rij
ij ()
(53)
where rij is the distance between the receivers and ij () is the unfolded phase of the transfer
function. The results for each receiver pair are withheld for a certain frequency only if the coherence between the signals is sufficiently high [76] and the measured wavelength E
R is not too
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high or too low compared to the receiver pair distance rij . The lower bound rmin for the ratio
rij /ER acts as a high-pass filter that limits the contribution of body waves:
rmin CRE
rij
(54)
while the upper bound rmax serves as a low-pass filter to remove the high frequency components
contaminated by coherent noise [58]:
rmax CRE
rij
(55)
Because of these thresholds, it is recommended to use different receiver pair distances. A recommended receiver positioning scheme is to place the first sensors at 2 and 3 m from the source
and then use multiples of these distances for the other sensors (e.g. 2 m, 3 m, 4 m, 6 m, 8 m,
12 m, etc.). The receivers at 2 m and 4 m, 3 m and 6 m, 4 m and 8 m, 6 m and 12 m, 8 m and
16 m, 12 m and 24 m, 16 m and 32 m, and 24 m and 48 m from the excitation source can then, for
example, be taken as pairs. The lowest distance determines the highest measurable frequency,
while the largest distance determines the lowest measurable frequency and therefore the depth
to which can be measured. This puts a minimum limit on the distance of the farthest separated
receiver pair. The dispersion curves of the different pairs are finally combined by fitting a high order polynomial to the cloud of points obtained from all pairs. Nazarians method can be adjusted
for use in a passive SASW, for which no excitation source is needed and ambient vibrations are
used instead [8]. These passive SASWs are suitable to measure in a low frequency range [63].
The third method, which also uses an impulsive load and multiple receivers, is based on the
) between the impact force and the vibrations at the receivers at distance
transfer function H(r,
r from the source [64, 65]. Most recent methods are based on a transformation of the transfer
) to the frequency-wavenumber domain. The resulting frequency-wavenumber
function H(r,
spectrum exhibits peaks corresponding to the occurrence of the surface waves, similar to the
peaks in the transfer function of a finite structure corresponding to the eigenmodes. The positions
of the peaks reveal the dispersion curves, while their width is used to determine the attenuation
curves, using the half-power bandwidth method [9]. Other methods to determine the attenuation
curve exist but are based on the hypothesis that the response of the soil is due to a single
surface mode [25, 48, 71]. Several transformation schemes are available for the computation
of the frequency-wavenumber spectrum. Most of these can be regarded as (approximations
of) a Fourier transformation. While a Fourier transformation leads to a frequency-wavenumber
spectrum that can be used for a reliable estimation of the dispersion curve, it can not be used for
the determination of the attenuation curve. Instead, a Hankel transformation should be applied
[24]: this transformation decomposes the (axisymmetric) wave field in a series of plane waves,
which is a prerequisite for the application of the half-power bandwidth method. In a similar way as
for the previous methods, the inter-receiver distance and the array length determine shortest and
longest measurable wavelength and, consequently, the frequency range where the dispersion
and attenuation curves can be determined. The number of receivers determines the accuracy of
the frequency-wavenumber spectrum. If only the dispersion curve is of interest, it is suggested to
use the same setup as for the method based on receiver-pair transfer functions. This approach
gives a relatively rough approximation of the frequency-wavenumber spectrum, but it is sufficiently
fine to determine the positions of the peaks in an accurate way. If the attenuation curve needs to
be determined as well, a higher number of receivers is required (e.g. 30 instead of 10), so that
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the shape of the peaks is resolved sufficiently well for the application of the half-power bandwidth
method.
Figure 47 shows the frequency-wavenumber spectrum for the site in Lincent. Only a single peak
can be distinguished, which means that the response at the soils surface is dominated by a
single (probably the fundamental) surface wave. The corresponding experimental dispersion and
attenuation curves are shown in figure 48.
300
0.3
250
0.25
Attenuation [1/m]
r , ) for the site in Lincent.

Figure 47: Experimental f k spectrum H(k
200
150
100
50
0
(a)
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
20
40
60
Frequency [Hz]
80
100
(b)
20
40
60
Frequency [Hz]
80
100
E
Figure 48: Experimental (a) dispersion curve CRE () and (b) attenuation curve R
() for the site
in Lincent.
In summary, a few practical guidelines can be formulated for the two most recent methods. First,
one should be aware that the smallest receiver pair distance determines the maximum measurable frequency and the highest distance determines the minimum measurable frequency. The
frequency range that is of interest depends on the soil itself, and can be estimated if historical
data are available. Second, in order to obtain a high coherence over a wide range of frequencies,
different sources should be used. Each source is rich in certain frequencies so when multiple
sources are used, a broad bandwidth is excited. Third, most of the experiment time goes into the
set-up of the receivers. Recording multiple impacts does not cost a lot of extra time. It is therefore recommended to record at least 20 times. SASW tests with 100 repetitions are certainly not
uncommon. Finally, it is strongly recommended to measure the input force, also in the second
method. This enables the computation of experimental transfer functions, which can be used for
a validation of the results.
The soil profile is finally determined from the experimental dispersion and attenuation curves
through the solution of an inverse problem. The direct stiffness method [41] or an equivalent
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formulation is used to calculate the theoretical dispersion and attenuation curves of a soil with a
given stiffness and damping profile. The theoretical dispersion curve corresponds to the first (or
fundamental) mode of a layered halfspace or to the effective dispersion curve (a combination of
multiple modes) in the case of inverse layering where still layers are underlain by softer layers
[26, 92]. The profile is iteratively adjusted in order to minimize a misfit function that measures
the distance between the theoretical and the experimental dispersion and attenuation curves.
The minimization problem is usually solved with a gradient based local optimization method [58].
An initial soil profile can be estimated by approximating the experimental CRE E
R curve with a
stepwise function, using the following rules of thumb:
Cs = 1.1CRE
(56)
ER
3
(57)
z=
and similar for the material damping ratio:
1 E E
A
2 R R
E
z= R
3
(58)
(59)
However, the dispersion and attenuation curves are insensitive to variations of the soil properties
on a small spatial scale or at a large depth. The information on the soil properties provided by
these curves is therefore limited. As a result, the solution of the inverse problem is non-unique:
the soil profile obtained from the inversion procedure is only one of the profiles that fit the experimental data. The non-uniqueness of the solution of the inverse problem in the SASW method
and the resulting impact on the accuracy of ground vibration predictions have been investigated
in reference [79].
The ElastoDynamics Toolbox EDT [78] may be used for the computation of the theoretical dispersion and attenuation curves in the inversion analysis.

As the SASW method is based on a non-invasive test, it is an inexpensive method since it does
not require the use of cone penetration or boreholes. The test can also be executed relatively
quickly. It is also an advantage that the test can lead to estimations of both the shear wave
velocity and the material damping ratio.
On the other hand, the resolution of the test is limited in terms of depth and spatial scale: it is
difficult to identify the properties of deep layers (more than 10-15 m) and to detect thin layers.
This may not be an issue, as deep and thin layers may also have little impact in ground vibration
predictions, depending on the frequency range of interest. Furthermore, the depth problem can
be overcome by the use of a passive SASW.
The experimental setup of the SASW method is the same as for the seismic refraction test,
which means that the data collected from an SASW test allow for the simultaneous determination
of the dilatational wave velocity. Combining both inversion analyses into one, gives important
synergies. In every iteration step, one soil profile is generated, which is used to compute the
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theoretical dispersion curve and surface response. The first is compared with the experimental
curve from the SASW method and the latter is compared to experimental surface response data.
A combined residual is now minimized. In this technique, the layer interfaces for the P- and Swave velocity will match. Furthermore, one can use information from the S-wave velocity profile
to make assumptions about possible inverted P-wave velocity profiles. This would increase the
reliability of the P-wave velocity estimations.
7.10
Seismic tomography
Traditional geotechnical investigations require drilling through the embankment and taking of samples and/or performance of in situ tests. In many cases, and particularly for railway embankments,
it is desired to use methods that do not require access to the embankment and do not interfere
with the ongoing traffic. For this purpose, the method of seismic cross-hole tomography can be
applied, obtaining a fairly good picture of wave velocities.
Tomography is a well-known technique in many branches of science to create images of projections (tomograms) of hidden objects by the use of X-rays, ultrasound or electromagnetic waves
(tomo = slice, graph = picture). During the past few decades the use of tomography has become
more common in the earth sciences, mainly in oil and gas prospectus. There are different kinds of
tomographic measurement techniques and what was used in this project is termed seismic cross
well direct wave travel time tomography. However, it is commonly called cross-hole tomography.
Physical principle
The basic principle of the technique is to estimate a velocity model of the ground by measuring
the time for elastic waves to propagate from a source to a receiver.
Test procedure
To perform seismic cross well tomography measurements it is necessary to have two (or more)
boreholes, figure 49(a). An array of geophones are inserted in one hole and an elastic wave is
generated in the other. A seismograph measures the time it takes for the wave to propagate from
the source point to the geophones. The source is then moved to another position in the hole
and the procedure is repeated. The measurement equipment consists of a summit seismograph,
borehole geophones and a seismic source (combined for both compression and shear waves)
run by an impulse generator (figure 49(b)).
The shear wave source and the geophones are clamped against the borehole wall by use of air
hoses to ensure good contact with the ground. Shear waves display a phase shift when rotating
the source 180. This property can be used to make sure that the correct waves are identified in
the seismograms. Therefore, for the shear wave measurements two data collections should be
made at each depth, one with the source oriented 90 from the location of the geophone (positive
phase) and one with the source located 270 from the direction of the geophone (negative phase).
Plotting the data from the two different source orientations on top of each other facilitates the
detection of the shear wave arrival time. The compression wave measurements should be made
with the source oriented directly towards the geophone, without clamping the source tool to the
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(a)
(b)
Figure 49: (a) Instrument setup and ray paths during a seismic tomography and (b) measurement
equipment.
borehole wall. This increases the possibility of receiving high quality compression wave data.
It is not necessary to rotate the source since the compression waves always arrive first to the
geophone and are thus fairly easy to identify.
The measurements produce numerous arrival times of waves that have crossed the investigated
area. The geophone distance and the wave frequency mainly govern the data resolution; the
shorter the distance and the higher the frequency, the better the resolution. The geometry of the
investigated area, or the ratio between the depth of the boreholes and the distance between the
boreholes is also an important parameter since shallow boreholes and a large distance will lead
to poor ray coverage.

The area between the boreholes is divided into a grid of velocity cells. The size of the cells can
be varied in any particular way, but it is seldom relevant to use a smaller size than the geophone
distance. Each cell is assigned an initial start value for the wave velocity. The program then
calculates the time it takes for different rays to travel through the area between the boreholes. The
calculated times are compared to the measured travel times, and the errors in the calculations are
the differences between these two parameters. Different rays intersect each cell and the best-fit
velocity is estimated by the least squares method. The procedure is repeated for a predetermined
number of iterations or until a chosen limit is reached, the so-called RMS residual. The calculated
velocity model does not provide a unique solution to the inversion problem, but with information
about the geological conditions at the site, it is possible to determine if the established model is
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physically reasonable.
(a)
(b)
Figure 50: (a) Shear wave and (b) compression wave tomograms from beneath an embankment.
Typical results of evaluated shear wave velocity measurements from beneath an embankment are
presented in figure 50a, the results of the evaluated compression wave velocity measurements
are presented in figure 50b. These results were obtained by performing measurements at every
1.0 m depth level, starting at the bottom of one borehole, ending 1 m depth below the ground
surface.

The advantage of seismic tomography is the possibility to obtain a high spatial resolution and
that it can estimate properties in an area that cannot be reached, for example the area under
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train tracks. Its disadvantages are the high cost that is associated with the boreholes and the
non-uniqueness of the solution.
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8. DYNAMIC SOIL CHARACTERISTICS FROM EMPIRICAL

RELATIONS
8.1
Introduction
This section gives empirical relations that can be used to estimate dynamic soil properties from
classical mechanical soil properties. The section is split into two subsections. Subsection 8.2
uses classical soil properties such as the void ratio e, the overconsolidation ratio OCR, the plasticity index Ip , the water content w , the undrained shear strength cu , the liquid limit wl and the
Poisson ratio to obtain the small strain dynamic soil properties that are required in numerical
analyses. Subsection 8.3 uses the measurement data from classical in situ tests to estimate the
same small strain dynamic soil properties directly.
The dynamic soil properties are affected by the effective stress level, by the strain level and can
vary with time. The ground water conditions and soil layering can be important as well and need
to be considered. The most important factors, influencing soil behaviour during vibratory loading,
are the strain level, the number of loading cycles and the loading rate.
Empirical relations for the dynamic properties have been elaborated for various soils and in relation with different problems. The relations for the maximum shear modulus are probably best
verified and some of them have been elaborated with particular reference to different sources
described in literature. There exists a large amount of empirical and semi-empirical methods to
estimate dynamic properties of ground materials based on general geotechnical and rock mechanical index parameters.
Empirical methods should only be used to obtain a first estimation of the soil properties, which is
then used in planning subsequent in situ tests. Parameters obtained with empirical relations only
are not acceptable for the characterization of test sites in the RIVAS project.
8.2
Dynamic properties from classical soil mechanical properties
8.2.1 Small strain shear modulus

Granular Soils
For coarse- and medium-grained soils, the small strain shear modulus 0 is estimated with guidance from its grain size distribution, grain shape, void ratio and stress condition. The following
empirical relation is often used to estimate the small strain shear modulus 0 [kPa]:
0 = AF (e) (0 )
(60)
in which F (e) is a function of the void ratio and 0 is the effective confining stress in kPa. A
summary of these formulae is given in table 6, in which it can be seen that a typical value for n is
0.5.
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Ref.
[29]
Sand
[83]
[38]
[44]
[99]
[28]
Clay
[53]
[101]
[46]
F (e)
(2.17 e)2 /(1 + e)

(2.97 e)2 /(1 + e)
0.67 e/(1 + e)
(2.17 e)2 /(1 + e)
(2.17 e)2 /(1 + e)
(2.17 e)2 /(1 + e)
7000
3300
42000
9000
8400
7000
3300
4500
450
2000 4000
141
(2.97 e)2 /(1 + e)

(2.97 e)2 /(1 + e)
(4.4 e)2 /(1 + e)
(2.97 e)2 /(1 + e)
(7.32 e)2 /(1 + e)
Soil material
Test method
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.38
0.5
0.5
Round grained Ottawa sand

Angular grained crushed quartz
Three kinds of clean sand
Eleven kinds of clean sand
Toyoura sand
Three kinds of clean sand
Resonant column
Resonant column
Ultrasonic pulse
Resonant column
Cyclic triaxial
Resonant column
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.6
Kaolinite, etc.
Kaolinite, Ip = 35
Bentonite, Ip = 60
Remolded clay, Ip = 0 50
Undisturbed clays, Ip = 40 85
Resonant column
Resonant column
Resonant column
Resonant column
Cyclic triaxial
Table 6: Constants in proposed empirical relations for the small strain modulus [45].
In fine-grained soils, the effect of overconsolidation on the shear modulus becomes pronounced.
The equation for the small strain shear modulus 0 [kPa] then changes according to Hardin [27]
to:
0 = A F (e) OCRk (0 pa )
(61)
1
in which OCR is the overconsolidation ratio, A is 625, F (e) is (0.3 + 0.7e2 ) , n is 0.5, pa is a
reference pressure of 98.1 kPa, 0 is the effective confining stress in kPa and k is an adjustment
factor depending on the plasticity index Ip of the soil (figure 51). Equation (61) is mainly used for
low-plastic clays and layered or otherwise inhomogeneous soils, where it can be difficult to obtain
satisfactory and representative values of the undrained shear strength and the consistency limits.
Figure 51: Overconsolidation adjustment factor k versus plasticity index Ip [27].

The variation of the shear modulus 0 in dry sand as a function of depth (confining pressure) is
shown in figure 52. A K0 -value of 0.50 has been assumed. It is apparent that the most important
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parameter, which affects the shear modulus, is the void ratio e. The shear modulus increases
with depth from a low value at the ground surface and is thus not a constant value, as is often
assumed. Even a relatively small change in porosity has a large influence on the shear modulus.
Figure 52: Variation of the maximum shear modulus 0 in dry sand with an assumed coefficient
of lateral earth pressure K0 = 0.5.
Cohesive soils
In soft, normally consolidated clays, the following relationship can be used to estimate the small
strain shear modulus 0 [kPa]:
0 =
p
5150
v
0.3 + 5.1w 2
(62)
in which w is the water content and v is the effective vertical stress in kPa.
The small strain shear modulus 0 [kPa] in normally consolidated or slightly overconsolidated
soils can be estimated as [50]:
0 =
504 cu
wl
(63)
in which cu is the undrained shear strength in kPa and wl is the liquid limit. This relation covers the
whole range of fine-grained soils from low-plastic silty soils to high-plastic clayey organic soils.
An alternative relation, which may yield slightly better estimates for the small strain shear modulus
0 [kPa] in high- and medium plastic clays is:
0 =

208
+ 250 cu
Ip
(64)
in which cu is the undrained shear strength in kPa. In overconsolidated clays, the modulus estimated from the undrained shear strength is reduced. Tentatively, this can be done as follows:
0(OC) = 0(NC)
(65)
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in which 0(OC) is the small strain shear modulus in overconsolidated soil, 0(NC) is the small strain
shear modulus for normally consolidated soil, and is the correction factor for overconsolidation.
This correction is based on data presented by Andersen et al. [5]. Atkinson has later presented
data, which indicate a similar correction [7].
The undrained shear strength depends on the plasticity index, Ip and the effective stress. Dringer
developed the following relationship between the shear modulus 0 [kPa] and the undrained shear
strength cu [kPa] for cohesive soils [17]:
0
= A F (e) OCRk
cu p a
1 + 2K0
3 (0.0029Ip + 0.13)
(66)
in which A equals 625, F (e) is (0.3 + 0.7e2 ) , Ip (%) is the plasticity index, pa is a reference
pressure of 100 kPa and K0 is the coefficient of lateral earth pressure at the rest. The constant
k equals unity for granular soils (sand and gravel). Dringer (1997) also performed a comprehensive literature survey of the shear modulus determined from field and laboratory tests [17],
which also included the data reported by Larsson and Mulabdic [50]. Field as well laboratory test
data were used to assess a correlation between the natural water content wn , the plasticity index,
Ip and the undrained shear strength cu as shown in figure 53. The maximum shear modulus at
small strain, 0 has been calculated for the undrained shear strength cu and a reference stress
pa of 100 kPa.
Figure 53: Relation between the normalize shear modulus and water content for normally consolidated clay and silt [17]. The relationship is shown for different values of the plasticity index.
Different investigation methods (field and laboratory) have shown a surprisingly good correlation
for a wide range of soils (with water content ranging from 20% 180%). The shear modulus data
from laboratory tests are slightly lower and show a larger scatter than results from in situ tests.
An important conclusion from figure 53 is that the shear modulus does not have constant value,
but can vary within wide limits. The water content (and thus the void ratio e) is an important
parameter. The relationship in figure 53 can also be applied to soils with organic content and
peat. However, in soils with a high organic content it is advisable to perform seismic field tests to
check the validity of empirical correlations.
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In peat, it is difficult to obtain relevant values of both undrained shear strength and liquid limit.
The shear modulus 0 [kPa] in peat may be estimated from [10]:
0.55
0 = 13800 wn0.67 vo
(67)
in which wn is the natural water content (%) and vo

is the effective overburden pressure in
kPa. This equation is based on experience from Japanese peat and its relevance for other soil
conditions is uncertain. It should therefore be used with caution.
8.2.2 Estimation of shear modulus degradation curve

The shear stress-strain relations for soils are not linear but follow a hyperbolic of slightly modified
hyperbolic relation. The relation has been found to be different for coarse-grained and finegrained soils. The relative decrease of the modulus with strain is generally quicker in coarsegrained soils. Data from a wide range of sandy and gravelly soils have been compiled by Rollins
et al. [75]. The best hyperbolic relation for all the data points is shown in figure 54. This relation
also more or less coincides with the center of the range found for sands by Seed et al. (1970)
[80]. It approximately follows a curve with equation [75]:
1
=
0
1.2 + 1600 (1 + 102000 )
(68)
in which is the shear strain. This relation also agrees well with empirical studies performed
for more fine-grained non-plastic soils, i.e. Ip = 0. It can thus be used for the whole range of
medium- and coarse-grained soils from coarse silt and upward. In coarser soils, there is an effect
of the stress level in the soil. It is obvious that there is a decrease of modulus which is more rapid
at low effective stresses. The effect is considered to be small and is normally not accounted for.
However, it may be significant at very low stress levels.
Figure 54: Relation between /0 and shear strain [75].

In fine-grained soils, the stress-strain relations have been found to depend on the plasticity of
the soil. There is a relatively brittle behaviour in low-plastic soils in contrast to ductile behaviour
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and large failure strains in high-plastic soils, particularly in organic soils. Vucetic and Dobry have
presented empirical data for the relative decrease of the shear modulus with strain in fine-grained
soils [96]. The curves in figure 55 show the influence of the plasticity of the soil on this relation.
The corresponding curves for peat fall on or to the right of the curve for Ip = 200.
Figure 55: Influence of shear strain and plasticity on the shear modulus in fine-grained soils [96].
8.2.3 Small strain phase velocities

Indirect method, from shear modulus estimation
According to equation (17), the estimations for the small strain shear modulus lead directly to
estimates for the shear wave velocity if the mass density is known or estimated.
Correspondingly, the compression wave velocity Cp can be calculated from the constrained (oedometer) modulus M0 or from the shear modulus 0 if the Poisson ratio is known, according to
equations (15) and (18), respectively.
Poissons ratio for saturated soft soils (Sr = 100%) is approximately 0.5. The small-strain
Poissons ratio for unsaturated soils (Sr < 99%) is about 0.15 and increases with strain level to
about 0.30. The same relationships can be used to calculate the shear modulus and the confined
modulus if the wave velocities are known. The shear wave velocities for normally consolidated
soils have been calculated and are shown in figure 56.
The shear wave velocity is not constant but increases with depth. The void ratio (and thus in
saturated soils the water content) is an important soil parameter, which affects the shear wave
velocity. In sands overconsolidation does not appear to have a significant influence on the shear
wave velocity. In overconsolidated clays, the overconsolidation effect should be considered.
Direct empirical relations
The shear wave velocity can also be determined based on empirical relationships and experience.
Typical values of the compression wave velocity and the shear wave velocity for different materials
are given in table 7.
For fully saturated soils, the dilatational wave velocity can be estimated according to equation
(25).
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Figure 56: Shear wave velocities in dry sand for different values of the void ratio e.
Soil Type
Ice
Water
Granite
Sandstone, Shale
Fractured Rock
Moraine
Saturated Sand and Gravel
Dry Sand and Gravel
Clay below GW level
Organic soils
P-Wave Velocity
[m/s]
S-Wave Velocity
[m/s]
3 000 - 3 500
1480 - 1520
4 500 - 5 500
2 300 - 3 800
2 000 - 2 500
1400 - 2000
1400 - 1800
500 - 800
1480 - 1520
1480 - 1520
1 500 - 1 600
0
3 000 - 3 500
1 200 - 1 600
800 - 1400
300 - 600
100 - 300
150 - 350
40 - 100
30 - 50
Table 7: Indicative values of compression wave velocity Cp and shear wave velocity Cs for different materials.
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8.2.4 Small strain material damping

During each loading cycle, material damping dissipates a small amount of energy, which is converted into heat. At small strain (< 105 ), the material damping ratio is low and in the range
of 2 4% for most soils. The variation is much less at small strain than in the case of the shear
modulus. Damping values at small strain can be estimated based on experience, figure 57.
Figure 57: Typical values of the material damping ratio for different soils at small strain (< 105 ).
The material damping ratio in the soil can be estimated in a similar way with a division of the soil
into medium- and coarse grained soils and fine-grained soils. However, the picture for the variation of this parameter is not quite as consistent as for the shear modulus. In general, the damping
ratio increases with increasing strain and is highest for coarser non-plastic soils and lowest for
high-plastic and organic soils. With increasing shear strain, the influence of the plasticity index Ip
on the material damping ratio becomes more pronounced. Material damping is much higher in
granular soils. At a shear strain level of 103 , the damping ratio is about 10 to 15% in low-plastic
(granular) soils, while damping is much less in cohesive soils, in the order of 3 to 8%.
The average of the data for sand and gravel presented by Seed et al. [80] agrees very well with
the relation proposed for non-plastic silts by Vucetic and Dobry [96]. Seed et al. also proposed
that the damping ratios in sand and gravel are very similar. In contrast, many of the data for
gravelly soils compiled by Rollins et al. show lower damping ratios, which are almost in the same
range as for high plastic clays [75]. The variation in damping ratio with strain for gravelly soils
presented by Rollins et al. is shown in figure 58. The figure also shows the range of data for
sands and gravels presented by Seed et al. [80].
The damping ratio - strain relation is affected by the stress level and the relative density. An increase in stress level results in a lower damping ratio and an increase in relative density results in
a higher damping ratio. It thus appears as if the relations for damping ratio versus strain proposed
for sand and gravel by Seed et al. [80] and by Vucetic and Dobry [96] for non-plastic fine-grained
soils can be used for all non-plastic soils with grain sizes from coarse silt and upwards. In finegrained soils a clear influence of the plasticity on the damping ratio has been found. The damping
ratio thus decreases with increasing plasticity and organic content. Empirical guidelines for the
variation of damping ratio with strain and plasticity index have been proposed by Vucetic and
Dobry [96] (figure 58). The curves for damping ratios in peat fall on or below the curve for PI =
200.
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Figure 58: Damping ratio versus strain for coarse-grained soils [75].
Figure 59: Damping ratio versus strain for fine-grained soils [96].
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8.3
Small strain shear wave velocity from CPT and SPT results
Cohesive soils
In [55] the following equation for the estimation of 0 [kPa] for clays, as a function of qc and the
void ratio e is given:
99.5
0 = pa 1.13
e
qc
pa
0.695
(69)
where pa is a reference pressure of 100 kPa and qc is in units of kPa. A correlation with N ,
the result from a SPT test, has been identified [13]. A coefficient of determination r 2 = 0, 901
indicates a strong correlation. Using equation (69) and the correlation between NSPT and qc given
in [13], table 8 has been produced, relating qc with N and Cs for different void ratios.
qc
Cs
NSPT
[kPa]
[m/s]
(correlated)
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
1000
2500
5000
10000
15000
232
320
407
517
596
34
89
16 17
33 34
50
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1000
2500
5000
10000
15000
157
216
275
350
403
34
89
16 17
33 34
50
1.5
1.5
1.5
1.5
1.5
1000
2500
5000
10000
15000
125
172
219
278
320
34
89
16 17
33 34
50
e0
Table 8: Variations for clays of Cs with qc [55] and with NSPT [13].
Cohesionless soils
For cohesionless soils, 0 [kPa] can be estimated with CPT results:
0 = 1634
qc1/4
v
pref
0.375
(70)
in which v is the effective vertical stress in kPa, pref is a reference pressure of 1 kPa and qc is in
units of kPa.
For cohesionless soils, SPT results can be used as well to estimate the shear wave velocity. More
than twenty correlations between Cs and N , for different types of soils, as established by different
authors, are identified [51]. Focusing mainly on cohesionless soils, the relationships proposed
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by Imai [36], Sykora and Stokoe [88], and Ohta and Goto [61] have been retained in [51]. The
following relationship proposed by Seed et al. [82] has also been considered:
Cs = 69N 0.17 D 0.2 F1 F2
(71)
with D the depth from the surface in meter, F1 a factor which is 1 for alluvial deposits and 1.3 for
diluvial deposits and F2 a factor that depends on the soil type as indicated in table 9.
Soil Type
Clay
Fine sand
Medium sand
Coarse sand
Sandy gravel
Gravel
F2
1.00
1.09
1.07
1.14
1.15
1.45
Table 9: F2 for different types of soil [80].
Using equation (71) (for D = 5 m and F1 F2 = 1.25), together with the abovementioned relationships, calculated values of Cs for increasing N result of SPT test (N = 5, 10, 15, . . . , 30), have
been given in table 10. Values of qc estimated according to [56] have also been incorporated in
the second column of this table.
SPT
N
5
10
15
20
25
30
Meyerhof
(1963)
Imai
(1977)
Sykora and Stokoe

(1983)
Ohta and Goto

(1987)
Seed
(1986)
Cs = 80.6N 0.331
Cs = 330N 0.29
Cs = 85.35N 0.348
Cs = 69Nj0.17 D0.2 F1 F2
qc
Cs
Cs
Cs
Cs
(kPa)
(m/s)
(m/s)
(m/s)
(m/s)
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
137
173
198
217
234
248
160
196
220
239
255
269
149
190
219
242
262
279
156
176
189
198
206
212
Table 10: Variations of Cs with NSPT according to different authors in [51] and [56]. For the
formula of Seed, D is taken 5 m and F1 F2 = 1.25.
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9. RECOMMENDATION FOR RIVAS TEST PROCEDURE
9.1
Introduction
It is inferred from sections 6, 7 and 8 that many different test methods can be used to obtain the
dynamic soil characteristics that are needed for the experimental validation of numerical predictions in the RIVAS project. This section therefore proposes a recommended procedure.
9.2
Recommended procedure
The first step in any soil investigation campaign involves a study of archive records like geological
maps and results of previous geotechnical investigations such as drillings, samplings, laboratory
tests and in situ tests. An estimation of the soil layering and the dynamic characteristics of each
layer is crucial for the planning of soil sampling and in situ tests and can be obtained from archive
records and empirical relations (section 8) between classical soil mechanics parameters and
dynamic soil characteristics. It should be emphasized that, within RIVAS, estimations of dynamic
soil characteristics based on empirical relations cannot replace their determination by means of
in situ or laboratory tests.
In the second step, (undisturbed) soil samples are taken. These samples are needed for the
determination of the mass density , which is one of the five parameters per soil layer (section
2), and other important parameters such as the void ratio, the degree of saturation, etc. This
enhances the understanding of the soil behaviour; based on these parameters, empirical relations
can provide an update of the estimated dynamic soil characteristics. The required number of
samples depends on the soil layering, as estimated in the first step; at least one sample per soil
layer is recommended. Due to the heterogeneous nature of the soil, it is highly recommended,
however, to take samples at different lateral positions as to obtain spatially averaged values per
soil layer.
In the third step, in situ seismic experiments are planned, testing a representative volume of soil in
natural stress and compaction conditions at small strain levels. A combined surface wave - seismic refraction test (sections 7.3 and 7.9) is proposed as this test is easy to perform at relatively
low cost (as it is non-invasive) and allows to determine all required dynamic soil characteristics; possible disadvantages, however, are lack of penetration depth and resolution. A combined
inversion (with a combined objective function) of the dynamic soil characteristics is highly recommended. It is also strongly recommended to measure the input force, so that the soils transfer
functions are available and can be used for validation of the dynamic soil characteristics derived
from the test.
If possible, it is advisable to also employ borehole methods or an SCPT in addition to the combined surface wave - seismic refraction test. These methods are able to provide a better spatial
resolution at depth, as well as results upto larger depths.
Laboratory tests on undisturbed samples, such as the resonant column test and the cyclic triaxial test (combined with bender element measurements), may be used to determine the strain
dependency of the shear modulus and material damping ratio.
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Steps 1-3 in this recommended course of action do not depend on budget or local soil conditions,
but are minimum constituents of a reliable soil investigation campaign. The use of borehole
methods is not a minimum requirement, but is nevertheless highly recommended if the budget
is available. Laboratory tests are useful to verify the assumption of linear behaviour and to gain
insight in nonlinear effects close to the source of vibration. They can, however, not replace in situ
testing.
The results of the soil investigation campaigns need to be reported in a detailed manner, containing information about all steps including the study of archive records, the soil sampling, the
classical soil mechanics tests, the seismic in situ tests and the dynamic laboratory tests. Test
reports should contain all information that renders the tests reproducible.
The data from all performed tests should be summarized, providing soil profiles including all
relevant information for each layer: the layer thickness d, the wave velocities Cp and Cs , the
material damping ratios p and s and the mass density . It is also advisable to report on the
validation of the test results, in order to provide an indication of the reliability of the obtained
results.
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[13] H. Bolomey. Frmulas de hinca dinmica. Revista de Obras Pblicas, December 1971.
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[15] C.R.I. Clayton, M.C. Matthew, and N.E. Simons. Site Investigation. Blackwell Science Ltd.,
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[17] H. Dringer. Verformungseigenschaften von bindigen Bden bei kleinen Deformationen

(Deformation properties of cohesive soils at small strain). Masters thesis, Royal Institute
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RIVAS

TEST PROCEDURES FOR THE DETERMINATION

Submission Date: 22/12/2011

RIVAS WP 1.3 Deliverable 1.1

2 WAVE PROPAGATION IN ELASTIC MEDIA

2.2 Elastodynamic equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.3 Dilatational and shear waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.4 The direct stiffness method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.5 Free vibration problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.5.1 Homogeneous halfspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.5.2 Layered halfspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.6 Forced vibration problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.6.1 Homogeneous halfspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.6.2 Layered halfspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.7 Presence of ground water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3 CONSTITUTIVE BEHAVIOUR OF SOILS

3.2 Small and large strain behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3.3 Modelling of the soil behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4 CLASSICAL SOIL MECHANICS TESTS ON (UN)DISTURBED SAMPLES

4.2 Index properties of soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.2.1 Water content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.2.4 Void ratio, porosity and relative density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.2.5 Grain size distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.2.6 Plasticity of soils, Atterberg limits, consistency and plasticity index . . . . .

4.2.7 Overconsolidation ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.3 Strength of soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.3.1 Unconfined compression test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.3.2 Unconsolidated undrained triaxial compression test . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.3.3 Consolidated drained triaxial compression test

4.3.4 Consolidated undrained triaxial compression test . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.3.5 Direct shear box test

4.4 Compressibility and deformation of soils: oedometer testing . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.4.2 Swelling and swelling pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.5 Application in the scope of dynamic soil characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5 CLASSICAL IN SITU TESTS

5.2 Cone penetration and piezocone penetration tests (CPT, CPTU) . . . . . . . . . .

5.3 Standard penetration test (SPT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5.4 Comparison of CPT and SPT tests results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5.5 Application in the scope of dynamic soil characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6 DYNAMIC LABORATORY TESTS

6.2 Resonant column test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.2.1 Physical principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.2.2 Resonant column device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.2.3 Test procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.2.4 Results of resonant column tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.3 Bender element test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.3.1 Physical principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.3.2 Interpretation of the tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.3.3 Recommended procedure for BE test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.4 Cyclic simple shear test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.4.3 Test applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.4.4 Typical test results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.5 Cyclic triaxial test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.5.1 Introduction and applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.5.2 Laboratory equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.5.3 Test procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7 SEISMIC IN SITU TESTS

7.2 General guidelines for seismic in situ methods

7.3 Seismic refraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7.4 Down-hole testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7.5 Up-hole testing

7.6 Cross-hole testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7.7 Seismic cone penetration test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7.8 Suspension PS logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .