• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.19-28
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• 2022

Cavities behind concrete walls can adversely affect the stability of structures. Thus study aims to detect cavities behind concrete structures using a microphone in a laboratory model test. A small-scale concrete wall is constructed in a chamber, which is composed of a reinforced concrete plate and dry soil. A plastic bowl is then placed between the plate and soil to simulate a cavity behind the concrete structure. Leaky surface acoustic waves are generated by impacting the concrete plate using a hammer and are measured using a microphone. The measured signals are analyzed using natural frequencies, and cavity-free sections are evaluated. The test results show that the first natural frequency decreases at the cavity section due to the flexural vibration behavior of the plate. In addition, the amplitude corresponding to the first natural frequency decreases as the measurement location becomes farther from the cavity center and significantly decreases at the measurement locations near the rebars. This study demonstrates that a microphone may be useful to detect cavities behind concrete walls.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.52-59
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• 2008

We have developed a new deep-towed marine DC resistivity survey system. It was designed to detect the top boundary of the methane hydrate zone, which is not imaged well by seismic reflection surveys. Our system, with a transmitter and a 160-m-long tail with eight source electrodes and a receiver dipole, is towed from a research vessel near the seafloor. Numerical calculations show that our marine DC resistivity survey system can effectively image the top surface of the methane hydrate layer. A survey was carried out off Joetsu, in the Japan Sea, where outcrops of methane hydrate are observed. We successfully obtained DC resistivity data along a profile ${\sim}3.5\;km$ long, and detected relatively high apparent resistivity values. Particularly in areas with methane hydrate exposure, anomalously high apparent resistivity was observed, and we interpret these high apparent resistivities to be due to the methane hydrate zone below the seafloor. Marine DC resistivity surveys will be a new tool to image sub-seafloor structures within methane hydrate zones.