• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.71-81
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• 2005

Surface wave techniques were initially based on 2-D plane waves and were later improved to the techniques based the 3-D based cylindrical waves. However, body-wave interference, near-field effect and limited technology in surface wave measurements restricted the use of 3-D cylindrical waves to the 1-D evaluation of subgrade stiffness. In this study, by the numerical simulation of SASW measurements, the dispersion properties of surface waves including vertical, horizontal Rayleigh waves and Love waves were thoroughly investigated in the 3-D domain, and a new filter criteria to minimize the near-field effect was established, which led to CAP (common-array-profiling)-SASW technique. The CAP-SASW technique enabled the evaluation of subgrade stiffness fur a specific subgrade segment, not for a whole section of measurement array. Therefore, a contour plot of subgrade stiffness with a ground-truth quality can be obtained by the CAP-SASW technique. The procedure proposed in this study was verified by comparing the shear-wave velocity profiles with the shear-wave velocity profiles of downhole testing at two geotechnical sites.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.338-345
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• 2005

Recently, surface-wave methods have been widely used for site investigation due to economic advantage and improved reliability. Specially, the Spectral-Analysis-of-Surface-Wave (SASW) method has been used to evaluate soil properties in geotechnical engineering. In determination of subgrade stiffness by SASW measurements, only the vertical Rayleigh waves have been used. This study proposed a framework to determine shear-wave velocity profiles by using vertical and horizontal Rayleigh waves and Love wave all together. In addition, the Common-Array-Profiling(CAP) SASW method was employed, which subgrade stiffness of profile the local material under two fixed receivers. The procedure proposed in this study was verified by comparing the shear-wave velocity profiles with the shear-wave velocity profiles of downhole testing at two geotechnical sites.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.1C
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• pp.45-51
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• 2010

In urban area, design and construction of civil engineering structures such as subway tunnel, underground space and deep excavation is impeded by unreliable site investigation. Variety of embedded objects, electric noises and traffic vibrations degrades the quality of site investigation, whatever the site-investigation technique would be. In this research, a preliminary research was performed to develop a dedicated site investigation technique for urban geotechnical sites, which can overcome the limitations of urban sites. HiRAS (Hybrid Integration of Surface Waves and Resistivity) technique which is the first outcome of the preliminary research was proposed in this paper. The technique combines surface wave as well as electrical resistivity. CapSASW method for surface-wave technique and PDC-R technique for electrical resistivity survey were incorporated to develop HiRAS technique. CapSASW method is a good method for evaluating material stiffness and PDC-R technique is a reliable method for determination of underground stratification even in a site with electrical noise. For the inversion analysis of HiRAS techniuqe, a site-specific relationship between stress-wave velocity and resistivity was employed. As for outgrowth of this research, the 2-D distribution of Poisson's ratio could be also determined.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.207-218
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• 2013

One of the input parameters in the evaluation of seismic performance of rockfill dams is shear-wave velocity of rock debris and clay core. Reliable evaluation of shear-wave velocity by surface-wave methods requires overcoming the problems of rock-debris discontinuity, material inhomogeneity and sloping boundary. In this paper, for the shear-wave velocity investigation of rockfill dams, SBF (Short-Array Beamforming) technique was proposed using the principles of conventional beamforming technique and adopted to solve limitations of the conventional surface-wave techniques. SBF technique utilizes a 3- to 9-m long measurement array and a far-field source, which allowed the technique to eliminate problems of near-field effects and investigate local anomalies. This paper describes the procedure to investigate shear-wave velocity profile of rockfill dams by SBF technique and IRF (Impulse-response filtration) technique with accuracy and reliability. Validity of the proposed SBF technique was verified by comparisons with downhole tests and CapSASW (Common-Array-Profiling Spectral-Analysis-of-Surface-Waves) tests at a railroad embankment compacted with rock debris.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.1C
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• pp.37-44
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• 2010

Recently, urban retrofit and extension, development of new buildings and facilities, and construction of underground structures like subway tunnels in urban areas give rise to significance of site investigation at urban areas. However, ambient electric noises, traffic vibrations, embedded objects work as obstacles to high-quality and accuracy in site investigation at urban areas. In this paper, a new technique called the pseudo-DC resistivity survey (in brief, PDC-R) was proposed to minimize the adverse effect of ambient electrical noises in resistivity survey. PDC-R technique utilizes an AC current with frequency range of 0.1 to 1.0 Hz rather than DC current, which is used for conventional resistivity survey. The motivation of using low-frequency AC current is to avoid 60-Hz components or its multiples in the resistivity survey which ambient noises are mostly composed of. The implementation of PDC-R technique also included the parametric study on skin effect, frequency effect and current-level effect, which led to the determination of optimal values of frequency and current level for PDC-R survey. The reliability and feasibility of PDC-R technique was verified through field tests, accompanied by the comparison with DC resistivity survey and CapSASW tests.