• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2008.03a
• /
• pp.119-126
• /
• 2008

Ground stiffness(shear wave velocity) is one of the key parameters in geotechnical earthquake engineering. An In-situ seismic technique has its own advantages and disadvantages over the others in stiffness measurements. By combining the crosshole and seismic cone techniques and utilizing favourable features of bender elements, a new hybrid probe has been developed in order to enhance data quality and easiness of testing. The basic structure of the probe, called "MudFork", is a fork composed of two blades, on each of which source and receiver bender elements were mounted respectively. To evaluate the disturbance caused by the penetration of the probe, shear wave velocity measurements were carried out in the Kaolinite slurry in the laboratory. Finally, the probe was penetrated in coastal mud near Incheon, Korea, using SPT(standard penetration test)rods pushed with a routine boring machine and shear wave velocity measurements were carried out. The results were verified with data from laboratory and cone testing. The performance of the probe turns out to be excellent in terms of data quality and testing convenience.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.28 no.2C
• /
• pp.125-131
• /
• 2008

Ground stiffness(shear wave velocity) is one of the key parameters in geotechnical earthquake engineering. An In-situ seismic technique has its own advantages and disadvantages over the others in stiffness measurements. By combining the crosshole and seismic cone techniques and utilizing favourable features of bender elements, a new hybrid probe has been developed in order to enhance data quality and easiness of testing. The basic structure of the probe, called "MudFork" is a fork composed of two blades, on each of which source and receiver bender elements were mounted respectively. To evaluate the disturbance caused by the penetration of the probe, shear wave velocity measurements were carried out in the Kaolinite slurry in the laboratory. Finally, the probe was penetrated in coastal mud near Incheon, Korea, using SPT(standard penetration test)rods pushed with a routine boring machine and shear wave velocity measurements were carried out. The results were verified with data from laboratory and cone testing. The performance of the probe turns out to be excellent in terms of data quality and testing convenience.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.215-223
• /
• 2005

Piezo-ceramics are special materials which transform energy from mechanical to electrical forms and vice versa. Bender elements are composite materials consisting of thin piezo-ceramics and elastic shims, and are widely used as actuators and transducers in the field of electronics, robotics, autos and mechatronics utilizing the effectiveness of energy transformation capability. In geotechnical engineering, commercial bender elements are used in laboratory as source and receiver in the measurements of soil stiffness. The elements were built by using various metal shims sandwiched between piezo-ceramics and coating over the composite in the research. A pair of elements were buried in a concrete block and used as source and receiver to measure the stiffness of the concrete. The test results were verified by comparing with the resonant column testing results. In a preliminary stage of the development of an in-situ seismic testing equipment using bender elements for soft clay materials, shear waves were generated and measured by burying the elements in the barrel of kaolinite and water mixture. The measured shear wave signals were so distinct for the first-arrival pick that applicability of the elements in the field measurements could be very promising.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.23 no.8
• /
• pp.59-68
• /
• 2007

The comparative study using the lab-scale experiment and the discrete element analysis is attempted to analyze the cross-anisotropic elasticity of granular soils. The lab-scale experiment consists of the small stress-controlled triaxial cyclic tests and the bender element tests. In the discrete element analysis the simulations of lab-scale cyclic tests are conducted in the various directions. Good agreement between the experimental data and the simulation on the elastic properties in the axial and shear directions confirms the usefulness of the discrete element method. The comparative analysis of the difference in the experimental data and the simulation of radial cyclic tests shows that the discrete element method can successfully be used to check the reasonable magnitude of each measurement in the experiments.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.337-343
• /
• 2020

This study proposed piezoelectric ceramic bender actuators for application to small walking robots. As the space where human access has recently become increasingly restricted (e.g., highly concentrated radioactive storage areas, viral contaminated areas, terrorist zones, etc.), the scope of using robots is becoming more diverse, and many actions that were possible only in the past have been attempted to be replaced by small robots. This robotic concept has the advantage of being simple in structure, making it compact and producing a large size work force. The dynamic modeling, using finite element analysis, maximized the robot's mobility performance by optimizing the shape of the actuator, and the results were verified through fabrication and experimentation. The actuator moved at a maximum speed of 236 mm/s under no load conditions, and it could move at a speed of 156 mm/s under load conditions of 5g. The proposed actuator has the advantage of modular additions depending on the mission and required performance, which ensured that they are competitive against similar drive sources previously created.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.28 no.3C
• /
• pp.159-166
• /
• 2008

The stress-strain behavior of soils can usually be regarded as non-linear, while it is also known that the soil exhibits the linear-elastic behavior at pre-failure state (very small strain range, $<10^{-3}%$). This study aims to analyze the variation of anisotropic elastic shear moduli of granular soils in various stress conditions. The stress probe experiments with the triaxial testing device equipped with local strain gages and multi-directional bender elements were conducted. When the stress ratio exceeds the range between -0.5 and 1.5, the elastic shear stiffness in the axial direction deviates from the empirical correlation with current stresses, which indicates that the yielding of soils alters the internal pathway through which the elastic shear wave propagates. The experimental results show that the variation of elastic shear moduli in the horizontal direction closely relates to the volume change of soils.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.291-304
• /
• 2022

Maximum shear modulus (G_max or G₀) is an important soil property useful for many engineering applications, such as the analysis of soil-structure interactions, soil stability, liquefaction evaluation, ground deformation and performance of seismic design. In the current study, bender element (BE) tests are used to evaluate the effect of the void ratio, effective confining pressure, grading characteristics (D₅₀, C_u and C_c), anisotropic consolidation and initial fabric anisotropy produced during specimen preparation on the G_max of sand-gravel mixtures. Based on the tests results, an empirical equation is proposed to predict G_max in granular soils, evaluated by the experimental data. The artificial neural network (ANN) and Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) models were also applied. Coefficient of determination (R²) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) between predicted and measured values of G_max were calculated for the empirical equation, ANN and ANFIS. The results indicate that all methods accuracy is high; however, ANFIS achieves the highest accuracy amongst the presented methods.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2006.03a
• /
• pp.402-413
• /
• 2006

Strength evaluation of soft soils is a formidable task because of difficulties in sampling, specimen preparation and setting in triaxial cells. In undrained triaxial testing, sampling disturbance, verticality of specimen and bedding effect give a great influence on shear strength measurements. In the other hand, shear wave measurements of specimens are less influenced by these factors. In this research, the bender elements were attached top cap and base pedestal of triaxial cell and shear wave velocities were measured. To initiate a methodology to evaluate shear strength indirectly by measuring shear wave velocity, a relationship between shear strength and shear wave velocity was developed with kaolinite specimens consolidated in the laboratory. Undrained shear strength turns out to increase linearly with shear wave velocity. Stress-strain curves can also be predicted with a hyperbolic model and shear wave measurements.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2009.09a
• /
• pp.1365-1371
• /
• 2009

A new s-wave probe, called "MudFork", has been recently developed and is used in accurate measurements of shear wave velocities of soft soils. In previous researches, some instrumental defects of the probe have been reported. Bending deformation of probe is caused by small section modulus of blades, and open-ended bender elements are vulnerable to damage during penetration. Herein, we improved the MudFork to solve these problems. Field tests at Sinan, Jeollanamdo using the improved MudFork were conducted. Results from MPT are compared with the results from CPT.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.22 no.8
• /
• pp.43-54
• /
• 2006

The scope of this paper covers the applications of bender element tests in consolidation, tomography, and liquefaction. Loading and unloading time during consolidation are evaluated based on shear wave velocity. As S-wave velocity is dependent on effective stress, the loading step may be determined. However, cautions are required due to the different mechanism between the settlement and effective stress criteria. The stress history may be evaluated because the S-wave shows the cement controlled regime and stress controlled regimes. A fixed frame complemented with bender elements permits S-wave tomography The tomography system is tested at low confinement within a true triaxial cell. Results show that shear wave velocity tomography permits monitoring changes in the velocity field which is related to the average effective stress. To monitor the liquefaction phenomenon, S-wave trans-illumination is implemented with a high repetition rate to provide detailed information on the evolution of shear stiffness during liquefaction. The evolution of shear wave propagation velocity and attenuation parallel the time-history of excess pore pressure during liquefaction. Applications discussed in this paper show that bender elements can be a very effective tool for the detection of shear waves in the laboratory.