Some practical applications of shear wave velocity measurements in dense sand

Abstract

Shear wave velocity (Vs) profiles were obtained using two techniques at a dense sand site in Blessington near Dublin, Ireland. It was shown that both the multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) and seismic CPT (SCPTU) techniques provided reliable data. Use was made of a novel approach involving a Monte Carlo inversion of the MASW output to assess the fit between the measured and theoretical surface wave data. Differences between the SCPTU and MASW data are likely to be due to a combination of natural anisotropy in the sand and to uncertainty in the two methods involved. Previous published correlations between CPTU data and Vs also work well for this site. The Vs data was also used to accurately predict (Class 3 prediction) measured settlement data from shallow footing tests at the site.

Keywords

• shear wave velocity
• dense sand
• footings
• settlement