Relating Geotechnical Sediment Properties and Low Frequency CHIRP Sonar Measurements

Abstract

Low frequency acoustic methods are a common tool for seabed stratigraphy mapping. Due to the efficiency in seabed mapping compared to geotechnical methods, estimating geotechnical sediment properties from acoustic surveying is attractive for many applications. In this study, co-located geotechnical and geoacoustic measurements of different seabed sediment types in shallow water environments (su < 3 kPa) and loose sands (~20% relative density). This is a step towards validating the ability of acoustic methods to capture geotechnical properties in the topmost seabed layers.

Keywords

• CHIRP
• seabed layer
• shallow water
• inversion