Estimating Shear Wave Velocity Structure through Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves in Geotechnical Site Investigations

Abstract

The shear resistance coefficient is a crucial parameter required in geotechnical studies of engineering project sites. Shear wave velocity is also utilized to determine soil stiffness, which represents one of the fundamental properties of the ground in engineering science. Given that obtaining such data through non-geophysical methods entails substantial costs, seismic methods represent the most suitable approach for this purpose. These non-destructive seismic techniques provide designers with the aforementioned data.

Conventional seismic methods, such as the Refraction Microtremor (ReMi) or similar boundary-breaking techniques used to determine shear wave velocity, exhibit certain limitations. In this study, while introducing the Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW) method and comparing it with conventional methods, shear wave velocities have been calculated in several study areas. This method employs the inversion of Rayleigh wave dispersion curves derived from multichannel seismic data.

To evaluate the efficacy of the proposed method, the developed software was applied to two sets of real seismic data from different projects. A comparison of results obtained from this method with those from refraction seismic indicates that, in addition to consistency in shear wave velocity values, the MASW method demonstrates fewer limitations and more advantages.