A METHOD OF ESTIMATION OF THICKNESS AND ELASTIC MODULI OF SOILS BY HARMONIC LOADS ON GROUND SURFACE AND ITS NUMERICAL VERIFICATION

Abstract

This paper presents numerical examples to demonstrate a capability of method of estimating the elastic properties of the soils and their variation with depth using the characteristics of P-SV wave fields caused in the surface of an elastic multi-layered half space by the vertical harmonic point load applied also on the soil surface. In this numerical examples, the three cases of ground model are used as the models of typical shallow surface ground: case 1 is a normal soil deposit where the soil properties increase with their depth from the ground surface while case 2 and 3 are the irregular soil deposits. In case2, the second layer is a low velocity layer and in case3 it is a high velocity layer. In the numerical examples, the stiffness matrix method is used for an accurate simulation of all P-SV wave fields.