MEASUREMENT OF SHEAR WAVE VELOCITIES OF SAND IN A CENTRIFUGE

Abstract

A method of measuring the shear wave velocities of sand in a centrifuge is presented. The generation and propagation of seismic waves are modelled within the framework of elastodynamics. An experimental system to measure the shear wave velocities was developed with a disk-shaped piezo-electric oscillator as a seismic wave generator. The propagation of the seismic wave was detected by two accelerometers at two different stations. The shear wave velocities were measured under various centrifugal accelerations up to 100-g. The measured waveforms show good agreement with what have been predicted from the theory. The shear wave velocities show strong dependency on the effective confining pressure.