Development of Disc Shaped Piezo-Ceramic Plate Transducer for Elastic Wave Measurements in Laboratory Soil Specimens

Abstract

   A disk shaped piezoceramic transducer, called plate transducer, was developed and installed in a triaxial apparatus. The newly developed plate transducer is capable of measuirng both P and S wave on an identical laboratory specimen. The stiffness measurements using the plate transducers were conducted on two kinds of granular material and compared with other types of measurement, including Trigger Accelerometer method and static measurements. It was found that the plate transducers offered well comparable results on fine sand. For coarser material, however, it was suspected that bedding error between the transducer and the tested material caused underestimated measurement of wave velocities. [This abstract is not included in the PDF]