Effect of water content, void ratio and clay content on sand p-wave velocity

Abstract

The main purpose of the current research is to implement different Geophysical Techniques (GT) in measuring wave velocity at different soil properties. For this purpose, a number of 6-in-diameter specimens have been prepared with different soil properties for index tests. The objective of the small scale models is to study the variation of the compressional wave velocity with different soil parameters. Soil properties that are of high importance to the wave velocity are compaction efforts (void ratio, density, porosity), water content, soil grading size, soil clay content, and the addition of Portland cement. Specially acquired accelerometers are used to measure the P-wave velocity through the soil specimens after manually triggering mechanical waves. Sensitivity tests program is conducted to determine suitable specimen dimensions and the best and right method of attaching the accelerometers to the soil specimen. Index test results indicate that the P-wave velocity decreases as the soil water content and degree of saturation increases up to certain threshold values, which itself increases with the compaction effort. In addition, the wave velocity becomes larger as the soil includes more fine contents. Finally, compressional wave velocity increased as the void ratio of the soil specimen decreased.