Reducing Mode Assignment Errors in Surface Wave Inversion for Sites with a Very Shallow Impedance Contrast Using Love Type Surface Waves
Publication: Geo-Congress 2023
ABSTRACT
Over the last several decades, active surface wave testing has received increasing attention in geotechnical engineering and has become a common method for site characterization. Active surface wave testing can be performed using Rayleigh- and/or Love-type surface waves. However, Rayleigh-type surface waves have been the most commonly used wave type among practitioners in the geotechnical community. This paper provides one case study for a site with a very shallow impedance contrast where surface wave data processing, particularly mode assignment, becomes very complex. Both Rayleigh and Love-type surface wave testing was conducted for the case study. The surface wave data were processed using two different scenarios: (1) fundamental mode Rayleigh waves only and (2) multimodal inversion using Rayleigh and Love type surface waves. These results were then compared to the boring to identify the performance of each approach. The results indicate that the first higher mode dominated the Rayleigh-type surface wave dispersion data at many frequencies, while the Love-type surface wave dispersion data were associated with the fundamental mode. Overall, the results indicate that the inclusion of Love-type surface waves and multimodal inversion can significantly improve the reliability of the inversion process and the final 1D shear wave velocity profile for sites with a very shallow impedance contrast. Relying solely on Rayleigh-type surface wave data for such sites would lead to mode misidentification and data misinterpretation. Therefore, it is recommended to employ both Rayleigh and Love-type surface waves for sites with a shallow impedance contrast to avoid data misinterpretation and enhance the reliability of the site characterization using active surface waves testing.
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Geo-Congress 2023
Pages: 173 - 182
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Published online: Mar 23, 2023
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