Smart Structures and Systems

Volume 7, Number 4, 2011, pages 289-302

DOI: 10.12989/sss.2011.7.4.289

An experimental procedure for evaluating the consolidationstate of marine clay deposits using shear wave velocity

Ilhan Chang, Tae-Hyuk Kwon and Gye-Chun Cho

Abstract

In marine clay deposits, naturally formed or artificially reclaimed, the evaluation and monitoring of the consolidation process has been a critical issue in civil engineering practices due to the time frame required for completing the consolidation process, which range from several days to several years. While complementing the conventional iconographic method suggested by Casagrande and recently developed in-situ techniques that measure the shear wave, this study suggests an alternative experimental procedure that can be used to evaluate the consolidation state of marine clay deposits using the shear wave velocity. A laboratory consolidation testing apparatus was implemented with bimorph-type piezoelectric bender elements to determine the effective stress-shear wave velocity (

Key Words

bender element; consolidation state; effective stress; marine clay; shear wave velocity; under-consolidation.

Address

Ilhan Chang : Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, KAIST, 291 Daehak-no,Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Korea Tae-Hyuk Kwon : Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley CA 94720, USA Gye-Chun Cho : Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, KAIST, 291 Daehak-no,Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Korea