Surface Wave Survey Method and Accelerometer-Based Field Testing Cases

Recent advances in surface wave measurement capabilities allow for field collection of both human activity induced ground vibrations and background ambient noise caused microtremors. With designed sensor arrays, the passive surface wave survey provides a non-invasive seismic exploration method for subsurface profiling. In comparison to conventional geotechnical borehole tests, it is less expensive and it shows swiftness for site characterization over a large area. In this paper, the benefits of the surface wave survey method in earthquake geotechnical engineering for local site characterization were highlighted with case studies. A series of passive surface wave field measurements were performed by using sensor arrays. The collected data were processed to obtain the soil shear wave velocity profile and the fundamental site resonance frequency. Discussions were extended to compare the functionality of different accelerometers that were used as receivers in microtremor measurement. The accelerometer-based sensor array was found to be capable of collecting valid data for surface wave analysis.