Shear wave velocity measurement in a large geotechnical laminar box using bender elements

Bender elements have been used by geotechnical engineers for decades in triaxial, resonant column, direct/simple shear, and centrifuge experiments. The primary use of a bender element (BE) transducer system is to generate and measure the propagation of elastic waves in soil to determine the compression and shear-wave velocities. These are valuable mechanical properties and may be correlated to other geotechnical indices as well as provide the initial small-strain value when determining modulus degradation curves. Bender elements have been implemented on a large field-type scale in the Geotechnical Laminar Box (GLB) at the University at Buffalo. Full-2D and 3D arrays of bender elements were used in the GLB to map the changing state of a soil model throughout two full-scale dynamic experimental programs. This paper will describe the equipment, model setup, methodologies, and a data set. We will also present a brief analysis of the results of the GLB-BE system as well as outline their potential use in uncertainty quantification and in future projects.