Evaluation of the shear wave velocity (VS) of an artificial carbonate sand obtained with the use of bender elements test

Abstract

Carbonate sand is characterized by the presence of fragile grains, which may influence their mechanical response due to the imposed loading; especially cyclic loading. The shear wave velocity (VS) provides relevant information for the design of foundation inserted in this type of soil, which can be obtained from laboratory tests with the use of bender elements (BE). This paper aims to evaluate the VS value of a carbonate sand from triaxial tests with BE using three methods in the time domain. The influence of loading, unloading and cycling on VS is also evaluated. The results confirmed that the confining stress affects the dynamic parameters. At higher stress levels, the signals aremore susceptible to the near field effects and the dynamic parameters are less influenced by cycling.