Wave propagation

Waves in an elastic half space

Material from
Richart, Jr., F.E., Hall, Jr., J.R., and Woods,
R.D., Vibrations of Soils and Foundations,
Prentice Hall Inc
Prentice-Hall, Inc.
1 Body waves
1.
• P-wave: p primary
y wave, dilatational wave, compression
p wave,
irrotational wave.
• S-wave: secondary wave, distortional wave, shear wave,
equivoluminal wave
wave.

λ +2G G
vp = vs =
ρ ρ

νE
λ= E
(1+ν )(1-2ν ) G=
2 (1+ν ) λ and G are Lame’s constants
2 Surface waves
2.
• Rayleigh wave

• VR≒Vs
The body waves propagate
radially outward from the source
along a hemispherical wave front
front.

Rayleigh wave propagate radially

outward along a cylindrical wave
front
3. Geometrical damping
p g
• All of the waves encounter an increasingly larger volume of material
as they travel outward; thus, the energy density in each wave
d
decreases with
i h di
distance ffrom the
h source. Thi
This d
decrease iin energy
density or decrease in displacement amplitude is called geometrical
damping.
• The amplitude of the body waves decreases in proportion to the
ratio of 1/r (r is the distance from the input source) except along the
surface of the half-space
half space, where the amplitude decreases as 1/r2.
• The amplitude of the Rayleigh wave decreases as 1/√r.
• The region of the shear-wave front in which the larger amplitudes
occur is referred to as the shear window.
• The facts that two-thirds of the total input energy is transmitted away
from a vertically oscillating footing by Rayleigh wave and that the
Rayleigh wave decays much more slowly with distance than the
body waves indicate that the Rayleigh wave is of primary concern
for foundations on or near the surface of the earth
earth.
4 Waves at interface
4.
5 In
5. In-situ
situ seismic survey
(1) Direct-Arrival Survey
Wave-arrival
W i l records
d ffor
receivers on real soils are usually
complicated, and often the only
disting ishable arri
distinguishable arrival
al is that of
the direct P-wave.
The wave-propagation velocities
determined from the first P-wave
arrival are representative only of
the material along the surface,
and other techniques must be
employed to obtain wave
propagation data for lower layers.

Travel-time curves from direct arrivals

(2) Reflection Survey

x 2SA x 2 +4H 2
td = td = =
v P1 v P1 v P1

Limitations: The reflected P-wave arrives at a recording station after the

receiver has already been excited by direct wave. It is difficult to determine
exactly the arrival time of reflected wave
wave.
(3) Refracted survey

Critical angle
of incidence

⎛ v P1 ⎞
-1
i c = sin ⎜ ⎟
⎝ v P2 ⎠

Head wave generated by critical refracted P-wave

Travel time th for the refracted wave:

H 1 H
th = + ( x-2H tan ic ) +
v P1 cos i c v P2 v P1 cos i c
Crossover distance xc, td=th

x c x c -2Htani c 2H x c 2H cos i c
= + = +
v P1 v P2 v P1 cos i c v P2 v P1

v P2 +v P1
x c =2H
v P2 -v P1