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Experimental Study of Ultrasonic Waves Propagating Through a Rock Mass

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DOI: 10.1007/s00603-013-0399-2

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Rock Mech Rock Eng
DOI 10.1007/s00603-013-0399-2
ORIGINAL PAPER
Experimental Study of Ultrasonic Waves Propagating Through
a Rock Mass with a Single Joint and Multiple Parallel Joints
Xiaolin Huang • Shengwen Qi • Songfeng Guo •
Wanli Dong
Received: 25 April 2012 / Accepted: 17 March 2013
Ó Springer-Verlag Wien 2013
Abstract Experiments were conducted to study the
relationship between the transmission ratio (TR) and nor-
mal stress, joint roughness, joint number and frequency of
incident waves, respectively, when ultrasonic waves pass
across a rock mass with one joint and multiple parallel
joints oriented normally. The ultrasonic waves were gen-
erated and received by pairs of piezoelectric transducers
and recorded by an ultrasonic detector. The specimens
were subjected to normal stress by a hydraulic jack and
loading frame. The jointed rock mass was produced by
superposing rock blocks in the study. Rough joints were
produced by grooving notches on the planar joints formed
by sawing directly. In the case of multiple parallel joints,
the overall thickness of specimens was maintained while
the joint number changed. Three pairs of P-wave trans-
ducers and one pair of S-wave transducers with different
frequencies were, respectively, applied and all transducers
emitted signals perpendicular to the joints in the experi-
ment. The results indicate that TR increases with increas-
ing normal stress while the increment rate decreases
gradually. This is particularly so when the normal stress is
high enough that TR will approximate 1 even if the rock
mass has many joints. In addition, the experiments indicate
that the higher the wave’s frequency, the lower its TR, and
this phenomenon is gradually reduced as the normal stress
increases. In response to S-waves, TR increases with
increase in joint roughness; however, in response to
P-waves, TR decreases gradually with increase in joint
roughness. For multiple parallel joints in a fixed thickness
X. Huang  S. Qi (&)  S. Guo  W. Dong
Key Laboratory of Engineering Geomechanics, Institute
of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
P.O. Box 9825, Chaoyang area, Beijing 100029, China
e-mail: qishengwen@mail.iggcas.ac.cn
rock mass with normally incident P-waves, TR does not
always decrease with increase in the number of joints, and
there is a threshold joint spacing for a certain incident
wave: when the joint spacing is smaller than the threshold
value, TR will increase with a decrease in joint spacing.
The experimental results support similar conclusions based
on analytical results drawn by Cai and Zhao (Int J Rock
Mech Min Sci 37(4):661–682, 2000), Zhao et al. (Int J
Rock Mech Min Sci 43(5):776–788, 2006b) and Zhu et al.
(J Appl Geophys 73:283–288, 2011a).
Keywords Transmission ratio  Ultrasonic wave  Joint
roughness  Joint number  Normal stress  Multiple
reflection  Method of characteristics
1 Introduction
A rock mass usually consists of multiple, parallel planar
joints, known as joint sets, which govern the mechanical
behavior of the rock mass (Goodman 1976). The joints
within the rock mass have an important effect on elastic
wave propagation and the elastic wave also influences the
stability of the rock mass instead (Jaeger and Cook 1969;
Cook 1992). After the elastic wave propagates across the
joints, its amplitude, velocity and frequency will be chan-
ged, sometimes even damaging the structure of the rock
mass. Peak particle velocity, displacement or acceleration
of the wave in the rock is generally considered in engi-
neering design. It has been noticed that the peak value will
change after the wave has propagated across the jointed
rock mass. Therefore, it is very important to understand the
transmission ratio (TR), which is defined as the ratio of the
transmitted wave peak value of A1 to its incident wave peak
value of A0.
123

Currently, the methods for analyzing the effect of joints
on TR can be divided into two categories: (1) displacement
discontinuity methods (DDM) (Miller 1977; Schoenberg
1980) and (2) the effective moduli methods (White 1983;
Schoenberg and Muir 1989; Pyrak-Nolte et al. 1990a; Cook
1992; Li et al. 2010). In the DDM, it is assumed that the
stresses across the joints are continuous, while the dis-
placements across the interface are discontinuous. The
effective moduli methods predict the aggregate effects of
many joints or systems of joints within a representative
elementary volume, so as to make a continuum analysis of
problems that might occur (Li et al. 2010). Based on the
two models, some analytical and numerical solutions were
successfully obtained to predict TR of the wave after
propagating across a single joint (Miller 1977, 1978; Py-
rak-Nolte et al. 1990a, b; Cook 1992; Zhao and Cai 2001;
Zhu et al. 2011b) and multi-parallel joints (Cai and Zhao
2000; Zhao et al. 2006a–d; Lei et al. 2007, 2010; Zhu et al.
2011a, b; Perino et al. 2012).
However, only limited experimental studies have been
conducted addressing the problem of multiple parallel
joints and the wave sources used in previous experimental
studies mainly involve blasting shock waves, laboratory
shock waves and ultrasonic waves. For example, Ju et al.
(2007), Li and Ma (2009), Li et al. (2010, 2011) did some
research on the stress wave propagating across rock joints
by making use of the Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar
(SHPB). Wu et al. (1998), Hao et al. (2001) and Zhang and
Peng (2001) carried out some experiments on the attenu-
ation of blasting shock waves propagating across jointed
rock mass. Chopra et al. (2011) studied the attenuation of
high-frequency P-waves and S-waves by seismic wave
record. Pyrak-Nolte et al. (1990b) researched the trans-
mission of P-waves and S-waves across a single natural
joint and Pyrak-Nolte et al. (1990a) studied the anisotropy
in seismic velocities and amplitudes from multiple parallel
joints with ultrasonic waves simulated by piezoelectric
elements. Zhao et al. (2006a) adopted ultrasonic methods
to study the waves propagating across two joint specimens
with various joint spacings. Butt (2001) studied the atten-
uation of P-waves propagating across joints and Kurtuluş
et al. (2012) studied the attenuation of P-wave velocity
after propagating in different joints by making use of
ultrasonic methods.
This paper reports research with ultrasonic waves con-
sidering the normal stress of the joint, frequency of inci-
dent waves, joint roughness and joint number. The joints
used in this study are planar joints cut by saw rather than
natural joints as used by Pyrak-Nolte et al. (1990b). Waves
with differing central frequency are applied in this study
while only a single central frequency wave was used in
Pyrak-Nolte et al. (1990b) and Zhao et al. (2006a). Fur-
thermore, more joints are considered in this study while
123
X. Huang et al.
only two joints are involved in Zhao et al. (2006a). Based
on the laboratory tests, some new phenomena have been
found and understanding of aspects of ultrasonic waves
propagating across a rock mass with a single joint and
multiple parallel joints has been enhanced.
2 Laboratory Studies
2.1 Preparation of Rock Mass Specimens
The field rock mass often consists of sets of joints alter-
nately and the surfaces of the joints have different rough-
ness. The rock mass with parallel joints and different
surface roughness are reproduced in the experiment. The
brick-shaped blocks are cut from marble core taken from
the Jinping I hydropower station site as shown in Fig. 1 (Qi
et al. 2004) and have a density of 2,600 kg/m3, P-wave
velocity of 5,100 m/s and UCS of 92.5 MPa. All blocks are
sawn using the same grinding wheel and have various
thicknesses ranging from 7.5 to 60 mm (see Figs. 1a, 2),
with the same underside size of 50 mm 9 50 mm (see
Fig. 2a). One block with a thickness of 60 mm was also
prepared for reference as shown in Fig. 2b and its role is
discussed later. All blocks should have identical or similar
material performance as the core is collected from the same
depth within each borehole.
One planar joint sample is produced by superposing two
equal thick blocks directly (see Fig. 2c), and one rough
joint sample is produced by artificially grooving parallel
notches on the planar surfaces of two rock blocks with the
same thickness and then superposing the blocks according
to Kahraman (2002) (see Fig. 2d). Multi-jointed samples
are prepared by superposing several equal thickness blocks
together (see Fig. 2e). A fixed overall thickness of 60 mm
is adopted for all samples.
2.2 Testing System
The testing system utilized for the ultrasonic tests includes
a loading frame, hydraulic jack, an ultrasonic detector and
pairs of ultrasonic transducers. The overall setup of the
test system is shown in Fig. 3. The loading frame consists
of a crossbeam, two columns and one pedestal which are
all made of high-strength steel. A conventional hydraulic
jack (carrying capacity 50 tons) is fixed on the pedestal
and used to apply vertical thrust. The jack pressure can be
read from the pressure gauge (measurement range, 0–
60 MPa). And the axial stress rAxial of the joints is
obtained from Eq. (1):
pPJack D2
rAxial ¼ ð1Þ
4L2
Experimental Study of Ultrasonic Waves
Fig. 1 Rock blocks of different
thickness (a) and ultrasonic
transducers (b)
Fig. 2 Rock mass specimens in the experiment. (a) Underside size dimension of specimens; b reference block; c single planar joint; d single
rough joint; e six combination modes with varied joint number
where PJack is the jack pressure, D is the diameter of jack
piston and D = 46 mm, and L is the width of specimen and
L = 50 mm.
Four pairs of ultrasonic transducers with different fre-
quencies shown in Fig. 1b are used in the tests. All the
transducers are cylindrical and one end can be connected
with both the jack shaft and the shaft in the middle of the
crossbeam by thread, the other end contacts with the
specimens. Centers of the transducers, jack shaft and the
shaft of the crossbeam remain in the same vertical line to
ensure the stability of the specimens when loaded. The
piezoelectric ceramic disk is equipped in the cylindrical
bore (as shown in the top left corner of Fig. 3) and one end
connects with a tungsten powder mixture filler and spring,
the other end connects with a boss button. The tungsten
powder mixture filler can make the piezoelectric ceramic
disk move forward and emit signals as much as possible. A
thread cover and a shim are used to constrain the boss
button and the spring can make the head of boss button
extend 1 mm from the center bore of the shim once no
pressure is applied. When the transducer is subjected to
pressure, the boss button can move backward by com-
pressing the spring and the pressure can be afforded by the
shim. Therefore, the piezoelectric ceramic disk can avoid
bearing high pressure and remain stable and sensitive. The
transducers are made from high-strength alloy surrounded
123

Fig. 3 Layout of testing system
by a cylindrical shell and have a bearing capacity of up to
450 MPa. The transducer containing a P-type (S-type)
piezoelectric crystal sends forth ultrasonic compressional
(shear) signals, and a receiver receives the transmitted
signals after propagating across the specimens. The ends of
transducers contacting with specimens are smooth and
clean to ensure good ultrasonic coupling. The piezoelectric
crystal in the transmitter is pulsed by the ultrasonic
detector.
It was known that the ultrasonic waves have high fre-
quency and low energy, which is different from the com-
mon stress waves in rock dynamic mechanics. Because of
the very low energy, the peak particle velocity and dis-
placement or acceleration of the ultrasonic waves are hard
to measure when propagating across the specimens. The
ultrasonic detector provides an excitation voltage to the
emitting transducer, which makes the piezoelectric ceramic
disk oscillate and produce ultrasonic waves. When the
ultrasonic waves arrive at the receiving transducer, the
piezoelectric ceramic disk conversely transfers the oscil-
lation into voltage signals. In fact, the signals recorded by
the detector are the voltage signals. Moreover, the stronger
123
X. Huang et al.
the oscillation is, the higher the voltage signals. Therefore,
the intensity of receiving signals can represent the vibration
criterion of waves such as the peak particle velocity, dis-
placement or acceleration.
The ultrasonic detector in the test is a common detector
utilized in concrete detection (Model ZBL-510) which can
provide a 500 V spike of duration 20 ls–20 ms for the
transducer and also can accurately record wave signals
with good precision. The sampling interval is 0.2 ls and
the arrival time of each pulse could be read to 0.05 ls. A
high-density grease for the P-wave transducer (tin foil for
the S-wave transducer) is used between rock block speci-
mens and transducers to maintain good coupling.
All devices are installed as shown in Fig. 3 and were
checked to ensure that they were working normally. The
whole experimental procedure can be described as follows.
First of all, the emitting transducer produces ultrasonic
wave signals; when the ultrasonic detector provides a pulse
of electric signals, the wave signals change after propa-
gating across the specimen and reaching the receiving
transducer. Secondly, the receiving transducer transforms
the ultrasonic wave signals into electric signals and the
Experimental Study of Ultrasonic Waves
signals are delivered to the ultrasonic detector. Finally, the
detector records and stores the signals in a certain range.
2.3 Experimental Principle and the Definition of TR
To study how the same wave propagates across specimens
with different joints, it is important to choose a part of the
wave that is stable and renewable. It is known that the first
cycle wave is scarcely contaminated by other waves
arriving late and easy to identify, which can make the
conclusions more reliable. The first cycle wave is also
stable and renewable under the same transducer and same
contact between transducers and specimens. Furthermore,
the attenuation of the amplitude of the first cycle wave is
the most significant when the ultrasonic wave crosses the
specimens (Huang et al. 2004). Therefore, the first cycle
wave was selected as the initial wave. The waveforms
collected by the receiving transducer consist of an initial
transmitted pulse, followed by later reflections at various
interfaces in the testing system, i.e., the interfaces between
the end surfaces of the specimen and the transducers, and
between the transducers and the loading pistons (Zhao
et al. 2006a). To eliminate the effect of rock inelasticity
(pore, crack, etc.) and interfaces between the specimen
blocks, the similar methods proposed by Pyrak-Nolte et al.
(1990b) and Zhao et al. (2006a) were adopted. One intact
block with dimensions of 50 mm 9 50 mm 9 60 mm as
shown in Fig. 2b was used to establish the reference
waveform. Because the reference wave is one propagating
across an intact specimen, the interface effect between the
specimen and transducers can be eliminated. In order to
examine the maximum amplitude of the initial wave, the
received waveforms containing subsequent reflections
should be tapered to extract the study wave. Tapering is a
process of extracting a particular pulse of finite duration
from a complex waveform. The process is as follows:
Fig. 4 a Ultrasonic waveform
after propagating across a
60 mm intact specimen
subjected to 7 MPa jack
pressure (P-wave transducer
70 kHz). b Tapering process.
Selected initial pulse and
acquisition of study waveform
by tapering
(a) an appropriate waveform function with a unitary
amplitude (termed a taper) is defined; (b) the taper is
limited within a finite time interval (termed the window
width) that is equal to the duration of the selected initial
transmitted pulse; (c) the product of the taper and the initial
pulse is a tapered transmitted pulse, which will be used for
spectral analysis. In the tapering process, the same taper
should be used for all received pulses in order to obtain
consistent and comparable results in the frequency domain
(Pyrak-Nolte et al. 1990a, b and Zhao et al. 2006a). Many
window functions were suggested in the previous study,
e.g., half-cosine taper used by Pyrak-Nolte et al. (1990a, b)
and Zhao et al. (2006a) and Hann window used by Zhu
et al. (2011b). In this paper, a half-cosine taper with unitary
amplitude is selected.
There are three pairs of P-wave transducers and one pair
of S-wave transducers utilized in this study. The frequen-
cies of the P-wave transducers are 70, 130, 200 kHz and of
the S-wave is 165 kHz. A recorded waveform after prop-
agating across the reference block under a P-wave trans-
ducer with the frequency of 70 kHz subjected to a normal
stress of 7 MPa is shown in Fig. 4a. It can be seen that the
signals obtained by the receiving transducer are compos-
ited waves superposed by late arriving waves. After being
tapered as indicated above, the study wave as shown in
Fig. 4b can be extracted efficiently from the composited
waves, and its peak value is selected as A0. Once the ref-
erence block is subjected to normal stress of 0.5–7 MPa, A0
essentially remains constant as shown in Fig. 5. In detail,
when the normal stress is 1 MPa, A0 is 0.861 V, and when
the normal stress is 7 MPa the value of A0 is 0.886 V, an
increase in rate of only 2.9 %. There are similar phenom-
ena occurring under the condition of a P-wave transducer
with the frequency of 130 and 200 kHz and S-wave with
frequency of 165 kHz. Figure 5 indicates that the normal
stress effect on the reference waves can be ignored in the
123

Fig. 5 A0 of the tapered waves after propagating across the reference
specimen under different normal stresses
Fig. 6 FFT analysis of the tapered pulse shown in Fig. 4b
pressure range of the study. Therefore, the tapered waves
propagating across the reference specimen with thickness
of 60 mm are selected as the reference initial incident study
waves under a normal stress of 7 MPa; the duration is
1.54 ls and A0 is 0.886. Meanwhile, the central frequency
of the study wave can be obtained by FFT analysis. For
example, the study wave shown in Fig. 4b has its central
frequency of 68 kHz after FFT analysis as indicated in
Fig. 6. Based on the same method, the relative parameters
of other tapered waves can be reached as listed in Table 1.
To obtain the peak value A1 of the study waves after
propagating across jointed specimens, the received wave-
form is dealt with by the following method.
First, the vibration starting point can be determined for
the received waveform, then a taper duration of waveform
as the initial wave is selected from the vibration starting
point (it should be noted that the taper durations are all
shown in Table 1). Finally, the selected waveform is
tapered and A1 will be reached; thus, TR can be calculated.
123
X. Huang et al.
Table 1 Parameters of tapered waves with initial waves excited by
different transducers propagating across reference specimens under a
normal stress of 7 MPa
Transducers Taper duration A0 Central frequency
(ls) (V) (kHz)
P-wave (70 kHz) 1.54 0.886 68
P-wave (130 kHz) 0.78 0.920 127
P-wave (200 kHz) 0.52 0.822 196
S-wave (165 kHz) 0.64 0.951 158
3 Rock Mass Specimen with Single Joint
3.1 Case of One Planar Joint Under Incident P-Waves
Two blocks with a thickness of 30 mm are superposed to
form a specimen with one planar joint, as shown in Fig. 2c.
Three study P-waves with central frequencies of 68, 127
and 196 kHz are applied, respectively, in the experiment.
The surfaces of the transducers are all parallel to the joints,
thus the incident waves are perpendicular to the joints.
High-density grease is used between rock blocks and
transducers to maintain good coupling. By applying dif-
ferent normal stresses, a series of A1 are reached for three
pairs of transducers, respectively, as listed in Table 2.
As shown in Fig. 7, for a specified incident wave TR
increases non-linearly and the increment rate decreases
gradually as the normal stress increases. When the stress
reaches 6 MPa, TR begins to increase very slowly, and
gradually approaches 1. In this case, it suggests that the
ultrasonic waves can propagate across the joint with little
energy loss and the jointed rock mass behaves the same as
intact rock. The joint gradually loses its ability to cut off
ultrasonic waves with increasing normal stress. It can be
expected that the joint may completely lose this ability
under very high normal stress.
This phenomenon may result as the joint openness
gradually becomes smaller with the increase in normal
stress and the joint plane forms better coupling, which
increases the wave transmission and decreases its reflec-
tion. When the normal stress increases over a relatively
small range, the joint closure increases quickly and the
joint coupling improves sharply, which makes TR increase
quickly. With normal stress increasing continually, the
increment rate of the joint closure slows down and the
coupling degree improves slowly. Therefore, as normal
stress increases, TR increases quickly under relatively low
normal stress, then slowly under high normal stress and
ultimately approaches its maximum.
Figure 7 also shows that different frequencies of incident
wave have different corresponding TR under identical nor-
mal stress, and the lower the frequency is, the higher the TR
Experimental Study of Ultrasonic Waves
Table 2 Corresponding A1 of three study P-waves with central frequencies of 68, 127 and 196 kHz after passing through a specimen with a
single planar joint under different normal stresses (single joint combining two blocks, 30 mm 9 2)
Central frequency (kHz) A1 (V)
Normal stress (MPa)
0.5 1 2
68 0.625 0.655 0.718
127 0.481 0.514 0.648
196 0.265 0.292 0.443
Fig. 7 Corresponding TR for three study P-waves with central
frequencies of 68, 127 and 196 kHz after passing through a specimen
with a single planar joint under different normal stresses (single joint
combining two blocks, 30 mm 9 2)
is. This phenomenon becomes less clear when the normal
stress is increasing an in particular, the TR of different fre-
quency waves is approximately equal and approaches 1
under a high normal stress. This occurs because under the
same normal stress, the same joint has the same openness,
and the lower frequency wave has a larger wavelength and
better transmission, but the coupling degree of the joint
surface gets better and better as the normal stress increases,
and eventually the jointed rock mass behaves as an intact
rock and the TR of different frequency waves approaches 1.
3.2 Case of One Rough Joint
To form one rough joint, surfaces of two specified blocks
with a thickness of 30 mm are grooved as described by
Kahraman (2002) and then superposed together as shown
in Fig. 2d. Different roughness is created by artificially
grooving parallel notches on the two surfaces. To ensure
repeatability of this experiment variation, surfaces of two
specified blocks with a thickness of 30 mm are grooved the
same way every time. Five surface patterns with different
roughness are created in turn and a corresponding fracture
roughness coefficient (FRC) which was introduced by
3 4 5 6 7
0.766 0.801 0.833 0.863 0.863
0.717 0.792 0.841 0.880 0.883
0.514 0.599 0.684 0.741 0.757
Kahraman (2002) is defined for each pattern (see Table 3).
The joint surface roughness changes greatly in the Kahr-
aman (2002) study while the ones produced with three-
point bending fracture tests by Ju et al. (2007) and Li et al.
(2011) have irregular surfaces and cannot vary from planar
to rough, and the fractal dimension only changes over a
limited range (i.e., marble joints of 2.2254–2.3971 and
granite joints of 2.2588–2.3683 in Ju et al. 2007).
The initial study P-wave with a central frequency of
127 Hz and S-wave of 158 kHz were applied, respectively.
Full use was made of tin foil between the S-wave trans-
ducers and rock blocks and high-density grease for the P-
wave transducer to maintain good coupling. The jack
pressure is 2 MPa in both the case of the P-wave trans-
ducers and S-wave transducers. A series of A1 of P-waves
and S-waves were measured, respectively, in different
FRC. The measured results are listed in Table 3.
As shown in Fig. 8, TR non-linearly varies with FRC in
the case of both S-waves and P-waves. In the case of
P-waves, as FRC increases, TR decreases gradually in low
roughness cases (FRC = 1) but sharply in medium roughness
(FRC = 2) and high roughness (FRC = 3) cases and then
gradually again where roughness is very high (FRC = 4). In
the case of S-waves TR increases gradually from low
roughness (FRC = 1) to high roughness (FRC = 3), but
increases abruptly when roughness is very high (FRC = 4).
This may mean that the increment of FRC has an important
effect on the fracture surface coupling. When FRC = 0, the
vertical direction of the joint has good coupling while the
horizontal direction has bad coupling. However, with FRC
increasing sequentially, the contacting area between the two
blocks gets less and less and then decreases the degree of
vertical coupling; meanwhile, the addition of notches and
bulges increases the contacting area and causes the degree of
horizontal coupling to increase gradually.
4 Rock mass specimens with multiple parallel planar
joints
Six specimens with multiple parallel planar joints (varied
from 2 to 7 joints) and fixed overall thickness of 60 mm are
123
 X. Huang et al.

Table 3 Definition of fracture roughness and corresponding A1 of different study waves after passing through specimens with varied FRC under
a normal stress of 2 MPa
Definition of FRC A1 (V)
Fracture surface Fracture roughness coefficient (FRC) Description S-wave 158 kHz P-wave 127 kHz

0 Smooth 0.171 0.492

1 Low roughness 0.179 0.465

2 Medium roughness 0.203 0.404

3 High roughness 0.299 0.328

4 Very high roughness 0.582 0.314

loaded into the transducer, and the corresponding A1 after

Fig. 8 Corresponding TR of different study waves after passing
through specimens with varied FRC under a normal stress of 2 MPa
applied in the experiment, as shown in Fig. 2e. The spacing
of joints in each specimen is kept the same. To study the
waves propagating across parallel joints normally, two
P-waves with central frequencies of 68 and 127 kHz are
adopted, respectively. The incident waves are also per-
pendicular to the joints. At first a normal stress of 1 MPa is
the two P-waves have propagated across the specimen with
2 planar joints (as shown in Fig. 2e) is recorded; then the
normal stress is increased to 2 and to 3 MPa and the cor-
responding A1 is measured. Following this, the specimens
with 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 joints are used in turn and the same
work is carried out. The results of A1 for the P-waves
passing through the six models under varied normal stress
are listed in Table 4.
Figure 9a shows the change of TR with joint number
under a study wave with a central frequency of 68 kHz. It
can be seen that the variation of TR with joint number has a
similar pattern under the varied normal stress from 1 to
3 MPa. TR decreases dramatically with an increase in joint
number from 2 to 4, and then increases gradually with an
increase in joint number from 4 to 7 except that TR drops a
little in the case of the specimen with 7 joints subjected to a
3 MPa normal stress. Figure 9b shows the change of TR
with joint number under the study wave with a central
frequency of 127 kHz. As for Fig. 9b, variation of TR with
joint number has a similar pattern under varied normal
stress from 1 to 3 MPa, and TR decreases gradually as joint
number increases from 2 to 5, and then increases gradually
as joint number increases from 5 to 7.

123
Experimental Study of Ultrasonic Waves

Table 4 The results of A1 of

Central frequency of the P-wave Normal stress A1 (V)
the two P-waves with central
(kHz) (MPa)
frequencies of 68 and 127 kHz Joint number
after passing through six models
under varied normal stresses 2 3 4 5 6 7
from 1 to 3 MPa
68 1 0.632 0.544 0.509 0.568 0.576 0.573
2 0.677 0.583 0.549 0.591 0.597 0.602
3 0.708 0.608 0.589 0.611 0.620 0.633
127 1 0.420 0.271 0.223 0.187 0.274 0.285
2 0.483 0.331 0.257 0.209 0.297 0.323
3 0.541 0.401 0.282 0.252 0.329 0.378

number is increasing over a fixed distance; the effects of

wave superposition lead to increasing TR. The experi-
mental results support similar analytical results reached by
Cai and Zhao (2000), Zhao et al. (2006b) and Zhu et al.
(2011a). Figure 9a, b also indicates that for a particular
specimen with a certain number of joints, TR increases
with normal stress just as in the case of the single joint, and
the joints generally lose their ability to cut off ultrasonic
waves with an increase in normal stress.
In order to better understand the experimental result, the
corresponding analytical results based on the method of
characteristics are studied. To identify the corresponding
analytical results, the normal specific stiffness kn of the
planar joint should be determined. As mentioned above, the
blocks have an almost identical surface, so all the planar
joints should have similar specific stiffness under the same
normal stress. It is difficult to accurately measure the normal
specific stiffness under different normal stress in the labo-
ratory. In the study, the normal specific stiffness is obtained
by back-calculation in accordance with Eq. (2) derived by
Schoenberg (1980) and Pyrak-Nolte et al. (1990a):
" #12
kn 2
4ðzx Þ
TR ¼ kn 2
ð2Þ
4ðzx Þ þ1

where zis the P-wave impedance, x is the angular fre-

Fig. 9 TR varies with joint number and the non-dimensional joint
spacing n a The study wave with central frequency of 68 kHz. b The
study wave with central frequency of 127 kHz
Figure 9a ,b indicates that TR does not always decrease
with an increase in joint number over a fixed distance, and
this is because the joint spacing is decreasing as the joint
quency and kn is the normal specific stiffness.
Under a normal stress of 1, 2 and 3 MPa, TR of 68 and
127 kHz has been measured. Therefore, the average of kn
under the normal stress of 1, 2 and 3 MPa can be calculated
as follows: 3.42, 4.58 and 5.72 GPa/m, respectively,
according to Eq. (2).
In the calculation, the non-dimensional joint spacing n
which is defined by Cai and Zhao (2000) as the ratio of
joint spacing to the wavelength, can be calculated by (3)
L 0:06f
n¼ ¼ ð3Þ
ðN þ 1Þk ðN þ 1ÞV
where L = 0.06 m is the thickness of the specimen, N is
joint number, k is the reference initial incident wavelength,

123

Fig. 10 The analytical result of TR varies with n and joint number.
a Study wave with central frequency of 68 kHz; b study wave with
central frequency of 127 kHz
V is the P-wave velocity of the reference rock block, and f
is the central frequency of the study wave. Because all
specimens have the same length of 0.06 m in the testing, n
is decreasing as the joint number increases.
Figure 10a, b are the corresponding analytical results
based on the method of characteristics, and are similar to
the experimental results shown in Fig. 9a, b, respectively.
It should be noted that there exists minor differences
between the TR value of the analytical result and its cor-
responding experimental result, which is likely to arise
from the specific stiffness kn back-calculation error.
5 Conclusions and Discussion
Experiments were carried out on specimens with a single joint
and multiple parallel joints to investigate how TR varies with
123
X. Huang et al.
normal stress, joint roughness, joint number and the frequency
of incident waves. The following conclusions are reached:
1. For a single joint, TR non-linearly increases as the
normal stress increases while its increment rate
decreases generally in this process. When the normal
stress is large enough, TR approaches 1, the joint
almost loses its ability to cut off ultrasonic waves and
the rock mass behaves as an intact rock. The joint lets
more low-frequency waves pass than high-frequency
waves, but this phenomenon gradually becomes less
clear as the normal stress increases. The addition of
joint roughness can cause TR to increase non-linearly,
gradually at first, then abruptly in the case of S-waves
while non-linearly reducing in the case of P-waves.
2. In the case of multiple joints with fixed specimen
length subjected to a normally incident P-wave, TR at
first decreases with an increase in joint number, and
then increases with an increase in joint number once
the joint spacing is close enough. As in the case of a
single joint, TR increases with an increase in normal
stress, and the joints generally lose their ability to cut
off ultrasonic wave transmissions.
3. The experimental results are consistent with the
analytical results obtained by the method of charac-
teristics, and support the conclusion drawn by Cai and
Zhao (2000), Zhao et al. (2006b) and Zhu et al.
(2011a) that there is a threshold value of non-
dimensional joint spacing: when the non-dimensional
joint spacing is less than the threshold value, TR will
increase as the non-dimensional joint spacing
decreases. However, further experiments should be
designed and carried out to study the threshold value.
Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Dr. JB Zhu and
an anonymous reviewer for their kind comments and suggestions, and
Ann Williams, Australasian Vice-President of IAEG, for her kind
help to correct and polish the language, which greatly improved the
quality of the manuscript. The authors would also like to thank Drs.
XB Zhao and J Zhao for their MATLAB program used in calculation
Fig. 10a, b. This research is supported by funds from the Chinese
Academy of Science under Knowledge Innovation Project Grant No.
KZCX2-EW-QN108 and National Natural Science Foundation of
China under Grants Nos. 41172272 and 41030749.
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