Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 26 (2006) 337–346

www.elsevier.com/locate/soildyn

Ground vibration due to dynamic compaction

J.H. Hwang *, T.Y. Tu
Department of Civil Engineering, National Central University, No. 300, Jungda Road, Jungli City, Taoyuan 32054, Taiwan, ROC
Accepted 3 December 2005

Abstract
A series of ground vibration measurements were carried out during the executions of dynamic compaction (DC) at an industrial site. This site is
near the seashore of central Taiwan and was a reclaimed land formed by hydraulic fill. The measured data included vibrations induced by standard
and different tamping energies of DC. The vibrations of ground with several shallow isolation trenches were also measured. This paper presents
the various vibration characteristics including waveform, Fourier spectrum, response spectrum, and amplitude attenuations with distance. The
influences of tamping energy and isolation trench on ground vibration are also displayed.
q 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Dynamic compaction; Ground vibration; Attenuation; Trench; Fourier spectrum; Response spectrum

1. Introduction The following includes a review of site condition and

Dynamic compaction (DC) refers to the ground improve-
ment method where a heavy weight is dropped onto the ground
surface from a great height to densify the underlying soils. This
method was first introduced by Mena’rd and Broise [1] and can
be defined as the process of densification of a saturated or
nearly saturated soil caused by sudden impact loading,
involving shear deformation, temporarily high pore pressures
(possibly liquefaction), and subsequent consolidation. This
method is simple, fast and economic so that it has been
increasingly used in the improvement works of hydraulic fill in
Taiwan since 1980 [2].
Ground vibration can be potentially damaging to nearby
building structures, pipelines and sensitive equipments, as well
as annoying to people. Significant vibration can be generated
during dynamic compaction, and this may produce a serious
limitation on the application of this method to ground
modification. Ground vibrations caused by dynamic compac-
tion are unique from other types of construction activity, such
as pile driving, blasting, and traffic. However, it was found that
little research was devoted to careful and proper monitoring of
ground vibration induced by dynamic compaction [3–5]. In this
regard, this paper presents a successful field measurement and
analysis of ground vibrations during dynamic compaction.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: C886 3 4227 151; fax: C886 3 4252 960.
E-mail address: hwangjin@cc.ncu.edu.tw (J.H. Hwang).
0267-7261/$ - see front matter q 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.soildyn.2005.12.004
construction, vibration measurement and a summary of the
characteristics of ground vibration data.
2. Site condition and construction
2.1. Test site and geological condition
The test site is located at one of the industrial plants of the
Taichung Harbor in central Taiwan. Fig. 1 shows the layout of
the plant and the line along which the vibration sensors were
installed. Fig. 2 shows the geological profile and shear wave
velocity profile along the line. The topography of the test site is
rather flat with ground surface elevations between C7.30 and
C7.50 m. The soil formation consists mainly of a deep-thick
layer of gray silty fine sand, occasionally interbedded with a
layer of silty clay from several tens of centimeters to 2 or 3 m
thick. A gravelly soil with a thickness of 60–120 cm was back
filled on the ground surface. The shear wave velocity varied
from 150 to 200 m/s on the ground surface to 200–300 m/s at a
depth of 15 m, and to 300–340 m/s at a depth of 60 m below the
ground surface.
2.2. Dynamic compaction
The execution of dynamic compaction at the test site
consisted of the major tamping for compacting deep ground
and the ironing tamping for compacting shallow surface
ground. The construction machine is a 120 ton crawler crane.
The major tamping was carried out with a 25-ton weight and
338 J.H. Hwang, T.Y. Tu / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 26 (2006) 337–346
Fig. 1. The layout of the plant and the alignment of velocity sensors in the test site.
a falling height of 20 m, and the iron (surface) tamping used a
12-ton weight and a falling height of 5 m. The major tamping
was executed in three phases. The impact number of each
tamping point was 25, 25 and 15, respectively, in the three
phases. Furthermore, the 25 tampings in the first and second
phases were carried out in to two passes with 15 and 10
tampings. The spacing of tamping points in the first and second
phases was 10 m apart in a square arrangement. In the third
phase, the tamping point is located in between the tamping
points of the first and second phases and with the spacing of
7.05 m. The iron tamping covered the whole site and it was
conducted in two rounds. Construction vibration measurement
was carried out only for the major tamping because its tamping
energy is far higher than the iron tamping, thus having a greater
influence to the surrounding structures.
3. Vibration measurement
3.1. Equipment for vibration measurement
The equipment for measuring ground vibration included
velocity sensors, connectable, 50 m long electric cables, and
a recording and storing system. A force balanced type VSE-
15D velocity sensor, manufactured by Tokyo Dynamic Test
Company, was used. The frequency range of the sensor is 0.1–
70 Hz. The measurement ranges of velocity and acceleration
are G10 kine (cm/s) and G2000 gal (cm/s2), respectively.
The sensitivities of the velocity and acceleration sensors were
1 V/kine and 5 mV/gal, and the resolutions were 100 mkine for
velocity and 300 mgal for acceleration. The recording, storing
and data processing system was a SPC-35F system, with eight
channel data logging and an amplifier system connected to a
PC-98 notebook computer for storing and processing data. The
resolution of the A/D interface was 16 bits and the maximum
sampling rate was 1000 Hz.
3.2. Layout of measurement without isolation trench
The purpose of this layout is to measure the ground
vibrations at various distances from the tamping point under
standard and other tamping energy conditions. A 25-ton weight
and four falling heights of 20, 15, 10 and 5 m were used to
create different tamping energies. The tamping was executed
nine times for each falling height and the ground vibrations
 J.H. Hwang, T.Y. Tu / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 26 (2006) 337–346
Fig. 2. The geological profile and shear wave velocity along the line of measurement.
were also measured nine times. Fig. 3 presents the layout of the
measurement. The positions of sensor stations were arranged in
accordance with the experience of vibration attenuation of pile
driving. The closet station was 10 m distant from the tamping
point along the line of measurement. Every station had three
velocity sensors, which measure vertical, radial and tangential
velocity histories, respectively.
3.3. Layout of measurement with isolation trench
This layout was designed to investigate to know the
vibration isolation effect of shallow trench on the surface
ground vibration induced by dynamic compaction. Fig. 4
presents the profile layouts of the measurements. There were
three shallow open trenches. They were all 3 m deep and 1 m
wide. The first, second and third trench was 20, 15 and 10 m
long and they were located at 15–25 m, 85–95 m and 140–
150 m distant from the tamping point for understanding the
isolation effect of the trench at near, medium and far distances.
The vibration sensor in the back of the trench was installed at
4 m distant from the edge of the trench. This location was
beyond the range of ground surface that bounded by the
vertical cut face of the trench and the 458 line passing through
the bottom corner of the trench (as shown in Fig. 4). Although
the vibration isolation effect is more notable when the trench is
closer to the building structure, the soil mass inside that range
is prone to collapse to result in possible damages of building
foundations. Therefore, it is impractical to install sensor too
close to the trench. For the purpose of comparison, the
vibration measurement without trench was conducted before
339
the trench was excavated. The standard tamping energy with a
25-ton weight and a 20 m falling height was used in these
measurements. For each of the layouts, tamping and vibration
measurement were performed 10 times.
4. Data analysis
4.1. Typical vibration wave form
Fig. 5 shows the recorded vertical, radial and tangential
velocity-time histories, respectively, at various distances from
the tamping point under standard tamping energy. It is obvious
that the vertical and radial wave forms are typical vibration
responses under a heavy impact, however, the tangential wave
form was more complicated. The high frequency peaks in the
front part of the wave forms attenuate quickly with distance in
all three directions, but the low frequency peaks in the rear part
of the wave forms attenuate more slowly with distance. Fig. 6
shows a comparison of the velocity wave forms in three
directions at 10 m distance from the tamping point. We can
observe that the vertical and radial velocity amplitudes are far
greater than that of tangential direction. By integration from
velocity histories, a comparison of displacement wave forms is
shown in Fig. 7. Obviously, the vertical and radial displace-
ment wave forms show the ground response that was suddenly
pressed downward and then rebounded upward and finally
restored to its original position. The tangential displacement
history is more complicated than the other two directions. As
compared with the analytical solution of radial displacement
wave form provided by Lamb [6] in the same figure,
340 J.H. Hwang, T.Y. Tu / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 26 (2006) 337–346

W=20 tons
Tamping point
velocity sensor

V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6

10m 5m 5m 40m 40m 60m

V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6

10m 10m 5m 15m 20m 40m 60m

V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6

10m 10m 10m 5m 5m 20m 40m 60m

T3 T4 T9

10m
T2 T5 T8

10m
T1 T6 T7

10m 10m 10m 5m 5m 20m 40m 60m

Fig. 3. The layout of the measurement without isolation trench.

W=20 tons

H=20m isolation trench

V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7

10m 10m 10m 10m 10m 10m 40m 65m

isolation trench isolation trench isolation trench

V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7

10m 10m 10m 10m 20m 40m 65m

isolation trench isolation trench isolation trench

45°
V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7

10m 10m 10m 10m 20m 40m 65m

20m
5m 15m 10m

10m 10m 15m 65m 60m

Fig. 4. The layout of the measurement with isolation trench.

 J.H. Hwang, T.Y. Tu / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 26 (2006) 337–346 341

(a) (b) (c)

10 2
velocity (cm/sec)
10

velocity (cm/sec)

velocity (cm/sec)
distance=10m distance=10m distance=10m
5 5 1
0 0 0
-5 -5 -1
-10 -10 -2
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
time (sec) time (sec) time (sec)
10 2
velocity (cm/sec)

10

velocity (cm/sec)

velocity (cm/sec)
distance=20m distance=20m distance=20m
5 5 1
0 0 0
-5 -5 -1
-10 -10 -2
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
time (sec) time (sec) time (sec)
10 2
velocity (cm/sec)

10

velocity (cm/sec)

velocity (cm/sec)
distance=30m distance=30m distance=40m
5 5 1
0 0 0
-5 -5 -1
-10 -10 -2
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
time (sec) time (sec) time (sec)
10 2
velocity (cm/sec)

10
velocity (cm/sec)

velocity (cm/sec)
distance=60m distance=60m distance=60m
5 5 1
0 0 0
-5 -5 -1
-10 -10 -2
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
time (sec) time (sec) time (sec)
10 10 2
velocity (cm/sec)

velocity (cm/sec)

velocity (cm/sec)
distance=100m distance=100m distance=100m
5 5 1
0 0 0
-5 -5 -1
-10 -10 -2
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
time (sec) time (sec) time (sec)
10 10 2
velocity (cm/sec)

velocity (cm/sec)

velocity (cm/sec)
distance=165m distance=165m distance=165m
5 5 1
0 0 0
-5 -5 -1
-10 -10 -2
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
time (sec) time (sec) time (sec)

vertical direction radial direction tangential direction

Fig. 5. The three velocity histories at different distances under standard tamping energy.

the measured wave form is very similar to the theoretical one. three directions. Obviously, they are quite different, especially
Fig. 8 displays the particle paths in the plane of vertical and for the tangential direction. The spectrum in radial direction
radial directions. The paths of particle motions during the first has a low frequency peak. Fig. 11 shows the normalized
half cycle look like flat ellipses rotating in counterclockwise acceleration response spectra in vertical, radial and tangential
direction. The above characteristics of surface ground motions directions at various different distances from the tamping point
are almost reproducible in any vibration record of different
tamping.
10
4.2. Fourier and response spectra
vertical direction
Fig. 9 shows the Fourier amplitude spectra of velocity 5
radial direction
velocity (cm/sec)

records in vertical, radial and tangential directions at various tangential direction

distances from the tamping point under standard tamping
energy. The shapes of the spectra at different distances are 0
similar in the same direction. The spectrum at near distance has
a more conspicuous predominant frequency band and a
corresponding peak than the one at far distance. This is due –5
to energy focusing at near distance and multiple refractions and
reflections of stress wave between soil layers. The primary
frequency of vertical vibration is in the range of 10–20 Hz, –10
while the radial vibration has two primary frequencies, one is 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
time (sec)
3–4 Hz and the other is 12–13 Hz. The whole vibration
frequency contents are primarily in the range of 0–40 Hz for all Fig. 6. The comparison of the velocity wave forms in three directions at 10 m
three directions. Fig. 10 is a comparison of Fourier spectra in distance from the tamping point.
342 J.H. Hwang, T.Y. Tu / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 26 (2006) 337–346

(a) 0.8

Fourier amplitude (kine-sec)

0.4 vertical direction (H=20m)
displacement (cm)

vertical direction distance=10m

0.2
distance=10m
0 distance=15m
–0.2 distance=20m
0.4 distance=60m
–0.4 distance=100m
0 1 2 3 4
time (sec) distance=160m
(b)
0.4
displacement (cm)

radial direction distance=10m

0.2
0
0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
frequency (Hz)
–0.2
–0.4 0.8
0 1 2 3 4 radial direction (H=20m)

Fourier amplitude (kine-sec)

time (sec)
(c) distance=10m
0.05
displacement (cm)

tangential direction distance=15m

distance=10m
distance=20m
0.4 distance=60m
0
distance=100m
distance=160m
–0.05
0 1 2 3 4
time (sec) 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
(d) Lamb's Solution
frequency (Hz)
P S Rayleigh
0.8
tangential direction (H=20m)
Fourier amplitude (kine-sec)

ur(r,0,t) distance=10m
distance=20m
Time distance=40m
0.4 distance=60m
Lamb’s result for the radial displacement
distance=100m
distance=160m
Fig. 7. A comparison of displacement wave forms in three directions.

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
frequency (Hz)

0.4 Fig. 9. The Fourier amplitude spectra in vertical, radial and tangential
directions at various different distances under standard tamping energy.
distance=10m
0.3
the first compaction
the second compaction
0.2
the third compaction
0.1
0.8
V-dir (cm)

Fourier amplitude (kine-sec)

0 H=20m
vertical direction
–0.1 radial direction
tangential direction
0.4
–0.2

–0.3

–0.4
0
–0.4 –0.3 –0.2 –0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
R-dir (cm) frequency (Hz)

Fig. 8. The particle paths in the plane of vertical and radial directions. Fig. 10. A comparison of the Fourier spectra in three directions.
 J.H. Hwang, T.Y. Tu / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 26 (2006) 337–346 343

10 10
vertical direction (H=20m)

distance=10m vertical direction

PGV(cm/sec)
distance=15m 1 the 1st tamping
the 2nd tamping
distance=20m
Sa/g

the 3rd tamping

1 distance=60m the 4th tamping
distance=100m the 5th tamping

distance=160m 0.1 the 6th tamping

the 7th tamping
the 8th tamping
the 9th tamping

0.1 0.01
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
1 10 100 1000
Period (sec) distance(m)
10 10
radial direction (H=20m)

distance=10m radial direction

PGV(cm/sec)
the 1st tamping
distance=15m 1
the 2nd tamping
distance=20m
Sa/g

the 3rd tamping

1
distance=60m the 4th tamping
distance=100m the 5th tamping

distnace=160m 0.1 the 6th tamping

the 7th tamping
the 8th tamping
the 9th tamping
0.1
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0.01
1 10 100 1000
Period (sec) distance(m)
10 10
tangential direction (H=20m)

tangential direction
distance=10m
PGV(cm/sec)

the 1st tamping

distance=20m 1
the 2nd tamping
Sa/g

1 distance=30m the 3rd tamping

the 4th tamping
distance=60m the 5th tamping
distance=100m 0.1 the 6th tamping
the 7th tamping
distance=165m
the 8th tamping
the 9th tamping
0.1
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0.01
1 10 100 1000
Period (sec) distance(m)

Fig. 11. The normalized response spectra in vertical, radial and tangential Fig. 12. The attenuation relationship of PGV with distance in all three
directions at various different distances under standard tamping energy. directions continuous nine tampings under standard tamping energy.

under standard tamping energy. The shapes of spectra are
similar in all directions. The spectral value in the range of
shorter period at near distance is greater than that at far
distance, but the spectral values of longer period at near
distance is lower than that at far distance. All the normalized
peak spectral values (Sa/g) are less than 4.0.
4.3. Attenuation of PGV and PGA with distance
Figs. 12 and 13 show the attenuation relationship of PGV
and PGA with distance in all three directions during continuous
nine tampings under standard tamping energy. It is observed
that the attenuation relationships of different tamping cases are
very close and vibration characteristic of dynamic compaction
seems to be reliably reproducible. The average attenuation
relationships in three directions are plotted in Fig. 14.
We found that the vertical and radial vibrations are greater
than the tangential vibration for near distance. The attenuation
rate with distance in radial direction is the highest, the vertical
direction is a little smaller and the tangential direction is the
lowest. For far distance (R100 m), vibration values in three
directions are almost the same. A comparison of the above
attenuation relationship with that deduced from vibration
monitoring of diesel pile driving at the same test site is shown
in Fig. 15. It was found that dynamic compaction has a greater
vibration but a slightly faster attenuation rate with distance
than diesel pile driving.
4.4. Influence of different tamping energy
Four falling heights of 20, 15, 10, and 5 m were used to
investigate the influence of tamping energy on ground
344 J.H. Hwang, T.Y. Tu / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 26 (2006) 337–346

10 10

vertical direction
vertical direction
1 the 1st tamping
radial direction

PGV (cm/sec)
the 2nd tamping 1 tangential direction
PGA(g)

the 3rd tamping

0.1 the 4th tamping
the 5th tamping
the 6th tamping
the 7th tamping
0.01 the 8th tamping
0.1
the 9th tamping

0.001
1 10 100 1000 0.01
distance(m) 1 10 100 1000
10 distance (m)
10
radial direction
1 vertical direction
the 1st tamping
radial direction
PGA(g)

the 2nd tamping 1

the 3rd tamping
0.1 the 4th tamping tangential direction

PGA (g)
the 5th tamping
the 6th tamping 0.1
the 7th tamping
0.01 the 8th tamping
the 9th tamping
0.01
0.001
1 10 100 1000
distance(m) 0.001
10 1 10 100 1000
distance (m)
tangential direction
1 Fig. 14. The average attenuation relationships in three directions.
the 1st tamping
the 2nd tamping
PGA(g)

the 3rd tamping

0.1 the 4th tamping
the 5th tamping
the 6th tamping potential energy may be consumed to create a more deeper
the 7th tamping
0.01 the 8th tamping
tamping hole. The falling height limit seems to be about 15 m
the 9th tamping in this study. Fig. 18 exhibits the comparison of vertical and
radial response spectra at 10 m distance from the tamping point
0.001
1 10 100 1000
under different falling heights. It reveals that the average
distance(m) spectral shapes for different energies are rather close and most
of spectral peaks occur in the range of structural period less
Fig. 13. The attenuation relationship of PGA with distance in all three than 0.15 s.
directions continuous nine tampings under standard tamping energy.

100
vibrations. Fig. 16 presents the attenuation relationships of
PGV in vertical and radial directions under different falling vertical direction
heights. We found that the higher the tamping energy, the 10
dynamic compaction (DC)
greater the vibration, and the faster the attenuation rate. Fig. 17
PGV (cm/sec)

diesel pile driving

is the comparison of vertical and radial Fourier spectra at 10 m
distance to the tamping point under different falling heights. It 1
can be seen that the spectral shapes of different energy are
similar, however, a higher energy causes a more distinct peak
0.1
spectral value and a more clear predominant frequency. For
falling heights of 15 and 20 m, the differences of attenuation
relationship and spectral shape are small. This seems to 0.01
indicate the absorbing capacity of the ground for storing 1 10 100 1000
distance(m)
vibration energy may have a limit. When the falling height is
higher than a certain height limit, the induced vibrations have Fig. 15. A comparison of the PGV attenuation relationships of DC and diesel
no significant difference. We guessed that the redundant pile driving.
 J.H. Hwang, T.Y. Tu / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 26 (2006) 337–346 345

10 10

vertical direction
PGV (cm/sec)

1 H=5m
H=10m

Sa/g
vertical direction 1
H=15m
H=5m
0.1
H=20m
H=10m
H=15m
H=20m

0.01 0.1
1 10 100 1000
distance(m) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
10 Period (sec)

10
PGV (cm/sec)

1 radial direction
H=5m
radial direction
H=10m

Sa/g
H=5m 1
0.1 H=15m
H=10m
H=20m
H=15m
H=20m

0.01
1 10 100 1000
distance(m) 0.1
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Fig. 16. The attenuation relationships of PGV in vertical and radial directions Period (sec)
under different falling heights.
Fig. 18. The comparison of vertical and radial response spectra at 10 m distance
0.4 to the tamping point under different falling heights.
Fourier amplitude (kine-sec)

vertical direction
H=5m
H=10m
0.2 H=15m 4.5. Influence of shallow isolation trench
H=20m

Fig. 19 shows the average attenuation relation of PGV in

vertical direction with and without isolation trench under
standard tamping energy. Three types of trench arrangement
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
are shown in Fig. 4. We cannot observe any significant
frequency (Hz)
difference in attenuation relations between the cases with
0.8 and without trench from the arithmetic plot in Fig. 19. The
same observation was also obtained for the Fourier and
Fourier amplitude (kine-sec)

response spectra. It could be concluded that the shallow

radial direction trench seems to nearly have no isolation effect on the
H=5m ground vibration induced by dynamic compaction for the
H=10m
layout of measurement used in this study.
0.4 H=15m
H=20m

5. Conclusion

Based on the study, the following conclusions can be drawn.

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
1. The ground vibration induced by dynamic compaction
frequency (Hz)
approximates a one cycle impulse wave. All the
Fig. 17. The comparison of vertical and radial Fourier spectra at 10 m distance vibration durations are within 0.1–0.3 s, among which,
to the tamping point under different falling heights. the vertical vibration duration is the shortest, the longest
346 J.H. Hwang, T.Y. Tu / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 26 (2006) 337–346

10 vertical vibration is in the range of 10–20 Hz, while the

radial vibration has two primary frequencies, one is in
8 no trench the range of 3–4 Hz and the other is in the range of 12–
PGV (cm/sec)

a trench at 25m 13 Hz. This primary frequency is slightly lower than that
6 the location of trench
of diesel pile driving at the same test site. The Fourier
spectral shapes in different directions at the same
4
distance are considerably different.
Vertical
2 direction 3. The vibration peaks in vertical and radial directions are
roughly about the same and notably greater than the
0 peak in tangential direction, but at a distance far than
0 40 80 120 160 200 100 m, the vibration peaks of the three directions
distance(m) become about the same. This is due to the attenuation
10 rate with distance in radial direction is the highest, the
vertical direction is a little smaller, and the tangential
no trench
8 direction is the lowest. The vibration peak and its
trenches at 25m, 95m and 150m
PGV (cm/sec)

the location of trenches attenuation with distance in dynamic compaction are

6 larger than those in diesel pile driving at the same test
site.
4
4. The higher the tamping energy, the greater the vibration,
Radial and the faster the attenuation rate. The storing capacity
2 direction
of the ground for vibration energy seems to have a limit.
0 When the falling height is higher than a certain height
0 40 80 120 160 200 limit, the influence of tamping energy on the induced
distance(m) vibrations becomes insignificant.
10 5. The shallow trench seems to have no isolation effect on
the ground vibration induced by dynamic compaction for
no trench
8
trenches at 15m, 85m and 140m
the layout of measurement used in this study.
PGV (cm/sec)

the location of trenches

6

Acknowledgements
4

Tangential This research was sponsored by RSEA Company. The

2 direction
0 the support.
0 40 80 120 160
distance(m)
Fig. 19. The average attenuation relation of PGV in vertical direction with and
without isolation trench under standard tamping energy.
is the radial direction, and the tangential direction is in
between. The wave form is similar to the analytical
solution for an impulse load on a elastic half-space and
nearly repeatable during every tamping.
2. The shapes of Fourier amplitude spectra at different
distances are similar in the same direction. The spectrum
at near distance has a more conspicuous predominant
frequency band and a corresponding peak than the one
at far distance. This is due to energy focusing at near
distance and multiple refractions and reflections of stress
wave between soil layers. The primary frequency of
author would like to extend his sincere gratitude to RSEA for
200
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