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Evaluating the overconsolidation ratios and peak friction angles of granular soil deposits using noninvasive seismic surveying

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Abstract

The main objective of this study was to propose an approach to estimate the peak friction angles of over-consolidated granular soil deposits by using the P-wave velocity and the SV- and SH-wave velocities. To this end, seventeen pairs of P- and S-wave seismic refraction profiles were carried out at three different granular sites in Iran using noninvasive seismic wave methods. To estimate the overconsolidation ratio (OCR) in granular geomaterials in terms of SH/SV velocity ratios, a general regression analysis was performed on the obtained data from this study combined with those reported in the literature. In addition, by assuming cross-anisotropy of the soils, the P- and S-wave velocities were utilized to develop an equation for calculating the coefficient of lateral earth pressure at rest (K0). The Mayne and Kulhawy formula was finally employed to evaluate \(\varphi^{\prime}\) in granular soil deposits by combining the calculated K0 values and the estimated OCR values. The findings of this study may be used as the appropriate approaches for economic and noninvasive determination of in-situ peak friction angle in granular soil deposits using the surface seismic surveying.

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Acknowledgements

The study was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51778259) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2018M642846). The authors are grateful to the supports.

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  1. School of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan City, 430074, Hubei Province, China

    Ehsan Pegah & Huabei Liu

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Pegah, E., Liu, H. Evaluating the overconsolidation ratios and peak friction angles of granular soil deposits using noninvasive seismic surveying. Acta Geotech. 15, 3193–3209 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-020-00953-5

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