Determination of shear wave velocity profiles by a passive surface wave method which considers horizontal components of waves

Abstract

A commonly used method for subsurface investigation in foundation design is the Standard Penetration Test (SPT), which, despite its high accuracy, is associated with considerable cost and time requirements. Consequently, passive surface wave analysis has gained increasing attention as a preliminary geotechnical investigation method due to its efficiency and relatively low cost. This method involves recording ambient

 surface waves in the field and analyzing the data to construct shear wave dispersion curves. Typically, such analysis considers only the vertical component of the wavefield, which leads to an underdetermined inversion problem and may result in non-unique solutions, thereby reducing the accuracy of the shear wave velocity profile prediction. To address this limitation, this study proposes a joint inversion approach that incorporates both vertical and horizontal components of the surface wavefield. By increasing the constraints in the inversion process, this method enhances the stability and reliability of the results, as the two components respond differently to the mechanical properties of subsurface materials. The proposed method was applied to field-recorded surface wave data to generate shear wave velocity profiles, which were then compared with profiles obtained from Downhole and Crosshole tests. The comparison demonstrates that the proposed approach provides accurate predictions of shear wave velocity profiles, indicating its potential for improving the reliability of surface wave-based geotechnical investigations.