Towards The Standardization of Multi-Station Surface Wave Method for Site Investigation

The application of surface wave method for site investigation becomes more and more popular in<br>practical uses due to its non-intrusive tests and convenient operations. In particular, multi-station<br>recording permits a single survey of a broad depth range and high levels of redundancy with a single field<br>configuration. However the field testing configuration plays a major role to ensure good data quality for<br>constructing a dispersion curve with a wide range of frequencies. The adjustments of field configuration<br>usually need experienced testers’ “educational guess” after referring to the results from preliminary tests<br>for ensuring the data quality. This guessing process makes the surface wave method an unfriendly<br>technique for general field engineers. The effects of survey line parameters, such as near offset, receiver<br>spacing, and offset range, are investigated and respective criteria for deciding the proper configuration are<br>illustrated. Furthermore, a new concept called “pseudo-section” is introduced to synthesize a series of<br>data for selecting optimum offset range for each frequency and increasing the lateral spatial resolution.<br>This study will lead to further standardization of the surface wave testing.