Evaluation of Particulate Materials using Wave-Based Techniques

Abstract

Elastic and electromagnetic waves provide important information about particulate materials. In order to facilitate the application of wave-based techniques to soil characterization, fundamental soil properties are first reviewed, and then experiments are performed for both elastic and electromagnetic waves. The first application is related to characterization of particulate materials using shear wave, concentrated on the change of effective stress in consolidation process, multi-phase phenomenon with relation to capillarity, and microscale characteristics of grain particles. The second application is relevant to the electromagnetic wave, focused on stratigraphy detection in layered soils, estimation of void ratio and its spatial distribution, and conduction in unsaturated soils. Experimental results suggest that the shear wave measurements allow studying the evolution of effective stress in unsaturated soils as well as in saturated soils while the electromagnetic wave measurements give an insight into conduction process and allow estimating void ratio and its spatial distribution.