Application of Elastic Wave Velocity for Estimation of Soil Depth

Abstract

Because soil depth is a crucial factor for predicting the stability at landslide and debris flow sites, various techniques have been developed to determine soil depth. The objective of this study is to suggest the graphical bilinear method to estimate soil depth through seismic wave velocity. Seismic wave velocity rapidly changes at the interface of two different layers due to the change in material type, packing type, and contact force of particles and thus, it is possible to pick the soil depth based on seismic wave velocity. An area, which is susceptible to debris flow, was selected, and an aerial survey was performed to obtain a topographic map and digital elevation model. In addition, a seismic survey and a dynamic cone penetration test were performed in this study. The comparison between the soil depth based on dynamic cone tests and the graphical bilinear method shows good agreement, indicating that the newly suggested soil depth estimating method may be usefully applied to predict soil depth.