A new method for estimating shear-wave velocity in marine sediments from radiation impedance measurements

Shear-wave velocity is one of the important parameters that characterize the physical properties of marine sediments. In this study, a new method is proposed for measuring shear-wave velocity in marine sediments by using radiation impedance. Shear-wave velocities for three kinds of urethane rubber with different Japanese Industrial Standards hardness values were obtained by radiation impedance and time-of-flight measurement techniques. It was shown that the values of the shear-wave velocity measured by the radiation impedance method were consistent with those of time-of-flight measurements. It was then shown that the shear-wave velocities for air- and water-saturated beach sands are different. It was also found that the indicated shear-wave velocity is dependent on the vibrating plate radius because the instrument measures an average shear-wave velocity within a depth window beneath the plate; the larger the plate radius, the deeper the averaging window. Finally, measurements were made on two-layered media in which air-saturated beach sand or urethane rubber was covered with air-saturated clay, and the relationship between the thickness of the clay layer and the indicated shear-wave velocity was investigated.