Travel time observation using numerical simulation of bender element testing in time and frequency domain

Due to poor understanding of the output signal, the reliability of the travel time estimated by bender element tests has been their most serious problem since their introduction to the soil testing. Recent establishment of a concept interpreting the bender element apparatus as a linear system enables us to calculate and probe the output signals more theoretically. In this study, first, the concept is reviewed to understand the linearity of the whole system, which is composed of some fundamental subsystems, reflecting the responses of the soil specimen, and the source/receiver bender elements including their peripherals. For modeling the response of the whole system, simplified models for the subsystems are employed and combined, with some updates to describe the interaction among the subsystems, by sharing some parameters throughout the models. With a set of hypothetical, but expected parameter values, the responses of each subsystem and the combined whole system are simulated in the time and frequency domains, and the resulting travel times are thoroughly examined. The validity of this model is demonstrated by comparing the system responses between the simulation and the experimental data previously conducted in the author’s laboratory. A potential that removing the response of the bender element subsystems from the whole response could dramatically improve the accuracy of travel time estimation in actual tests is concluded.     

上海黏性土的初始剪切模量试验研究

以上海天然沉积黏性土②~⑥层土为研究对象,利用共振柱仪器实现了各土层在不同固结压力下的弯曲元和共振柱试验,得到了各层土体小应变水平下的初始剪切模量。试验结果表明,利用弯曲元试验时域初达波法和时域峰值法能得到与现场单孔波速原位测试结果相一致的剪切波速;共振柱试验得到的土体小应变初始剪切模量与弯曲元试验结果基本一致。分析表明,在所试验的各层土中,第③层淤泥质粉质黏土和第④层淤泥质黏土的剪切模量相对较小,第⑥层土的剪切模量最大;第②、⑤层土的剪切模量接近,且大于③、④层,小于第⑥层土,这与土样的实际天然状态是相吻合的。利用Rampello公式可较好地拟合上海黏性土的初始剪切模量,所得的拟合曲线可用来确定各土层在不同深度处的初始剪切模量。     

利用弯曲元测量土体表层剪切波速的初步试验

土体剪切波速是土力学研究与岩土工程设计的关键参数之一。根据压电弯曲元波速测量的方向性,提出了侧向激发与接收的测量模式,使得弯曲元技术可用于室内和现场土体表层剪切波速的测量。在砂土模型内的初步试验表明,以激发元和接收元内侧间距为剪切波传播距离,并采用时域初达波法判别剪切波到达时间,则侧向激发与接收方式弯曲元的剪切波速测量结果准确可靠,精度与常规"对向激发与接收"方式相同。该弯曲元测试方法为当前大量涉及的取样扰动评价及地基处理质量控制等重要问题提供了便捷可靠的无损检测手段。     

弯曲元试验高精度测试土样剪切波速方法

在HX-100型多功能三轴仪上开发了压电陶瓷弯曲元剪切波速测试系统,研究了高精度测试不同种类和刚度土样剪切波速的方法以及剪切波速弥散性问题,并将弯曲元测试结果与DrnevichLong-Tor型共振柱试验结果进行了对比。研究结果表明,对不同种类和刚度的土样,通过选用合适的激发波形和频率就可以消除接收波形的近场效应和过冲现象,高精度地确定土样剪切波速和极小应变剪切模量;在所使用的激发频率范围内,剪切波速不具弥散性。     

A Method for Received Waveform Reconstruction Based on Bender Element Test Using Frequency-swept Signal

An experimental technique for reconstructing the received wave of bender element tests based on linear system theory is shown in this paper. In order to identify the frequency response of testing apparatus, bender element tests using frequency-swept signals are performed. Received waves for one-period sine pulse transmitting with various frequencies are calculated and compared with observed waves in several kinds of soil samples and testing apparatuses. The linearity of the testing system is also confirmed by coherence function. It is shown that calculated data are less affected by random noise and show good agreement with observed data in regards to not only waveform itself but also resulting shear wave velocity. It is mentioned that this technique can provide simulations for arbitrary transmitted waveform with high signal/noise ratio after laboratory tests are performed. It is also mentioned that this technique is advantageous when sufficient amplitude of received wave cannot be ensured or shear wave velocity must be verified, for example, due to uncertainty of arrival time by near-field effect.     

Frequency Response Characteristics of Bender Element Test System Identified by Frequency-Swept Signal Input —Influence on Accuracy of Received Waveform Reconstruction—

On the basis of the method for received waveform reconstruction that the authors had previously proposed on bender element test, this paper discusses the required characteristics of frequency response of the test system and frequency-swept signal, which are essential for the method, from the view point of reconstruction accuracy. In order to argue influence on characteristics of frequency response, frequency responses of several bender element test systems are experimentally identified by using eleven kinds of frequency-swept signals. Test results show that the frequency response of the system is substantially determined by the kinds of sample and identification of frequency response is affected by characteristics of input frequency-swept signal. Then reconstructed received waveform is calculated and compared to observed waveform. A normalized cross-correlation function is proposed to estimate quantitatively the degree of similarity between two waveforms and applied to the reconstructed and observed waveforms. This comparative analysis reveals that accurate identification of frequency response in a given frequency range leads to accurate waveform reconstruction. Also, test results show an additional advantage of this reconstruction technique in a noisy environment.     

干砂饱和砂小应变剪切模量共振柱弯曲元对比试验研究

通过对2种洁净的干砂与饱和砂进行弯曲元与共振柱对比试验研究,得出了可靠的弯曲元剪切波传播时间确定方法,并对饱和砂土弯曲元与共振柱试验结果的偏差进行解释。不同频率激发信号对弯曲元剪切波速传播时间的研究证实,剪切波速随激发频率的增大而增大,采用激发频率为10kHz的初达波法与共振柱试验得到的结果具有较好的一致性。饱和砂土弯曲元与共振柱试验剪切波速结果相差6%～10%,可通过饱和砂土中剪切波速的弥散性对其进行解释。大部分洁净砂在弯曲元试验中激发频率一般大于特征频率,均需考虑剪切波速的弥散性。而对于天然砂土或粉土一般具有较高的特征频率,其弯曲元试验中一般不考虑剪切波速的弥散性。为洁净砂和天然砂土饱和土样的弯曲元测试提供有效方法。     

Monitoring the strength properties of electrokinetically treated soil by bender elements to determine the treatment period

Bender elements have been used as a non-destructive soil investigation technique by many researchers and have proven to be effective in predicting the shear strength of various soils. In this paper, electrokinetic treatment tests were performed with embedded bender elements to monitor the increase in the shear strength of a soft sandy clay during the treatment. The bender element system, designed and assembled for this study, was integrated into the electrokinetic treatment process in order to quell a common uncertainty associated with this form of soil improvement technique, namely: when is the treatment completed? The cross-correlation and first-peak arrival times were used to measure the shear wave velocity of a clayey soil under the treatment of electrokinetics using bender elements. To determine shear wave velocity before and during treatment, a variety of shear wave tests were performed every hour of treatment using frequencies ranging from 100 Hz to 2500 Hz via the use of bender element. The results show that monitoring the soil improvement during the treatment by bender elements can shorten the treatment time by 43% and reduce the energy consumption, which is a major expenditure in an electrokinetic treatment process, by 33% while consistently improving the shear strength and the load capacity by approximately 200% and 300%, respectively.     

一种新型光纤光栅局部位移计在小应变测量中的应用

小应变下的土体模量的变化对基坑周围既有建筑物的变形和路基沉降分析具有重要意义。土体模量会随土体的应变呈非线性变化,特别是应变范围为10~(-5)~10~(-3),土体模量随应变的增加显著降低。由于土体应变的变化范围广,传统的单一测量仪器无法连续量测土体从微小应变到小应变的模量变化情况。通常测量土体小应变模量的方法有弯曲元和局部位移计方法。弯曲元方法能有效测量土体微小应变的模量,但不能得到土体模量在小应变情况下变化规律,因为弯曲元方法无法得到和控制土体的应变。设计了基于布拉格光纤光栅传感技术的局部位移计。通过设计和标定试验,成功将布拉格光纤光栅局部位移计应用于改装的三轴试验仪器中。为进一步的对比分析,在改进的三轴试验装置中安装了弯曲元试验系统。基于改装的三轴试验仪器,进行了不同围压下的固结不排水试验,得到了土体从微小应变到小应变下模量的变化曲线。试验结果验证了光纤光栅局部位移计能有效的测量土体在小应变情况下的模量非线性变化特征。     

干砂最大剪切模量的共振柱与弯曲元试验

对德国 4 种干砂试样进行了共振柱与弯曲元对比试验,旨在分析弯曲元法测定砂土最大剪切模量时存在问题和解决方法。研究表明：时域初达法判定的剪切波传播时间较其他方法具有更好的稳定性;弯曲元试验测定最大剪切模量输入电压脉冲频率的减小而减小,衰减程度因砂土类型而异,该影响随围压的增大而减弱;对比分析表明,弯曲元与共振柱试验测定的最大剪切模量具有良好的线性关系,对柏林砂和不伦瑞克砂,存在一个临界最大剪切模量,小于该临界值时,弯曲元测值大于共振柱测值,而大于该临界值时,前者小于后者,两者差值随土样刚度增大而增大。对比研究指出,弯曲元试验尽可能采用合适高频脉冲电压作为激发电压,实践中应事先与共振柱试验进行对比。     

固化粉土小应变剪切模量与强度增长相关性研究

小应变剪切模量和无侧限抗压强度是表征固化土刚度和强度特性的两个重要参数。简要介绍了弯曲元测试技术的原理及其在试验中存在的问题,采用压电陶瓷弯曲元测试技术对水泥和木质素固化剂固化粉土试样在不同养护龄期下的小应变剪切模量进行了测试,同时对相应龄期下试样进行了常规无侧限抗压强度试验,通过引入归一化参数G28和UCS28对不同固化土的小应变剪切模量和无侧限抗压强度之间的相关关系进行分析,提出了固化土刚度与强度的相关性模型,可为地基处理中固化土的无损测试与加固效果评价提供新的方法。结果表明,水泥、木质素固化粉土的小应变剪切模量随养护龄期增加而增加,养护龄期28 d内增长显著,28 d后增长趋于平稳;相同类型固化土不论固化剂掺量多少,其小应变剪切模量随养护时间的发展在本质上是相同的;固化土归一化无侧限抗压强度表现出与小应变剪切模量相似的发展趋势;提出的固化土归一化模型可作为一种土体强度无损检测的新方法。     

Demand Profiling for Dynamic Traffic Assignment by Integrating Departure Time Choice and Trip Distribution

One challenge in dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) modeling is estimating the finely disaggregated trip matrix required by such models. In previous work, an exogenous time distribution profile for trip departure rates is applied uniformly across all origin‐destination (O‐D) pairs. This article develops an endogenous departure time choice model based on an arrival time penalty function incorporated into trip distribution, which results in distinct demand profiles by O‐D pair. This yields a simultaneous departure time and trip choice making use of the time‐varying travel times in DTA. The required input is arrival time preferences, which can be disaggregated by O‐D pair and may be easier to collect through surveys than the demand profile. This model is integrated into the four‐step planning process with feedback, creating an extension of previous frameworks which aggregate over time. Empirical results from a network representing Austin, Texas indicate variation in departure time choice appropriate to the arrival time penalties and travel times. Our model also appears to converge faster to a dynamic trip table prediction than a time‐aggregated coupling of DTA and planning, potentially reducing the substantial computation time of combined planning models that solve DTA as a subproblem of a feedback process.     

Determination of Shear Wave Velocity by Bender Elements using Variable-Path Length Method

For determining shear wave velocity by bender elements, several types of travel time methods have been proposed and are being used commonly. Although the methods have been established over a period of time, there are still many aspects that need to be improved. For example, the ambiguity of arrival time due to near-field effect and the distance measurement for soft sample during testing installation. This study seeks to propose an alternative method which could minimise such ambiguities. In this regard, a method called variable-path length method is proposed, which uses a continuous sinusoidal wave instead of a pulse wave, is applied to a series of tests on reconstituted Kasaoka clay in a modified triaxial apparatus. Based on the results, it is verified that the proposed method can measure shear wave velocity without the ambiguity of arrival time and independent of initial distance between transmitter and receiver. In addition, the proposed method has an advantage to determine phase velocity of shear wave at arbitrary frequency which is useful to study the frequency dependence of geomaterials.     

Estimated apparatus speeds by street type in Chicago,Illinois

The Chicago Fire Department conducted road tests to measure fire apparatus speeds in various areas of the city for the purpose of estimating input to a computer-simulated fire apparatus transportation network. This network was then processed by a minimum path algorithm, and the estimated speeds were used along each path to compute emergency response travel times. These emergency response travel times were used for purposes such as site planning, deployment evaluation, and analyses of citywide fire protection coverage. A review of the literature provided insights explaining apparatus speeds, but little in the way of practical information for purposes of network travel time analysis. This paper describes the Chicago road test methodology, and shares the results of the study.     

利用弯曲元测试砂土剪切模量的国际平行试验

首先介绍了弯曲元技术的基本原理和应用研究情况,然后详细报道了浙江大学岩土工程研究所参与此次国际平行试验的试验内容和初步分析结果。试验对象为饱和Toyoura砂,内容为排水条件下的多级加荷三轴(固结比Kc=1,2)和固结仪K0试验,在每级荷载下利用弯曲元测试土样的剪切波速并计算剪切模量Gmax。本文试验结果与弯曲元技术应用方法为TC-29的最终分析提供了有效的试验数据和参考依据。     

Underestimation of flood quantiles from parallel drainage areas

A drainage area is often divided into sub-areas for estimating the area's time of concentration. If runoff from the sub-areas concentrates in parallel to the drainage outlet, the time of concentration of the drainage area is usually estimated as the longest time of travel through the individual sub-areas. Findings reported here show that this conventionally used method of estimating time of concentration for parallel drainage areas is inappropriate and may result in underestimation of flood quantiles. A more suitable method of estimating the time of concentration for areas comprised of parallel sub-areas is to use a runoff-weighted average of the times of travel through the parallel sub-areas. The runoff weight of each sub-area can be calculated as the product of its runoff coefficient and area. This proposed method was tested and shown to provide more accurate design flood estimates. Also compared in this study are design flood estimates obtained through continuous simulation and design storm modelling.     

A Bayesian mixture model for short-term average link travel time estimation using large-scale limited information trip-based data

Accurate estimation and prediction of urban link travel times are important for urban traffic operations and management. This paper develops a Bayesian mixture model to estimate short-term average urban link travel times using large-scale trip-based data with partial information. Unlike typical GPS trajectory data, trip-based data from taxies or other sources provide limited trip level information, which only contains the trip origin and destination locations, trip travel times and distances, etc. The focus of this study is to develop a robust probabilistic short-term average link travel time estimation model and demonstrate the feasibility of estimating network conditions using large-scale trip level information. In the model, the path taken by each trip is considered as latent and modeled using a multinomial logit distribution. The observed trip data given the possible path set and the mean and variance of the average link travel times can thus be characterized using a finite mixture distribution. A transition model is also introduced to serve as an informative prior that captures the temporal and spatial dependencies of link travel times. A solution approach based on the expectation–maximization (EM) algorithm is proposed to solve the problem. The model is tested on estimating the mean and variance of the average link travel times for 30 min time intervals using a large-scale taxi trip dataset from New York City. More robust estimation results are obtained owing to the adoption of the Bayesian framework.     

Effect of Directional Stress History on Anisotropy of Initial Stiffness of Cohesive Soils Measured by Bender Element Tests

This paper describes the initial stiffness of reconstituted kaolinite clay in both vertical and horizontal planes under three different stress histories. The initial shear stiffness was obtained from bi-directional bender element tests during isotropic and K₀ stress loading and unloading. An empirical correlation was established based on the initial stiffness of normally consolidated soils. Unlike the unique relationship of the initial vertical stiffness of normally consolidated clays, the initial stiffness in the horizontal plane is dependent on the stress ratio and previous stress history; thus, three different relationships of the initial horizontal stiffness were obtained for the three loading programs. The effect of the stress history on the initial horizontal stiffness can be considered properly by defining the degree of overconsolidation in terms of the horizontal effective stress. The change in the initial stiffness has a directional dependency on the stress history in the direction of the particle motion and wave propagation in the bender element tests.     

Interpretation of International Parallel Test on the Measurement of Gmax Using Bender Elements

This report summarizes the results of international parallel test on the measurement of the elastic shear modulus at very small strains, G_max, using bender elements which was carried out from 2003 to 2005 by technical committee, TC29 (Stress-strain and Strength Testing of Geomaterials) of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. The purpose was to evaluate the consistency of the bender element test results obtained by applying the exactly similar test material as well as the test method besides identifying the various existing hardware and software being used in this test. It was decided that the domestic TC29 group of Japanese Geotechnical Society (TC29-JGS) was expected to lead this international co-operation. By 2005, reports of the test results were obtained from 23 institutions from 11 countries. This report has been prepared by TC29-JGS taking a leading role from the beginning. A standard test method is proposed here in order to obtain more accurate data from the bender element test by examining various test methods adopted at different institutions worldwide and the effects of various factors on the test results.     

砂土小应变动力特性弯曲–伸缩元联合测试试验研究

近年来弯曲元在小应变动力特性测试中得到了广泛应用,但对弯曲–伸缩元的联合测试研究较少,国内对弯曲–伸缩元联合测试的研究几近空白。采用弯曲–伸缩元对福建砂进行了剪切波和压缩波联合测试,通过更宽区段激发频率和不同分析方法对剪切波速和压缩波速的确定进行了系统分析,得到了可靠的剪切波和压缩波传播时间确定方法。采用10~20 k Hz峰值法和互相关法可较方便准确地确定剪切波传播时间;压缩波初始到达较易判断,激发频率对压缩波速影响较小。利用弯曲–伸缩元联合测试得到剪切模量G_0和侧限模量M_0,试验结果表明围压和孔隙比对G_0的影响程度均较对M_0的影响程度大。通过剪切波速和压缩波速可计算得到泊松比,随密实度和围压的增大泊松比均以线性规律减小。为弯曲–伸缩元的进一步应用提供了有效的方法。