EVALUATION OF THE SPECTRAL ANALYSIS OF SURFACE WAVES (SASW) TEST METHOD FOR FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (FDOT) APPLICATIONS By DAVID JOSEPH HORHOTA A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1996 This dissertation is dedicated to my Lord andmy God, for the many blessings He has given me in my life. Of these blessings, this is also dedicated to my parents and to Sharilynn, for their influence in my life. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There have been so many people involved in this work and without whose help, it would have been impossible to have completed it. To all the knowledge, talent, and abilities of these people, I hope that I do them justice with the results of this research. I have to first acknowledge the role of God in my work. He comes first and foremost in my life, and made this opportu- nity come available to me. He saw me through the stagnant times, and gave me strength to finish the race. I need to recognize my parents and brothers, who stressed the importance of knowledge and education at an early age and sacrificed for me to get a sound early educational beginning, as well as being solid role models. Without this foundation (pun intended) any advanced education would not have been , possible. Frank C. Townsend served as chairman of my committee. He is the person who made me want to come back to the University of Florida for graduate school. Besides the technical support, guidance, and bad jokes, he gave me the confidence I needed to enter into the Ph.D. program, and once there, said that there would low times when you never think you're going to finish. He was right, but helped me through them. If I iii ever teach, those poor students will have this man to blame for their misfortune. Dave Bloomquist always showed enthusiasm and interest in my work even though he had a million other things to do. He truly is a role model for my technical career, with a child- like enthusiasm for engineering and research which if I keep in mind will never make my engineering life boring. Paul Y. Thompsonwas always interested in my research and career, and his time never went unnoticed or unappreciated. I enjoyed his Graduate Seminar classes, and hope that I still hold the record for number of times a student has taken it. Daniel Spangler provided a much-needed view from a non- engineering perspective. He made my interest in geology grow far beyond just 'looking at rocks'. I truly enjoyed his class, and hope to be able to take more classes from him after I graduate. Walter Zimpfer taught me so much at the DOT and at the university. His time and devotion to the engineering profes- sion are a model that I strive toward. I pray he has found eternal peace and happiness. JamshidArmaghani replacedWalter Zimpfer onmy committee upon his retirement. I want to thank him for the commitment of his time and his interest in my career to willingly accept being on my committee. His time and input were deeply appreciated. iv Many debts of gratitude go out to the people at the State Materials Office who helped in so many ways. Special thanks must go to Larry L. Smith and Dr. K. H. Ho, who made it possible to advance my graduate studies while remaining a full-time employee as well as making it possible to perform this research (as well as my master's research). It would be a long list if I included everyone's name here, but I will anyway since without their assistance, none of this would be possible: Pam Moore Willie Henderson Jerry Moxley John Shoucair Tim Blanton Harold Godwin Ken Hahn Gary Mitchell Neal Brockington Lee Cogdill Tommie Harvey Ron Aparicio Ronnie Lewis George Dillow David Benefield Rufus Green Robert Robertson Todd Britton Dave Bass John Thompson Glenn Salvo I must also acknowledge all others outside the State Materials Office who contributed to this research. Special thanks to Dr. Glenn Rix, Bubba Knight, Dr. Paul Cosentino. Dr. Virgil Ping, Dr. DavidWeintraub, Ling Ge, Philip Erbland, and Amy Knittel. Finally, I must thank all my friends who supported me when I needed it (in good times as well as the bad ones) and kept aggravating me by asking when was I finally going to graduate. Special thanks to Sharilynn, who had the patience to see me through to the end. V 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF TABLES X LIST OF FIGURES xiv ABSTRACT xxvii CHAPTERS 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 P1r.o2.b1lemGeoStteacthenmiecnatl Applications 43 1.2.2 Pavement Applications 7 1.3 Scope of Research 11 1.3.1 Geotechnical Applications 11 1.3.2 Pavement Applications 13 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 17 2.1 Background Information 17 2.2 Basic Seismic Wave Theory 19 2.2.1 Effect of Water (Saturated Conditions) 25 2.3 Material Properties 26 2.3.1 Shear Modulus 27 2.3.1.1 Cohesionless soils 30 2.3.2 Y2.ou31.n.g11'..s12 MCoodhuelsuisve soils 4306 3.1.1 2.3.2.1 Laboratory results 42 2.3.2. Field results 45 2.3.3 Constrained Modulus 51 2.3.4 Nonlinear Effects on Moduli 52 2.3.5 Poisson's Ratio 57 3 EQUIPMENT AND FIELD PROCEDURES 59 3.1 Equipment 59 Signal Analyzer 59 3. Spectral analysis 61 vi 2423 1.1.2 3. Dispersion calculations .... 63 3.1.2 Receivers 66 3.1.2.1 Geophones 66 3.1.2.2 Accelerometers 67 3.1.3 Source 68 3.2 Software 71 3.2.1 Transfer Program 71 3.2.2 Inversion Program 74 3.3 Field Procedures 78 3.3.1 Common Receivers' Midpoint Geometry (CRMP) 80 3.3.2 Common Source Geometry (CS) 82 3.3.2.1 Automated SASW method 82 33..33..34 CPoamvmeomnentNeaSrurfRaecceeivLearyerGeAonmaeltyrsyis(CN.R)..... 8845 3.3.5 Effects of Reflected Waves 87 4 TESTING PROGRAM 90 4.1 Introduction 90 4.2 General Testing Procedures 90 4.2.1 Field Testing 91 4.2.1.1 Signal analyzer settings ... 97 4.2.1.2 Data collection 103 4.2.2 Construction of the Field Composite Dispersion Curve 108 4.3 T4e.2s.t3ingInPvreorgsriaomn of the Dispersion Curve . . 111120 4.3.1 Geotechnical Applications 112 444...333...111...31 KDPaoynlnkaapmaiChcoaunctosymitpeaPcatrikownaysite . . . 111111233 4.3.1.4 Live Oak site 114 4.3.2 Pavement Applications 114 4.3.2.1 Test pit studies 114 4.3.2. Field trench sites 116 4.3.2. Florida Institute of Technology test sites 116 4.3.2. US-98 (Panama City) test site 117 5 GEOTECHNICAL APPLICATIONS 118 5.1 5I.n4t.r1oduction 118 5.2 Dynamic Compaction Site 118 5.2.1 Background Information 119 5.2.2 Site Information 121 5.2.3 SASW Testing 123 5.3 Polk County Parkway Site 129 5.3.1 Background Information 130 5.3.2 SASW Testing 132 5.4 Kanapaha Site 142 Background Information 143 vii 22456231 5.4.2 SASW Testing 144 55..44..22.. LCoocmaptairoinsonofoftopfieofldlmiomdeurloick . 147 results 157 5.4.2. Detection of anomalies in 5.4.2. Cloimmpearrocikson of sources .... 116625 5.4.2. Comparison of SASW and DCP results 171 5.4.2. Reproducibility of the SASW test 177 5.5 Live Oak Site 180 5.5.1 Background Information 180 5.5.2 SASW Testing 184 6 PAVEMENT APPLICATIONS 195 6.1 Introduction 195 6.2 Test Pit Studies 195 6.2.1 Background Information 197 6.2.2 SASW Testing 202 6.2.2.1 Subgrade materials 205 6.2.2. Base materials 250 6.3 Field Trench Sites 271 6.3.1 Background Information 271 6.3.2 SASW Testing 274 6.3.2.1 Layer thickness measurements 276 6.3.2. Layer stiffness measurements 284 6.4 Florida Institute of Technology Test Sites 329 6.4.1 Background Information 330 6.4.2 SASW Testing 334 6.5 US-98 (Panama City) Test Site 337 6.5.1 SASW Testing 339 6.5.2 SASW Results 342 7 SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS ... 349 7.1 Summary 349 7.2 Conclusions 351 7.2.1 Geotechnical Applications 351 7.2.2 Pavement Applications 356 7.3 Recommendations 361 APPENDICES A GEOTECHNICAL APPLICATIONS' DATA 367 A.l Introduction 367 A.2 Dynamic Compaction Site 367 A.3 Polk County Parkway 376 A.4 Kanapaha Site 382 A.5 Live Oak Site 398 viii B PAVEMENT APPLICATIONS' DATA 407 B.l Introduction 407 B.2 Test Pit Studies 407 B.3 Field Trench Sites 427 REFERENCE LIST 435 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 443 ix LIST OF TABLES Table Page 2.1 Distribution of Total Energy Based on Wave Type . 23 2.2 Values of Exponent K versus Plasticity Index ... 37 2.3 Typical Values of Young's Modulus 42 2.4 Typical Values of Poisson's Ratio and Total Unit Weight 57 5.1 SASW, DMT, and SPT Locations for the Polk Co. Parkway 133 5.2 SASW, DMT, and SPT Depth Results for the Polk Co. Parkway 137 5.3 SASW, DMT, and SPT Stiffness Results for the Polk Co. Parkway 139 5.4 SASW and DMT Young's and Constrained Moduli Results for the Polk Co. Parkway 142 5.5 SASW and DCP Locations for the Kanapaha Site . . 145 5.6 CPT Locations for the Kanapaha Site 146 5.7 SASW Results for the Kanapaha Site 152 5.8 CPT Depths to Limerock for the Kanapaha Site . . 153 5.9 Comparison of SASW and DCP Results for the Kanapaha Site 173 5.10 CPT Locations for the Live Oak Site 183 5.11 SASW and Soil Boring Locations for the Live Oak Site 185 5.12 SASW Results for the Live Oak Site 189 6.1 List of Materials Tested in the Test Pit .... 205 X