The sound velocity and bulk properties of sediments in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea of China

Abstract

In order to investigate the correlation between a sound velocity and sediment bulk properties and explore the influence of frequency dependence of the sound velocity on the prediction of the sediment properties by the sound velocity, a compressional wave velocity is measured at frequencies of 25–250 kHz on marine sediment samples collected from the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea in laboratory, together with the geotechnical parameters of sediments. The results indicate that the sound velocity ranges from 1.232 to 1.721 km/s for the collected sediment samples with a significant dispersion within the series measuring frequency. Poorly sorted sediments are highly dispersive nearly with a positive linear relationship. The porosity shows a better negative logarithmic correlation with the sound velocity compared with other geotechnical parameters. Generally, the sound velocity increases with the increasing of the average particle size, sand content, wet and dry bulk densities, and decreasing of the clay content, and water content. An important point should be demonstrated that the higher correlation can be obtained when the measuring frequency is low within the frequency ranges from 25 to 250 kHz since the inhomogeneity of sediment properties has a more remarkably influence on the laboratory sound velocity measurement at the high frequency.