Two-dimensional imaging of soil–bedrock interface by short-array beamforming technique

Abstract

The depth to soil–bedrock interface, which is one of the major parameters in the site response analysis, has been often investigated by surface-wave tests. The round-robin tests for a surface-wave method in Korea revealed that a long measurement array in surface-wave tests is not appropriate in locating soil–bedrock interface. In this paper, for the improved profiling of depth to soil–bedrock interface in 2-D image, short measurement array was introduced for the beamforming technique, which is a robust array processing technique adopted in a long-array format for stiffness profiling. Numerical simulation and field applications of the short-array beamforming technique indicate that the method is valid even for surface wave propagation with mode-related complexity. Depth to soil–bedrock interface and shear-wave velocity profiles determined by the short-array beamforming technique were in good agreement with layer stratifications of boring logs, resistivity map, shear-wave velocity profiles of downhole tests and CAP-SASW tests.