ISSN: 1945-7545
CODEN: GTJODJ
Published Online: 12 July 2010
Page Count: 6

Monitoring the Oedometric Compression of Sands with Acoustic Emissions

Fernandes, Fabio
Graduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, San Diego State Univ., San Diego, CA

Syahrial, Afrildo I.
Graduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, San Diego State Univ., San Diego, CA

Valdes, Julio R.
Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, San Diego State Univ., San Diego, CA

(Received 13 May 2009; accepted 8 June 2010)

Abstract

The development and use of a noninvasive technique to monitor the acoustic emissions (AEs) generated during the oedometric compression of coarse-grained soil are documented. Technique implementation is described with the aid of experiments conducted on sands with contrasting grain features. Results indicate that the proposed technique is capable of capturing the onset of characteristic stress-strain behavior regimes exhibited by the soil during loading. The clarity of such capture is, however, dependent on the amplitude of the AE relative to that of the background noise and, as such, dependent on the soil type. The technique is anticipated to aid in enhancing the fundamental study of soil behavior at high stresses and may find potential use in the realm of penetrometer-based stratigraphy characterization.

Keywords:
acoustic emissions, sands, sand crushing

Paper ID: GTJ102501
DOI: 10.1520/GTJ102501
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