Development of an electrically-driven automatic downhole seismic source

To improve upon the downhole testing program, an automatic seismic source was developed for use in seismic piezocone testing. A new source, named the AutoSeis, was initially tested at the national geotechnical experimentation site in Spring Villa, Alabama and compared to available crosshole data to assess its ability to meet the primary and secondary goals. Later testing was conducted at two test sites in the Mid-America earthquake region near Memphis. With reliable shear waves generated to a depth of 20 m, the first iteration of the AutoSeis has proven successful and has provided the necessary information for the design of an improved version.