Wave propagation in nonlinear one‐dimensional soil model

The objective of the research conducted by the authors is to explore the feasibility of determining reliable in situ values of shear modulus as a function of strain. In this paper the meaning of the material stiffness obtained from impact and harmonic excitation tests on a surface slab is discussed. A one‐dimensional discrete model with the nonlinear material stiffness is used for this purpose. When a static load is applied followed by an impact excitation, if the amplitude of the impact is very small, the measured wave velocity using the cross‐correlation indicates the wave velocity calculated from the tangent modulus corresponding to the state of stress caused by the applied static load. The duration of the impact affects the magnitude of the displacement and the particle velocity but has very little effect on the estimation of the wave velocity for the magnitudes considered herein. When a harmonic excitation is applied, the cross‐correlation of the time histories at different depths estimates a wave velocity close to the one calculated from the secant modulus in the stress–strain loop under steady‐state condition. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.