Identification of Shear Band using Elastic Shear Wave Propagation

Localization in soil under high stress level is usually investigated using some indirect measures, e.g., X-ray diffraction method. In the present study, the propagation velocity of shear wave was used to detect localization in sandy soil. Firstly, the general expression to exhibit the stress and density dependencies characteristics under consolidation and triaxial testing conditions of the tested soil was proposed. Adopted the proposed correlation as a reference together with the observed geometry, the shear wave velocity of the localized zone may be assumed. It was found that the density in the localized zone could be much looser than those ever reported in the literature. The void ratio of the localized zone is even larger than the maximum void ratio.