An automated method to calculate the arrival time of shear waves for bender element tests

TL;DR

This paper introduces an automated, noise-resistant method using Sliding Fourier Transform to accurately identify shear wave arrival times in bender element tests, reducing manual effort and errors.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel automated approach for shear wave arrival detection in bender element tests, overcoming noise and contamination issues, improving accuracy and efficiency.

Findings

Method is reliable against noise and P wave contamination

Automation reduces manual effort and potential errors

Proven to outperform existing manual methods

Abstract

Bender element is used to determine the shear modulus of the soil sample, and to accurately predict the shear modulus of any sample, it required to preciously locate the advent point of the shear wave component in the recorded output signal. All the existing methods enforces to identify those point manually. The lack of automation makes the process tedious, time consuming and prone to error. In addition, contamination from the P wave and the presence of noises makes this identification procedure dubious. It requires an expert judgment to overcome the above mentioned difficulties. In this paper, a new method is suggested based on Sliding Fourier Transform to resolves all these complications. The proposed method can be automated easily and almost requires no human inputs. The method found to be reliant against the presence of noise, P wave contamination and distortion of the signal. The proposed method found to be a superior replacement of existing methods.