Experimental Investigation and Numerical Modeling of Piezoelectric Bender Element Motion and Wave Propagation Analysis in Soils
The bender element (BE) test has been widely used for the characterization of soil specimens to determine the dynamic or low-strain shear modulus. However, the actual behavior of the BE inside the soil specimen still remains unknown. The current ASTM standard does not consider the interference of P waves in BE measurements, which can lead to significant errors in the evaluation of shear wave velocities. In this paper, the BE motion inside different media is numerically studied through a coupled piezoelectric and solid mechanics finite element (FE) model. The numerical results are calibrated and compared with the real motion of the BE monitored using a high-frequency laser vibrometer. The proposed model successfully captured the measured motion of the BE in the air as well as transparent soils.More importantly, the proposed model provided a method for understating the interactions of P waves and S waves in a soil specimen. Simulated signals for an Ottawa sand specimen showed a good agreement with independent results from resonant column tests. The proposed piezoelectric-solid mechanics FE model can be used to study the soil-bender element interaction so that sound recommendations can be given to improve the interpretation of BE tests for different soils.