Standards Development

Scope

Requirements for equipment, survey procedures, data analysis, and reporting for active measurement of surface wave exploration, which is a non-destructive testing method that uses multiple sensors placed on the ground surface, are specified.

This standard is applied to multichannel surface wave exploration for estimating one-dimensional shear wave velocity. Specifically, a method for estimating S-wave velocity profile by processing records of artificially generated Rayleigh waves based on the fundamental mode is described.

The application is only for soil ground investigation. Applications of surface wave exploration to non-soil ground, such as diagnosis of asphalt roads at depths of several centimetres or the diagnosis of metal plate deterioration, are not covered in this standard.

Purpose

It is essential to understand regional ground information to assess the safety and stability of infrastructure facilities and residential area. Geophysical surveys have some advantages regarding investigation times and environmental burdens when obtaining ground information compared with borehole surveys. Among many geophysical surveys, microtremor and surface wave explorations are gaining attention in geotechnical engineering due to their ease of measurement and applicability in urban areas. To keep the quality of the microtremor measurements high, ISO 24057 was issued in 2022. Requirements for equipment, survey procedure, data analysis, and reporting for the microtremor array measurements are specified in the documents. However, only the microtremor measurements may not be enough to estimate the shallow subsurface S-wave velocity profile due to the limited frequencies of ambient vibrations, and combining with active measurements of the surface wave will be necessary for providing the whole depth of subsurface S-wave velocity profile. Therefore, we propose a new international standard for the active surface wave measurement to supplement ISO 24057:2022.