Experimental and numerical analysis of MASW tests for detection of buried timber trestles

This paper presents results from multi-channel analysis surface waves (MASW) tests conducted to locate buried timber trestles in two different sections (A and B) of an earth embankment. For section A, the location of the trestles is known as well as the soil properties; thus, it is used for calibration purposes. Conversely, the location of the timber trestles is unknown for section B. A seismic array of 24 geophones with a spacing of 0.5 m is used for surface-wave measurements. Different signal processing techniques are used for data analysis: dispersion curves, power spectral functions, frequency-spectra contour plots, two-dimensional-Fourier transform, and the wavelet transform. A new procedure is proposed for the surface location of buried trestles, which is based on the use of the normalized average power energy plot. Finite-element numerical simulations of MASW tests on layered and homogeneous media with and without buried trestles are performed to support experimental results and to explain the wave–trestle interaction. The numerical simulations show that a buried trestle induces vibration amplifications at the surface in front of its location but vibration attenuation immediately after. These effects, however, are observed only if the embedment depth of timber trestle is smaller than one third of the wavelength. Experimental and numerical results show that the results from MASW tests can be successfully used to define the surface location of decayed buried trestles.