Determination of the Material Damping Ratio with the Bender Element Test

Abstract

The bender element test has shown to be a reliable tool to determine the shear wave velocity. This paper aims to extend the bender element technique to also measure the material damping ratio in a triaxial cell. Three different interpretation techniques are developed for this purpose. The first technique uses a modal test of a cylindrical soil specimen in a triaxial cell, the second approach uses multiple arrivals of a bender element signal, and third, a self-correcting method using different travel paths is presented. These methods are applied on test results on undisturbed samples of a silt and a heavily overconsolidated clay, and show promising results for the assessment of the material damping ratio.