(See the ReMi
method for site-specific NEHRP/IBC soil classification without the need
for a specially cased boring.) In a downhole seismic survey, a seismic source is placed on the surface near
a borehole, and two geophones are placed at selected depths in the borehole. The
raw data obtained from a downhole survey are the travel times for compressional
and shear waves from the source to the geophones and the distance between the
source and geophones.
Compressional waves are generated by striking a steel plate with a sledge
hammer. The steel plate is located two to five feet from the boring. Shear waves
travel slower than compressional waves. Therefore, compressional waves often
interfere with shear waves. This interference sometimes makes identification of
the first shear wave arrival difficult. To improve the resolution of the shear
wave arrival, the seismic source is designed to produce a signal which contains
a large shear wave component and a signal enhancement seismograph is used to
process the received signals from the geophones. The shear wave source consists
of sledge hammer impacts on alternate ends of a 8"x8"x8' wooden beam
with steel end plates. The beam is coupled to the ground by weighing it down
with the front tires of the field recording truck. The beam is offset a distance
of five to ten feet from the borehole to minimize direct coupling of the seismic
energy to the casing.
The downhole sensors consist of two triaxial
geophone assemblies. Each assembly contains three sensing elements: one vertical
and two orthogonal horizontal elements. The geophone assemblies are separated by
a distance of five or ten feet. Two geophone assemblies at a fixed separation
are used so that interval velocities can be determined from the same set of
impulses. This method reduces timing errors caused by differences in seismic
triggering and variations in source impulse characteristics.
The data are analyzed by determining the interval velocity for each geophone
placement. Interval velocity is determined by first computing the distance from
the source to each geophone and the difference in arrival times between the
upper and lower geophones. The interval velocity is computed by dividing the
difference in distance between the geophones by the difference in arrival times.
The interval velocity is then plotted as a function of depth. Typical travel
time plot and velocity
profiles are shown in the figure below: