Study illustrates the impact of various factors on the bender element test signal in geotechnical engineering, indicating key influences on shear wave velocity interpretation.
The bender element (BE) test is a widely used non-destructive technique for evaluating the small-strain shear modulus in geotechnical engineering. Despite its extensive application, challenges remain in accurately interpreting the shear wave velocity ( V s ) obtained from this test. In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) numerical model is developed to simulate the dynamic interaction between bender elements and the surrounding soil in a triaxial testing setup, incorporating piezoelectric electro-mechanical coupling effects. A comprehensive parametric analysis is conducted, examining the influence of soil material properties, loading and boundary conditions, and geometric factors on signal distortion in both time and frequency domains. The results reveal that several previously overlooked parameters, including soil sample dimensions, soil anisotropy, membrane thickness, and bender element dimensions, can significantly influence the received waveform.
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Ahmadinezhad et al. (2026) studied this question.
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