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Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Isolation of Quartz Grains for Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) Dating of Quaternary Sediments for Paleoenvironmental Research
Published on: August 2, 2021
Evidence of dispersion in an artificial water-saturated sand sediment
Preston S Wilson1, Allen H Reed, Jed C Wilbur
1Mechanical Engineering Department and Applied Research Laboratories, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-0292, USA. pswilson@mail.utexas.edu
Abstract:
A laboratory experiment was conducted to measure the speed of sound in an artificial water-saturated granular sediment composed of cleaned and sorted medium-grained sand and degassed distilled water. The experiment was conducted within a range of frequencies where dispersion is predicted by a number of existing models. Between 2 and 4 kHz, the sound speed was inferred from measurements of the resonance frequencies of a thin-walled cylindrical container filled with the material. An elastic waveguide model was used to account for the effect of the finite impedance of the walls, although this effect was found to be small. From 20 to 300 kHz, the sound speed was obtained directly from time-of-flight measurements within the sediment. Dispersion in close agreement with the Williams effective density fluid model [K. L. Williams, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 2276-2281 (2001)] was observed.
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