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Updated: Mar 23, 2026

In Situ Soil Moisture Sensors in Undisturbed Soils
Published on: November 18, 2022
Experimental study of nonlinear ultrasonic behavior of soil materials during the compaction
Jun Chen1, Hao Wang1, Yangping Yao1
1School of Transportation Science and Engineering, Beihang University, 37 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100191, China.
Abstract:
In this paper, the nonlinear ultrasonic behavior of unconsolidated granular medium - soil during the compaction is experimentally studied. The second harmonic generation technique is adopted to investigate the change of microstructural void in materials during the compaction process of loose soils. The nonlinear parameter is measured with the change of two important environmental factors i.e. moisture content and impact energy of compaction. It is found the nonlinear parameter of soil material presents a similar variation pattern with the void ratio of soil samples, corresponding to the increased moisture content and impact energy. A same optimum moisture content is found by observing the variation of nonlinear parameter and void ratio with respect to moisture content. The results indicate that the unconsolidated soil is manipulated by a strong material nonlinearity during the compaction procedure. The developed experimental technique based on the second harmonic generation could be a fast and convenient testing method for the determination of optimum moisture content of soil materials, which is very useful for the better compaction effect of filled embankment for civil infrastructures in-situ.
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