A toolbox for the automatic interpretation of bender element tests in geomechanics

Abstract

The small strain shear modulus is an important characteristic of geomaterials that can be measured using bender element experiments. However, most conventional interpretation techniques are based on the visual observation of the output signal and are inherently subjective. Other techniques, based on the cross-correlation of input and output signals lack physical insight, as they rely on the (faulty) assumption that input and output signals are similar. GeoHyTE is a new toolbox for the automatic interpretation of the output signal in bender element tests. GeoHyTE creates a digital twin of the experiment and determines the small strain shear modulus by maximising the correlation between the output signals obtained experimentally and digitally. It is objective, as minimal user intervention is required, and physically-meaningful, as the wave propagation process is modelled in full. Its results are successfully validated against well-known benchmarks reported in the literature.