Alvarado, G. & Coop, M. R. (2012). Géotechnique 62, No. 1, 1–17 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/geot.7.
00086]
On the performance of bender elements in triaxial tests
G . A LVAR A D O
a n d M . R . C O O P †
This paper presents the results of a research programme
in which the transfer functions of bender element/soil
systems have been measured for various materials, set-
ups and stress levels. The resulting database has allowed
the characterisation of the inherent multi-vibrational
nature of the system, and the interpretation challenges
that this imposes. The excitation of multiple modes of
vibration may introduce signal distortion and conse-
quently differences between group velocity and phase
velocity. This means that the common assumption of
conventional interpretation techniques that group velocity
is equal to shear-wave velocity is in error. Based on the
features observed, system parameters have been intro-
duced and a parametric analysis carried out in order to
assess the performance of the system and to better under-
stand the effects of multimodal vibration as an attempt
to improve signal interpretation.
KEYWORDS: laboratory tests; stiffness; vibration
INTRODUCTION
The use of bender elements is currently one of the most
popular techniques for non-destructive measurement of the
elastic shear modulus of soils. They were introduced for
geotechnical applications by Shirley & Hampton (1978), and
later on became popular worldwide (e.g. Schultheiss, 1981;
Dyvik & Madshus, 1985), as their use was justified as a
reliable and economic alternative to other shear modulus
measurement techniques. The classical set-up includes em-
bedded elements at the upper and lower ends of a triaxial
specimen with vertical wave propagation. However, several
new configurations have appeared in the last decade, among
which that proposed by Pennington et al. (2001), which uses
horizontally mounted elements, is widely used in order to
obtain a full set of cross-anisotropic elastic parameters in
triaxial tests (e.g. Lings et al., 2000). Since the mid 1980s
the use of bender elements has become increasingly popular,
although it was only in the early 1990s that difficulties in
interpretation started to be reported (e.g. Viggiani & Atkin-
son, 1995; Brignoli et al., 1996). A variety of new inter-
pretation methods has been developed over the years, with
the variations between methods usually corresponding to
changes in the duration and frequency content of the chosen
input signal. Several recommendations for interpretation
have been proposed, with varying degrees of success in
practice (e.g. Viggiani & Atkinson, 1995; Jovićič et al.,
1996; Arulnathan et al., 1998; Blewett et al., 1999, 2000;
Pennington et al., 2001; Arroyo et al., 2003a, 2003b;
Manuscript received 1 May 2007; revised manuscript accepted 6
December 2010. Published online ahead of print 8 August 2011.
Discussion on this paper closes on 1 June 2012, for further details see
p. ii.

Edafos Engineering Consultants Ltd, Athens, Greece. Formerly
Imperial College, London.
† Department of Building and Construction, City University of Hong
Kong. Formerly Imperial College, London.
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La présente communication présente les résultats d’un
programme de recherche dans lequel on a mesuré les
fonctions de transfert de systèmes élément de cintrage /
sol pour un certain nombre de matériaux, de configura-
tions et de niveaux de contrainte. La base de données
résultante a permis de réaliser la caractérisation de la
nature multivibratoire inhérente au système, et les diffi-
cultés qu’il en découle pour l’interprétation. L’excitation
de multiples modes vibratoires risque d’introduire des
déformations des signaux, et, de ce fait, des différences
entre la vitesse de groupe et la vitesse de phase. Ceci
signifie que l’hypothèse commune des techniques d’inter-
prétation traditionnelles d’après laquelle la vitesse de
groupe est égale à celle de l’onde de cisaillement est
erronée. Sur la base des caractéristiques observées, on a
introduit un certain nombre de paramètres du système et
effectué une analyse paramétrique afin d’évaluer le ren-
dement du système et de mieux comprendre les effets des
vibrations multimodales pour tenter d’optimiser l’inter-
prétation du signal.
Clayton et al., 2004; Leong et al., 2005; Viana da Fonseca
et al., 2009; Yamashita et al., 2009). Much research has
been focused on a better understanding of their performance,
and the interpretation models suggested show an increasing
complexity (e.g. Arroyo et al., 2006).
The use of bender elements is now a well-established
technique both in the academic community and in engineer-
ing practice around the world, with increasing popularity
despite the fact that, at present, a satisfactory interpretative
model still remains elusive, and many questions regarding
the nature of the wave propagation are still unanswered.
This paper describes a comprehensive investigation of the
characteristics of different bender element set-ups used in a
variety of soils over a wide range of stress levels. The first
part describes the experimental work carried out, and intro-
duces the use of transfer functions as a tool for characteris-
ing and monitoring system performance under a variety of
conditions. This is followed by a parametric study carried
out in order to identify which system parameters may
control the characteristics of the system that have been
observed in the experiments. Particular emphasis has been
placed on acquiring a better understanding of the potential
differences between group velocity and phase velocity, how
these relate to shear-wave velocity, and how changes in
stress level may affect the response of the system.
SET-UPS AND MATERIALS TESTED
Several triaxial apparatuses fitted with bender elements
were used, and the term ‘set-up’ will be used to refer to a
particular choice of apparatus, sample dimension, bender
element dimension and orientation. Table 1 summarises the
set-ups from which bender element signals were collected.
The materials that were available for bender element testing
were those in use as part of ongoing research projects within
the research group at Imperial College, including intact and
reconstituted London clay (Gasparre, 2005), intact Thanet
sand (Ventouras, 2005) and kaolin/sand mixtures, as well as
 2 ALVARADO AND COOP
Table 1. Summary of set-ups used for bender element testing in soil mechanics
laboratory at Imperial College

Set-up ID Sample dimensions: Maximum cell Orientation, Protrusion into

mm2 pressure,
c : kPa Gxy sample 3 width:
mm2

1 38 3 76 800 Gvh 4.5 3 11.5

2 38 3 76 1200 Gvh 4.5 3 11.5
3 50 3 100 5000 Gvh 4.5 3 11.5
4 50 3 100 70 000 Gvh 4.5 3 11.5
5 100 3 200 800 Ghv 4.5 3 7.5
6 100 3 200 800 Ghh 4.5 3 7.5

reconstituted Toyoura sand and an artificial sandstone (both
tested by the authors). The range of materials therefore
covered fine-grained, coarse-grained, cemented and transi-
tional soils (kaolin/sand mixtures) and over 1000 input/out-
put signals were processed.
Figure 1 shows a schematic representation of a typical
bender element set-up for Gvh measurements, where ‘vh’
stands for wave propagation in the vertical direction with
polarisation on the horizontal plane. The Ghh set-up (hor-
izontal propagation/horizontal polarisation) and the Ghv set-
up (horizontal propagation/vertical polarisation) use similar
external equipment to that for Gvh : A function generator is
used to produce a controlled input voltage, which is sent
both to the transmitter bender element and to an oscillo-
scope. The propagated wave that is created by the motion of
the transmitter is then detected by the receiver element,
which is connected to a signal amplifier. The amplified
signal is then captured by the oscilloscope and displayed
simultaneously with the transmitted wave, from which a
preliminary interpretation of the first arrival time may be
made.
SYSTEM CHARACTERISATION USING TRANSFER
FUNCTIONS
Body vibration
The transfer function of a system provides a direct link
between any type of excitation (input) and the system
response to that excitation (output). For a ‘constant para-
meter’ system the output is governed by a set of parameters
that is independent of the nature and duration of the input.
A linear system complies with two main requirements: first,
it is homogeneous, which means that the magnitude of the
output is directly proportional to that of the input; and
second, it is additive, which means that the output from a
combined input is equal to the summation of the outputs
generated by each input component separately. A linear
system therefore complies with the principle of superposition
(e.g. Bendat & Piersol, 2000).
Many mechanical systems, such as the typical single
degree of freedom (SDOF) mass/spring/damper system, are
both constant parameter and linear. A constant parameter
linear system is such that its response to an excitation can
be described in terms of a transfer function that is unique,

Function
generator

Transmitter

Oscilloscope

Receiver

Amplifier

Fig. 1. Bender element set-up for measurement of Gvh in triaxial test (after Alvarado & Coop, 2007)

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 ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BENDER ELEMENTS IN TRIAXIAL TESTS
and independent of the excitation (e.g. Bendat & Piersol,
2000). The transfer function H( f ) then links the Fourier
transform of an input time history f (t ) to the Fourier trans-
form of the resulting output time history d(t ), as described
by
Dð f Þ ¼ H ð f Þ  F ð f Þ
where F( f ) and D( f ) are the Fourier transforms of input
and output respectively. If the transfer function of the system
is known, it is possible to predict its response for any given
input excitation. This is illustrated below for an SDOF mass/
spring/damper system with a numerical simulation using
force as the input and displacement as the output.
The gain and phase factors, |H( f )| and ( f ), of the
transfer function for the SDOF system are shown in equa-
tions (2) and (3), where k is the spring constant, f is the
frequency of the input force, fn is the natural frequency of
the system, and  is the damping ratio.
1=k
j H ð f Þj ¼ rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
h i
2
2 2
1  ð f = f n Þ þ ½2ð f = f n Þ
" #
1 2  ð f = f n Þ
ð f Þ ¼ tan
1  ð f = f n Þ2
A natural frequency fn ¼ 5 kHz, a damping ratio  ¼ 0.15
3
(for an under-damped system) and a spring constant
k ¼ 500 MN/m were assumed for the simulation. These
values were chosen arbitrarily, but are such as to restrict the
frequencies to the order of kHz, although in real mass/
spring/damper systems the values of fn and k are usually of
(1) the order of Hz and kN/m. The frequency of the input force
was set to 3 kHz, and an increasing number of cycles was
applied: 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 cycles. Fig. 2 shows the output
spectra for each loading case, together with the gain compo-
nent of the transfer function, whose peak value has been
used for normalisation. Starting from the single-cycle free-
vibration condition, the effect of the vicinity of the mode of
vibration centred at fn is clear, as it moves the central
frequency of the output from the input frequency of 3 kHz
towards fn : When three cycles are applied, the system is less
effective in enforcing its natural frequency, and therefore the
output preserves its original 3 kHz central frequency. As the
number of cycles is increased further, the central frequency
of the output remains at 3 kHz while the frequency peak
(2) becomes better defined: that is, fewer spurious frequencies
appear in the signal.
Many of the features that can be observed in the SDOF
system, such as distortion, inertial effects and output decay,
(3) are commonly observed in bender element systems (BES)
and Santamarina & Fam (1997) proposed an SDOF mass/
spring/damper system as an analogy to the BES. They
suggested  values between 0.10 and 0.50 and fn varying

Central input frequency Transfer function

Output
Input: 1 cycle

Input: 3 cycles
Normalised gain

Input: 5 cycles

Input: 10 cycles

Input: 15 cycles

0·1 1·0 10·0

Frequency: kHz

Fig. 2. Effect of number of input cycles on output spectrum of under-damped (æ 0.15)

SDOF system

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 4 ALVARADO AND COOP
between 2 and 10 kHz. This analogy, however, implies that
the BES has a single fn and therefore a single mode of
vibration. As will be shown below, most BES exhibit multi-
ple modes of vibration, and therefore an analogy with an
SDOF system is in most cases inaccurate, although for some
particular testing conditions, such as those discussed by
these authors, a single mode of vibration might appear, and
an SDOF model then seems reasonable.
Because of their versatility, and the information about the
system that they contain, transfer functions constitute a
powerful tool for the analysis of vibrations in many mech-
anical systems (e.g. Bendat & Piersol, 1993; Inman, 2001).
As will be discussed below, they also have an important
application for bender element systems.
Transfer functions for bender element systems
The main objective of the interpretation of bender element
signals is to determine the shear-wave velocity Vs of the
propagation medium. As the medium is a component of the
whole BES, Vs should be a parameter that is included in the
transfer function of the system, and if the analytical form of
the transfer function is known, Vs can be derived.
Brocanelli & Rinaldi (1998) obtained values for  and Vs
using the transfer function of a BES for very short samples
of silica sand (28 mm height by 63 mm diameter) and com-
pared it with the transfer function of an analogous SDOF
system. The authors obtained the transfer function of the
system by two methods. First they used a step pulse, which
contains a broad range of frequencies, and calculated the
transfer function using Fourier transforms. Second, they used
a set of continuous sine waves, which allowed a ‘point-to-
point’ calculation of the transfer function. The authors
showed that the differences in the transfer function obtained
by using these two methods were relatively small, and there-
fore the pulse input allowed a good estimate of the transfer
function to be obtained. Although not stated by the authors,
the fact that the transfer function established via Fourier
transforms for pulse input signals was practically the same
as that obtained point-to-point using continuous signals
proved that their system was constant parameter and linear.
The experimental set-up used by Brocanelli & Rinaldi
(1998) was devised in such a way that the system exhibited
only two clearly defined resonant modes, whose resonant
frequencies were sufficiently distant from each other so that
it could be assumed that there was no interaction between
these modes. In order to obtain  and Vs , they obtained
expressions for the first flexural mode of an SDOF fixed-free
beam with a mass on top, which they then fitted to the
experimental data. In this particular case the transfer func-
tion of the system could be measured experimentally, and
could be described analytically by identifying an appropriate
model. In contrast, the triaxial test configurations used in
current practice have samples with higher aspect (L/D) ratios
than those used by these authors, and commonly exhibit
multiple and interacting modes of vibration (e.g. Blewett et
al., 2000). For such systems the transfer function can still be
measured, but in most cases it is not feasible to distinguish a
single flexural mode of vibration, or a mode that is compa-
tible with shear-wave propagation, and therefore the use of
an SDOF formulation can result in unreliable estimates of 
and Vs :
In any BES the transfer function obtained from input and
output measurements represents the response of the system
as a whole: that is, it includes the response of every
individual component of the system, such as the propagation
medium and the bender elements themselves. Many of the
difficulties in interpreting bender element signals arise from
the fact that the individual contributions of the components
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of the BES to the overall system are not thoroughly under-
stood, nor are the ways in which the components can interact
with each other. For example, it is still unclear exactly how
variations in the coupling between the sample and the bender
elements, such as those that could take place with changes
in stress level, might affect wave propagation through the
medium. As part of the experimental work carried out here,
various point-to-point transfer functions were obtained by
using a discrete frequency sweep of continuous sine waves
and measuring the amplitude ratio and phase difference
between the input and output. A code written by Takahashi
(2004) was used for this purpose. The point-to-point transfer
function is regarded as the most accurate, as the system is
forced to vibrate at one single frequency at a time, thus
avoiding potential errors introduced when more than one
mode of vibration is excited simultaneously.
The gain factor is the ratio of amplitudes between input
and output. Since the output signal is normally strongly
attenuated, a constant multiplier is normally introduced for
clarity when the data are presented, and so the scale is
arbitrary. The phase factor indicates the phase difference
between input and output across the frequency spectrum.
The phase factor is cyclic by definition, and therefore varies
between 2 and +2. However, it is common practice to
present the curves of phase factor as ‘stacked’, which means
that phase angles are made to vary between 0 and infinity by
means of a stacking algorithm. In this paper the stacked
phase factor is used throughout.
Figure 3 shows some examples of point-to-point transfer
functions. The data in Fig. 3(a) are for a sample of natural
Thanet sand tested using set-up 3 at p9 ¼ 400 kPa. The
existence of multiple peaks in the gain component indicates
the presence of multiple modes of vibration, and the phase
factor shows a relatively linear trend, particularly between
4 kHz and 7 kHz. Fig. 3(b) is for a sample of natural
London clay tested using set-ups 5 and 6 at p9 ¼ 421 kPa,
that is, horizontally located bender elements (Pennington et
al., 2001). Again, multiple modes of vibration can be ob-
served, although they are less numerous than for Thanet
sand. Around 2 kHz set-ups 5 and 6 exhibit a common
mode, where the phase components also appear to have
similar trends. In contrast with Thanet sand, the phase factor
for the systems with London clay appears markedly curved,
and only at the higher frequencies can relatively linear
trends be observed. The curvature in the phase factor is an
indication of system dispersion.
Figure 4 presents the transfer functions obtained for sam-
ples of Thanet sand, measured both with the point-to-point
method and from back-calculation from input–output records
using fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithms. Sine pulses of
frequencies ranging from 5 kHz to 11 kHz were used as the
input. Unless stated otherwise, all the other transfer functions
presented in this paper have also been obtained using FFT
algorithms and sine pulses as the input. A good match be-
tween the FFT and the point-to-point transfer functions is
obtained, particularly for the phase factor. Although differ-
ences appear, none of the main modes of vibration is missed
by the FFT transfer function. The FFT transfer functions
obtained with sine pulses as the input were practically iden-
tical to each other, with the exception of a few points. The
fact that the FFT transfer function is unique, and practically
equal to the point-to-point transfer function, strongly suggests
that the bender element system is both constant parameter
and linear, and therefore the use of sine pulses as the driving
signal for transfer function calculation is justified.
Gain factor. The basic interpretative model for bender
element systems assumes non-dispersive and elastic propaga-
 ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BENDER ELEMENTS IN TRIAXIAL TESTS 5
1·20 2·5

1·00
2·0
J * Gain factor

Gain: arb. units

0·80
1·5
0·60
1·0
0·40

0·20 0·5

0 0
0 2·0 4·0 6·0 8·0 10·0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Frequency: kHz
0 2·0 4·0 6·0 8·0 10·0 Frequency: kHz
Stacked phase factor: degrees

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
500 0
1000 500
1500 1000

Stacked phase: degrees

2000 1500
2000
2500
2500
3000
3000
3500
(a)
12·00 4000
5 kHz 7 kHz
4500
10·00 9 kHz 11 kHz
Ghv Point-to-point
J * Gain factor

8·00 Ghh
6·00 Fig. 4. Transfer function for natural Thanet sand using set-up 3
4·00

2·00 velocity within the medium over a range of stress levels, but
any changes in stress will also be transmitted to the elements,
0 changing the fundamental frequencies of the elements as well
0 2·0 4·0 6·0 8·0 10·0 12·0
as the medium (Rio, 2006). Changes in stress levels and
Frequency: kHz frequency of oscillation may also affect the coupling between
the bender elements and the testing material (e.g. Blewett et
0 2·0 4·0 6·0 8·0 10·0 12·0
al., 2000; Rio, 2006). At the same time this may alter the
Stacked phase factor: degrees

0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
(b)
Fig. 3. Examples of transfer functions in bender element systems
using natural soils: (a) natural Thanet sand tested with set-up 3 at
p9 400 kPa (triaxial test by Ventouras, 2005); (b) natural
London clay tested on set-ups 5 and 6 at p9 421 kPa (triaxial
test by Gasparre, 2005)
tion of a planar shear wave, and does not deal with the
variation in attenuation occurring between the sender and the
receiver elements, which is directly related to the excitation
of vibration modes in the system. Ideally, for the frequency
ranges used in conventional testing (i.e. below 15 kHz), the
system should vibrate in a single mode, which is consistent
with the propagation of a planar shear wave. In reality, it is
clear that the system includes not only the medium, which
can have different modes of vibration, but also the boundaries
of the sample and the bender elements themselves (e.g.
Blewett et al., 1999, 2000; Hardy, 2003; Arroyo et al., 2006;
Rio, 2006), all of which are able to introduce additional
modes of vibration into the system. The use of bender
elements often aims at identifying the variation in shear-wave
amount of energy lost in the interface between the material
and the bender element. Energy losses in general introduce
dispersion to the system, and in severe cases cause loss of
coherence. Both dispersion and coherence can be assessed by
way of transfer functions (e.g. Bendat & Piersol, 2000).
Figure 5 illustrates the variation in the gain with stress
level for three different materials under isotropic stresses.
Multiple modes of vibration can be observed in all the
curves, that is, multiple peaks. Fig. 5(a) is for reconstituted
samples of Toyoura sand with mean effective stress (p9)
values up to 22 400 kPa. When the effective stress is in-
creased, a clear migration of peaks towards higher frequen-
cies can be observed. For example, at p9 ¼ 220 kPa the first
peak with a gain value over 1 (here denoted as a major
peak) appears at around 9 kHz. At p9 ¼ 3480 kPa the same
happens at around 12 kHz. By p9 ¼ 22 400 kPa the first
major peak can be found only at around 20 kHz, and the
gain values are considerably reduced up to a frequency of
about 12 kHz. It is worth emphasising that the gain factor of
the transfer function is a measure of the relative amplitude
of the input and output signals, and therefore for a constant
input amplitude, as for all the probes carried out here, the
gain describes the relative amplitude of the output signal
along the frequency spectrum. In practice, frequencies with
low-gain mean output signals with low amplitude may be
masked by random noise, whereas frequencies with high
gain tend to produce clearer signals. Fig. 5 confirms the
common observation in practice that, as the stress level
increases, higher input frequencies are usually required in
order to obtain clear signals that stand out from the random
noise.

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 6 ALVARADO AND COOP
3·0
220 kPa, 11 kHz 3480 kPa, 11 kHz
2·5 6370 kPa, 11 kHz 22 400 kPa, 13 kHz

Gain: arb. units

2·0

1·5

1·0

0·5

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Frequency: kHz
(a)

2·5
100 kPa, 6 kHz 400 kPa, 6 kHz
800 kPa, 7 kHz 1100 kPa, 7 kHz
2·0
B
A
Gain: arb. units

A⬘?
1·5

D E
1·0 C

0·5

0
0 5 10 15
Frequency: kHz
(b)

2·5 150 kPa, 10 kHz 325 kPa, 10 kHz

525 kPa, 11 kHz 650 kPa, 12 kHz
2·0 Migration modes of vibration
Gain: arb. units

1·5

1·0

0·5

0
0 5 10 15
Frequency: kHz
(c)
Fig. 5. Gain factors in the triaxial apparatus for: (a) Toyoura sand, set-up 4; (b) reconstituted
London clay, set-up 2; (c) kaolin (75%)/sand, set-up 1

Figure 5(b) is for reconstituted samples of London clay.
The migration of modes with stress level is again observed.
However, in this case the major modes (i.e. those whose
peak value is equal to or larger than 1) seem to move more
rapidly. At p9 ¼ 100 kPa the first major peak can be found
around 2 kHz (A). For p9 ¼ 800 kPa this peak has moved to
around 9 kHz (B), and at p9 ¼ 1100 it can only be found
beyond 15 kHz. This set of curves has in common with
those from Figs 5(a) and 5(c) the fact that each set corres-
ponds to a specific set-up and a specific material. Within
each set, the main variable is the stress level. It is clear,
therefore, that stress level has an influence on the perform-
ance of the system. However, it is not possible to assess
solely from the transfer function which component of the
system is responsible for the observed variations (i.e. the
sample, the boundaries, or the bender elements).
During isotropic compression, increments in the stress
level reduce the propagation distance between the sender
and the receiver elements, increase the density of the
material, and change the boundary stresses acting on the
membrane. The first two effects may have an influence on
the resonant frequencies of the propagation medium, while
changes to the boundary conditions may alter other resonant
frequencies in the system. From Figs 5(a) and 5(b) it
appears that the differences in the nature and compressibility
of the soil may affect the mobility of the resonant modes as
the stress level changes.
Different modes can migrate at different rates. From Fig.
5(b) it can also be seen that for values of p9 ¼ 400, 800 and
1110 kPa a peak can be observed migrating from around
3 kHz to 3.5 kHz and then to 4 kHz (C, D and E respec-
tively). This peak might correspond, for example, to the
resonant mode of the bender elements. For p9 ¼ 100 kPa this
mode could have been concealed, owing to its proximity to
a major mode (A9). The fact that modes of vibration can
move at different rates through the spectrum means that the
order in which they occur can vary from one stress level to
another. For instance, at low stress levels the sample might

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 ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BENDER ELEMENTS IN TRIAXIAL TESTS
go into resonance before the piezoceramic elements, whereas
at higher stress levels resonance in the elements might occur
first.
Figure 5(c) is for isotropically normally consolidated
reconstituted samples of a material that is 25% Redhill sand
and 75% kaolin by dry weight. The first major mode moves
from 7 to 11 kHz for p9 varying from 150 kPa to 650 kPa.
The migration of other modes can be observed, but their
patterns of movement are not as clear as for the first major
mode. A first major mode that appears well beyond 5 kHz
might not have been expected for p9 ¼ 150 kPa, given that
75% of the material is clay, and differences in composition
between London clay and kaolin might be an influencing
factor. However, the sand-like movement of the first major
mode (shown with broken lines in Fig. 5(c)) supports the
hypothesis that its kinematics are controlled by the sand
fraction.
The transitions between peaks without sharp decays in the
gain indicate that simultaneous excitation of modes is a
common feature of the system, so that some modes might
pass undetected. Higher gain values indicate stronger outputs
when these modes are excited. In some cases the spectrum
shows a gain near zero, for example in the case of London
clay at p9 ¼ 100 kPa (Fig. 5(b)) for frequencies between
8 kHz and 11 kHz. Fully attenuating frequencies are known
as anti-resonance frequencies, which Arroyo et al. (2006)
showed could be achieved from wave interference as a
consequence of geometry and boundary conditions.
These observations confirm that BES exhibit multiple
modes of vibration occurring over a wide spectrum, so that
the selection of driving frequencies away from any of these
modes, as suggested by Blewett et al. (2000), could be
particularly challenging. The existence of multiple modes
can also explain the distortion in the output when using
pulses as driving signals.
Phase factor. As discussed above, the fact that the bender
element system is linear and constant parameter means that
the contributions of its different components to the overall
response must be additive. Therefore if individual contribu-
tions are known, the performance of the medium alone can
be isolated. In the particular case of the phase factor of the
transfer function, an additive response implies that it can be
controlled by more than one mode of vibration at a given
frequency, which differs from the idealised bender element
model. For the system considered here, the tangent slope of
the phase factor is directly related to the group arrival time,
and hence the group velocity, which is the velocity of energy
propagation.
When a wave packet is propagated, the group velocity will
be a function of the propagation velocities of the individual
waves. The propagation velocity of a particular wave with
constant frequency and constant phase is called the phase
velocity, which is inversely proportional to the secant slope
of the phase factor. If a wave propagates at a particular
frequency and additional waves propagate at other frequen-
cies, its wave velocity will be equal to the phase velocity at
this particular propagation frequency. If all the waves in the
wave packet propagate at the same velocity and describe the
same travel path, the group velocity will be equal to the
wave propagation velocity. In dispersive systems the wave
propagation velocity is dependent on frequency, whereas in
non-dispersive systems it is not.
For isotropic compression, the increase in mean effective
stress induces both an increase in the unit weight of the
material and a decrease of the propagation distance between
bender elements. An increment in the shear modulus of the
material is also expected: that is, the shear-wave velocity
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7
should increase. For the triaxial tests on uncemented mater-
ials reported in this work, an approximately linear decrease
in travel distance with p9 was observed, whereas a logarith-
mic increase in shear-wave velocity was expected (e.g.
Tatsuoka, 2005). For example for the test on Toyoura sand
presented in Fig. 5(a), the travel distance between
p9 ¼ 220 kPa and p9 ¼ 22 400 kPa increased linearly by
about 6%. For the same test, the predicted change in shear-
wave velocity over the same stress interval was about 350%,
with a much sharper increase at relatively low stress levels
because of logarithmic variation. Observation of this and
many other tests led to the conclusion that, for uncemented
and reconstituted materials subjected to isotropic compres-
sion, changes in the shear-wave arrival time should be
expected, despite the small changes to the travel distance.
If a BES is ideal and non-dispersive, the phase factor
would be a straight line passing through the origin, whose
tangent and secant slopes are equal and directly proportional
to the arrival time of the shear-wave. A change in the slope
with changes in p9 should be expected. Fig. 6 presents the
phase factor curves that complement the gain factor curves
of Fig. 5. Broadly, the phase factor can be approximated by
a straight line for all three materials. For the reconstituted
London clay (Fig. 6(b)), the lines clearly flatten with in-
creasing mean stress, as expected. A clear decrease in the
slope of the phase line can also be observed for Toyoura
sand when the mean effective stress increases from 220 kPa
to 3480 kPa (Fig. 6(a)). In contrast, no clear changes in
gradient were observed either for the kaolin/sand mixture
(Fig. 6(c)) or for Toyoura sand at mean effectives stresses
over 6370 kPa. The apparent mix of consistent and incon-
sistent trends observed in Fig. 6 explains the difficulties that
are often faced when using the frequency domain for inter-
pretation of BES, where the group velocity is commonly
assumed to be equal to the shear-wave velocity. Inconsistent
trends only arise because of this assumption. If it is accepted
that the BES is not ideal, and potentially dispersive, the
group velocity can then be different from the shear-wave
velocity, and will not necessarily follow the expected trends.
Closer inspection of Fig. 6 reveals that the slopes of
relatively short sections of the curves change with frequency,
differing from the single-slope trend observed at the larger
scale. Phase reversals can also be observed (e.g. at around
6 kHz and 10 kHz on the curve for 100 kPa in Fig. 6(b)).
Both slope variations and phase reversals are manifestations
of the multimodal nature of the system, and of its dispersive
character.
Dispersion effects
Dispersion can originate from wave interference due to
geometry (wave reflections at boundaries, Rayleigh waves),
to energy dissipation (as described by Bourbié et al., 1986),
or by the excitation of resonant modes. Normal dispersion
occurs when the group velocity decreases with increasing
frequency, whereas inverse dispersion is the opposite. Wave
propagation through a dispersive medium causes either
signal distortion (for transient waves) or phase shifts (for
continuous waves). This is consistent with the observed
behaviour of bender elements. Normal dispersion is asso-
ciated with wave interference, whereas inverse dispersion is
related to viscoelastic effects and resonant modes (Bourbié
et al., 1986).
Conventional interpretation techniques using the frequency
domain rely on the assumption that the system is only
slightly dispersive. This implies that the phase factor of
either the transfer function or the cross-power spectrum can
be approximated by a straight line, which has been found to
be correct for several standard pressure scenarios (e.g.
 8 ALVARADO AND COOP
2500
220 kPa, 11 kHz 3480 kPa, 11 kHz

Stacked phase: degrees

2000 6370 kPa, 11 kHz 22 400 kPa, 13 kHz

1500

1000

500

0
0 5 10 15 20
Frequency: kHz
(a)

2500
100 kPa, 6 kHz 400 kPa, 6 kHz
800 kPa, 7 kHz 1100 kPa, 7 kHz
2000
Stacked phase: degrees

1500

1000

500

0
0 5 10 15

Frequency: kHz
(b)

2500
150 kPa, 10 kHz 325 kPa, 10 kHz
Stacked phase: degrees

525 kPa, 11 kHz 650 kPa, 12 kHz

2000

1500

1000

500

0
0 5 10 15
Frequency: kHz
(c)

Fig. 6. Phase factors in the triaxial apparatus for: (a) Toyoura sand, set-up 4; (b) reconstituted
London clay, set-up 2; (c) kaolin (75%)/sand, set-up 1

Viggiani & Atkinson, 1995; Arroyo & Greening, 2002; analysed here showed some degree of frequency dependence.
Greening & Nash, 2004). In all these cases, the shear moduli At low frequencies dispersion seemed to be unexpectedly
calculated from group velocity estimates were lower than high. This occurred independently of whether vibration
those from arrival methods in the time domain, and were modes appeared or not at low frequencies. Low-frequency
reported to be the closest to the real values. dispersion has been reported by several authors (e.g. Clayton
Most of the signals analysed during this investigation et al., 2004; Greening & Nash, 2004). Greening & Nash
suggest a relatively constant group velocity when calculating detected high dispersion at low frequencies in bench tests on
slopes over a wide range of frequencies (see e.g. Fig. 6), samples of reconstituted Gault clay, which they considered
which supports the low dispersion assumption. However, the to be an effect of the poor definition of the phase factor at
existence of multiple vibration modes within the spectrum such frequencies, and therefore not due only to dispersive
raises some issues about generalising linearity for the phase phenomena such as near-field effects. Poor phase definition
factor. Here, group arrival time estimates for discrete fre- at low frequencies affects the stacking algorithm used to
quency values were obtained from the tangent of the phase produce the phase factor curves, and makes comparisons
factor at each particular value using a least-squares linear between phase and group velocities difficult.
estimation over a fixed frequency interval. All of the signals Figure 7 presents a set of calculated arrival times from

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 ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BENDER ELEMENTS IN TRIAXIAL TESTS
700
150 kPa, 10 kHz
600 525 kPa, 11 kHz
500
Arrival times: µs
400
300
200
100
0
0 5
700
600
500
Arrival times: µs
400
300
200
100
0
0 5
Fig. 7. Group arrival time for kaolin/sand mixture tested using set-up 1: (a) slope interval
˜f 13.7 kHz; (b) slope interval ˜f 1.9 kHz
the phase factor of the transfer functions of the kaolin/sand
mixture shown in Fig. 6(c), and using different frequency
intervals to obtain the tangent slope. The transfer function
obtained from an FFT algorithm is defined over a frequency
range equal to the number of samples multiplied by the
sampling frequency, with data in the second half of the
spectrum being a mirrored version of the first half. For the
probes presented in Fig. 7, the transfer function is defined
up to a range of 2000 kHz (2048 samples, multiplied by
0.977 kHz per sample). However, the data are presented only
up to 14.6 kHz for clarity. The low-frequency arrival times
are also not plotted, as they produced unrealistic values. The
mean effective stress values ranged from 150 kPa to
650 kPa. For Fig. 7(a) a frequency interval of 13.7 kHz was
used, corresponding to that for which further increases did
not produce major changes in the appearance of the curves.
The resulting curves oscillate around a mean value of
250 ìs. The group velocities seem independent of both stress
level and frequency. As discussed previously, this is not
necessarily an inconsistent result if the system is accepted to
be dispersive. For Fig. 7(b) a frequency interval of 1.9 kHz
was used, and dispersion is more evident, with both normal
and inverse types being observed. An interpretation of the
signals taking into account system performance was carried
out; the deduced arrival times are indicated with arrows, and
correspond to 378 ìs, 323 ìs, 270 ìs and 226 ìs for each
increasing stress level. Guidelines for such interpretation are
provided later in this paper. The selection of the 250 ìs
arrival time suggested from Fig. 7(a) for any of these probes
would have incurred errors of 34%, 23%, 7% and 11%
respectively. In some cases the variability in the group
arrival times greatly increases as the frequency interval
decreases. A frequency range with a nearly constant arrival
time is difficult to define at all stress levels. This example
shows that dispersion introduces uncertainty in the deter-
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9
325 kPa, 10 kHz
650 kPa, 12 kHz
10 15
Frequency: kHz
(a)
150 kPa, 10 kHz 325 kPa, 10 kHz
525 kPa, 11 kHz 650 kPa, 12 kHz
150 650
325 525
10 15
Frequency: kHz
(b)
mination of the shear-wave arrival time in the frequency
domain. The degree of uncertainty and therefore the magni-
tude of the error in shear-wave velocity is highly variable,
and depends on various factors including the stress level and
the nature of the medium.
PARAMETRIC STUDY
Background
The experimental database of bender elements signals
available for this investigation and their characterisation by
way of transfer functions has enabled the identification of
features that seem to apply to bender element systems in
general. The existence of multiple peaks in the gain factor
has shown their multimodal nature (e.g. Fig. 5), and the study
of the phase factor has confirmed that they are dispersive
(e.g. Fig. 6). It is clear that the response of the system is not
fully represented solely by the unimodal non-dispersive mod-
el of shear-wave propagation that underlies signal interpreta-
tion. The observed transfer functions reveal a complexity in
the performance of the system that makes the derivation of a
general expression still a major challenge. Given the differ-
ences between the assumed and observed behaviour, the
question arises as to whether or not bender elements are
suitable for the measurement of shear-wave velocity, given
that the actual propagation model is not yet known. Judging
by the number of successful applications reported in the
literature, and the increasing popularity of the method, it
appears that there is consensus that they are nevertheless a
powerful tool for the determination of elastic shear modulus.
The question therefore arises as to how it is possible that
apparently correct stiffnesses can be obtained using the
wrong model. Part of the answer may lie in the fact that the
BES is both constant parameter and linear. This implies that
the simplified unimodal non-dispersive model, which de-
 10 ALVARADO AND COOP
Ti ⫽ 1/fi
scribes shear-wave propagation, can coexist with other more
complex features introduced by other components of the Input
system (e.g. wave reflections at the boundaries, and har- To ~ (1 ⫹ n)*Ta
tg
monic oscillations of the bender elements themselves). As-
Output
suming linearity, it is possible that the influence of the other

components of the system on the overall system performance
may vary depending on the particular conditions of testing,
such as stress level or sample geometry. This variable influ-
ence of the other components might explain why, for some
applications, the BES seems to comply with the basic
model, whereas in other cases interpretation can be very
difficult and inconsistent results are obtained.
A parametric study was carried out in order to simulate
some of the features of the BES observed in the database of
signals analysed for this investigation. Although this consists
of a very general approximation to the real system, it will
be shown that a useful insight can be gained into the
parameters that may influence system behaviour. In particu-
lar, it will be shown how the characteristics of a second
waveform present in the system together with the main
waveform can affect the estimated values of group and phase
velocity.
Basic parameters
The principal aim of the study was to produce sets of
synthetic input and output signals incorporating some of the
features observed in real bender element signals, while
keeping full control of the parameters involved. The simu-
lated system considers a single-cycle sine wave as the input,
and an output made out of two sine waves, each with a
particular frequency, duration and time of arrival. The selec-
tion of input is consistent with the type of signal used in the
experiments reported in this work. The selection of output
takes into account two main features observed in output
signals from real bender element probes. The first is the
presence of more than one wave component, which intro-
duces system dispersion and makes the group velocity and
phase velocity different. The second feature deals with the
fact that when input signals of relatively short duration are
used, the total duration of the output signal always exceeds
that of the input.
The extended duration of the output signal with respect to
the input signal has been largely overlooked by theoretical
formulations. The output signal duration can be related to
the input signal duration through the time parameter n, as
suggested by Arroyo et al. (2003a)
To ¼ ð1 þ nÞTi
If approximated to the nearest lower integer value, n can be
interpreted as the number of extra cycles with minor expo-
nential decay that appear in the output signal. A common
value for n is 1, but values of n greater than 2 are not
uncommon, and values as high as 8 have been reported (e.g.
Arroyo et al., 2003a). The number of additional cycles has
been considered mainly to be a function of system damping.
As discussed by Arroyo et al. (2003a), damping could occur
as a result of resonance of the bender elements (Greening &
Nash, 2004; Lee & Santamarina, 2005), energy losses due to
material non-linear properties and structural heterogeneity, or
energy radiation from the system into its surroundings.
Figure 8 shows the characteristics of the sets of signals
simulated. The input signal has a frequency fi and arbitrary
amplitude equal to 1. The output signal is the addition of
two independent waves A and B. Wave A is intended to
represent the shear wave propagating through the sample
with a frequency fso , amplitude equal to 1, and arrival time
tarr : Wave B represents a secondary wave of frequency fb ,
amplitude equal to 0.5, and arrival time tb : Again, the
Amplitude
tarr Ta ⫽ 1/fso
Wave A
tb Tb ⫽ 1/fb
Wave B
⫺0·20 0 0·20 0·40 0·60 0·80 1·00
Time: ms
Fig. 8. Characteristics of signals used for parametric study
amplitude of both signals has been chosen arbitrarily. Both
signals A and B have a number n of additional cycles to the
input. In the particular case of Fig. 8, n is equal to 1,
tarr ¼ 0.400 ms and tg ¼ 0.501 ms. No rigorous expressions
for attenuation, amplification or damping were introduced in
the output, but attenuation is present in the 50% reduction in
the amplitude of wave B with respect to the input, while
damping is implicit in the number of extra cycles, a larger
number of extra cycles corresponding to a lower system
damping ratio .
Normalised parameters
Normalised parameters will be introduced in order to
facilitate the presentation and discussion of results. The
parameter Rd represents the number of wavelengths between
the source and the output locations, and has been used by
other researchers (by Sánchez Salinero et al., 1986, as r/º
ratio; by Jovićič et al., 1996; and by Arroyo et al., 2003a, as
normalised distance ns/2). Rd can be expressed as a func-
tion of frequency fso and wave A arrival time tarr
Rd so ¼ f so tarr (5)
The delay in the arrival of wave B with respect to wave A,
Nt , is given by
tb  tarr
Nt ¼ (6)
tarr
A negative value of Nt simulates a near-field condition
(Sánchez Salinero et al., 1986). whereas a positive value
simulates shear-wave reflections.
The frequency difference between the two waves, Nf , is
(4)
given by
f b  f so
Nf ¼ (7)
f so
and gives an estimate of the proximity of their correspond-
ing modes of vibration.
Results
Several cases were analysed, every case corresponding to a
unique combination of the basic parameters. Rdso varied
between 1 and 6.4, and values of 0, 1, 2 and 3 were selected
for n. Nt varied between 20% and +20%, and discrete
values of 25%, 50% and 75% were chosen for Nf : For all the
cases analysed the frequency of wave A was made equal to
the input frequency. This choice is justified, as it avoids the
generation of spurious modes of vibration near the resonant
mode of wave A. A total of 420 cases were analysed.
Figure 9 shows the transfer function for fso ¼ 8 kHz,
tarr ¼ 400 ìs, Rdso ¼ 3.2, n ¼ 1, Nt ¼ 17% and Nf ¼ 75%.

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 ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BENDER ELEMENTS IN TRIAXIAL TESTS
2000
1500
frequency interval
Phase factor: degrees
1000
500
0 0·5
0 5
Frequency: kHz
⫺500
Fig. 9. Transfer function for fso 8 kHz, tarr
n 1, Nt 217% and Nf 75%
The location of the expected vibration modes around 8 kHz
and 14 kHz can be seen, together with the appearance of a
spurious mode around 2 kHz. A linear trend can be seen for
some sections of the phase factor curve around the resonant
frequencies. This was observed in all the simulations carried
out. Singularities appear at frequencies where the gain factor
approaches zero. This can be better observed in the plot of
arrival time against frequency shown in Fig. 10. The interval
used to calculate the slope was 0.77 kHz, and the arrival
time for wave A at 400 ìs is indicated with a broken line.
Around 4 kHz and 12 kHz, the singularities can be clearly
seen. When comparing group arrival times with the arrival
time of wave A, it can be observed that they coincide only
in a few discrete frequencies located near the singularities.
Dispersion is lowest between 7 and 9 kHz, which is around
fso : The group arrival time tg at this frequency interval is
471 ìs, which is higher than both tarr and the arrival time of
wave B, tb (298 ìs).
Differences between tg and tarr will be related by means
of the normalised wave arrival time Narr , given by
tg  tarr
Narr ¼
tarr
Narr provides an estimate of the magnitude of the error in
the determination of tarr , when assuming that the former is
equal to tg : For this particular case, Narr ¼ 17.9%. Intuitively,
an Narr value close to zero would be expected here, consider-
ing that Rdso is significantly greater than 1.6 (Arroyo et al.,
2003b). However, the introduction of real system features
600
500
Group arrival time: µs
400
300
200
100
0 calculation of Narr from
0 5
Transfer
Fig. 10. Group arrival times for fso 8 kHz,
Rdso 3.2, n 1, Nt 217% and Nf 75%
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11
2·5
such as additional cycles and frequency variations in the
output signal (n . 0 and Nf . 0 respectively) have a clear
Selected 2·0
effect on the relationship of group travel time to frequency.
All the cases simulated were analysed using a similar
Gain factor: arb. units
approach. Fig. 11 summarises the calculated values of Narr
1·5 against Nt : The vast majority of Narr values are greater than
zero, indicating that if the analogy with a real BES is
correct, current practice of interpretation in the frequency
1·0 domain will almost always produce an overestimation of tarr
and therefore an underestimation of shear-wave velocity. Narr
can reach values higher than 100%. No obvious relationship
between Narr and Nt can be seen when looking at the whole
10 15
population of cases. However, after filtering the data accord-
ing to Rdso , Nf and n values, a clear trend is revealed.
0 Figure 12 includes all cases with Rdso ¼ 3.2 and
400
s, Rdso 3.2, Nf ¼ 25%. First, it can be seen that Narr values are highly
influenced by the number of extra cycles. As the value of n
increases, the Narr values seem to oscillate around an in-
creasing mean value. For example, for n ¼ 0 the Narr values
oscillate around 0%, and for n ¼ 3 the Narr values oscillate
around 45%. In order to characterise these oscillations, some
statistical parameters will be introduced. For every combina-
tion of Rdso , Nf and n, Narr is more likely to take values
equal to Narr plus or minus the standard deviation
: From
Fig. 12, Narr is clearly a function of n, whereas
is
dependent on Nt : It can be seen that the oscillatory trend
implies that similar results in terms of Narr values can be
obtained independently of when wave B arrives in relation
to wave A. The relationship between Narr and Rdso can be
closely reproduced by a family of curves following equation
(9), as can be seen in Fig. 13.
 
n
Narr ¼ 0:483 (9)
Rd so
Figure 14 shows the calculated values of
against Rdso
for all the cases with Nf equal to 25%. The area between the
lines defines the possible locations for any case with the
same value of Nf : A lower limit of
l equal to 1% and an
upper limit
u described by equation (10) are suggested,
with A2 equal to 0.28 for this particular set of data. A
(8)
similar exercise was performed for cases with Nf of 50%
and 75% in order to produce a general expression relating

u , Rdso and Nf (equation (11)).
A2

u ¼ (10)
Rd so
0:065

u ¼ (11)
Nf Rd so
fso
The magnitude of
has been shown to be mostly
dependent on Nf and Rdso , and Narr has been shown to be
dependent on n and Rdso : Equation (12) gives an expression
for an estimate of Narr in terms of these parameters.
   : 
: n 0 065
Narr  0 483 þ (12)
Rd so Nf Rd so
For real bender element signals, n can be measured
directly from the output signal. In cases where the transfer
function clearly shows two modes of vibration, Nf can be
calculated from the two frequencies identified, fb and fso : The
10 15  
Frequency: kHz 1
tarr ¼ tg (13)
1 þ Narr
Frequency interval Tarr
tarr 400
s, then provides a way to estimate tarr from group arrival times
tg obtained in the frequency domain. This can be carried out
 12 ALVARADO AND COOP
200

150

100

Narr: %

50

⫺50
⫺25·0 ⫺20·0 ⫺15·0 ⫺10·0 ⫺5·0 0 5·0 10·0 15·0 20·0 25·0
Nt: %

Fig. 11. Narr against Nt for all the cases considered

60
n

50 0
1
40 2

3
30
Narr: %

20 Rdso ⫽ 3·2

10
Nf ⫽ 25%
0

⫺10
⫺20 ⫺15 ⫺10 ⫺5 0 5 10 15 20
N t: %

Fig. 12. Selection of cases illustrating the trend of Narr against Nt

160 30
Ni ⫽ 25% n⫽0
140 n⫽0 25 n⫽1
120 n⫽1 20 σu ⫽ A2/Rdso n⫽2
100 n⫽3
n⫽2
σ: %
Narr: %

80 15 A2 ⫽ 0·28
n⫽3 σl ⫽ 0·01
60 10
40
5
20
0
0 5 7
6·0 7·0 0 1 2 3 4 6
5·0 8·0
⫺20 0 1·0 2·0 3·0 4·0 Rdso
Rdso
Fig. 14. Standard deviation in Narr estimation against Rdso for
Fig. 13. Fitted curves for calculated Narr values against Rdso cases where Nf 25%

by means of an iterative process, where each iteration starts
by assuming an Rdso value, followed by the calculation of
Narr (equation (12)), the subsequent estimation of tarr (equa-
tion (13)), and a final check of Rdso (equation (5)).
Besides illustrating the influence of system parameters not
usually considered in current practice, such as n and Nf , this
parametric study provides additional interpretation criteria
(equations (12) and (13)). The number of extra cycles, n,
has been shown to be responsible for large differences
between group and phase arrival times. In addition, the
effect of the proximity of successive modes of vibration can
be quantified by looking at the changes in
u with variations
in Nf , as illustrated in Fig. 15, where the ratio tg /tarr has
been plotted for two different values of Nt (25% and 75%).
It can be seen that in order to achieve a ratio tg /tarr reason-
ably close to 1, Rdso should be considerably larger than 2.
In Fig. 15, values of tg /tarr are also shown from Arroyo et
al. (2003b), who considered near-field effects in a mathem-
atical model of wave propagation. Although the underlying
methodology used by these authors and that used here are
different, it is interesting to see that the exponential decay in
both sets of data is similar. Only when tg /tarr ¼ 1 are the

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 ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BENDER ELEMENTS IN TRIAXIAL TESTS 13
1·50
Table 2. Bender element system parameters for Toyoura sand
1·40
n ⫽ 0, Nr ⫽ 25% tested in set-up 4
1·30
1·20 n ⫽ 0, Nr ⫽ 75%
1·10 Probe p9: kPa fso fb n
tg/tarr

1·00
0·90 1 100 4.93 8.2 1
0·80 2 220 5.81 8.2 1
ν ⫽ 0·2, near-field effect (Arroyo et al. 2003b)
0·70 3 580 6.66 11.19 1
0·60 4 980 8.22 13.17 1
0·50 5 1580 9.28 16.43 1
0 1·0 2·0 3·0 4·0 5·0 6·0 7·0
6 3320 10.5 18.8 1
Rdso 7 6370 14.4 26.3 1
8 10500 16.9 25.4 2
Fig. 15. Influence of multimodal vibration and near-field effects 9 16300 20.4 25.4 3
on determination of shear-wave arrival times 10 22400 21.8 28.1 4

group and shear-wave velocities the same and the system

non-dispersive. The comparison suggests that the values of
Rdso required to reach a ratio tg /tarr near 1 when considering
Nf effects is larger than that required when considering near-
field effects, although the estimates here are upper bounds.
SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
Figure 16 shows the group velocities Vg and shear-wave
velocities Vs for Toyoura sand and an artificial sandstone
made by mixing Toyoura sand with a Portland cement and
curing it under an isotropic effective stress of 15 MPa
(Alvarado, 2007). The group velocities were calculated from
the phase factor of the transfer functions obtained from the
input–output signals recorded at different stress levels (Al-
varado & Coop, 2007). Assuming that the shear-wave is the
main wave being propagated (wave A in the parametric
study), the shear-wave velocities were calculated from the
arrival times tarr obtained using equations (12) and (13) with
the system parameters summarised in Table 2. The data for
the Toyoura sand were taken during isotropic compression,
whereas for the artificial sandstone the data shown are for
unloading from the initial curing stress, the object being to
see when the strains imposed under isotropic unloading
started to break the cement bonds, so affecting the stiffness
(the yield of the cement can be identified at around
10.5 MPa, where the values of Vg and Vs start to decrease).
For the artificial sandstone Vg and Vs always differ signifi-
cantly, but for the Toyoura sand Vg and Vs are approximately
the same up to a p9 of 6 MPa, after which they diverge. It
can therefore be seen that in some cases it may be reason-
able to assume that Vg and Vs are equal, but a system check
should always be made, as the differences between Vg and Vs
can potentially be large.
In Fig. 17 the gain factor of the transfer function of the
artificial sandstone is given for a bender element test con-
ducted at 13 054 kPa. Below 20 kHz the signal is almost
completely attenuated as a result of anti-resonance. The first
main mode ( fso ) is located at around 28 kHz, and at higher
frequencies at least two other modes can be clearly seen.
The smaller mode located at around 26 kHz could be the
resonant frequency of the bender elements themselves.
Figures 18 and 19 show a selection of first arrival time
traces for the artificial sandstone and Toyoura sand respec-
tively. For the Toyoura sand the traces at higher stresses are
difficult to interpret, whereas for the artificial sandstone it is
those at low stresses that appear very weak, making it
difficult to define the arrival time. Based on the data for the
Toyoura sand, Alvarado & Coop (2007) have described in
detail a methodology for obtaining the first arrival using
visual inspection of the signals for a range of input frequen-
cies, together with an examination of their cross-correlation
functions. In some cases the selected arrival times are not
necessarily those that might have been chosen from the time
traces of a single input frequency, for example signal 10 in
Fig. 18 and signal 7 in Fig. 19.
Values of the shear modulus for the artificial sandstone
are given in Fig. 20. Those obtained from the group velocity
are far too low, owing to the multimodal vibration that has
been identified here, but the corrected values from the
frequency domain analysis (tarr ) are more consistent with
those from first arrival. In Fig. 21 the shear moduli are
shown for the Toyoura sand based on the group velocity and

1350 Vs (artificial sandstone), unload

1150

950
Vg (artificial sandstone), unload
Velocity: m/s

750
Vs (Toyoura sand), load
550

Vg (Toyoura sand), load

350

150
0 5000 10 000 15 000 20 000 25 000
p⬘: kPa

Fig. 16. Variation of group and phase velocity for artificial sandstone and Toyoura sand

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 14 ALVARADO AND COOP
20·0 Gain factor
out for a variety of soils, and over a wide range of stress
18·0 fso
levels. The experimental data have been analysed by way of
16·0 fo
transfer functions, which have been shown to be a powerful
14·0 tool to characterise and monitor system performance. The
Gain: arb. units

12·0
10·0
8·0
6·0
4·0
2·0
0
0 10
Frequency: kHz
Fig. 17. Selection of fundamental frequencies for the artificial
sandstone at p9 13 054 kPa
the first arrival. The relationship proposed between Gvh and
p9 by Tatsuoka (2005) for Toyoura sand is included for
comparison, and agrees well with the time domain data. The
Tatsuoka curve comes from an experimental database from
both dynamic and static tests (e.g. resonant column, mono-
tonic loading probes and cyclic loading probes). Also shown
is the corrected frequency domain interpretation (tarr ), which
in this case shows slightly higher values than the time
domain. Again it is clear that the shear moduli based on the
group velocity are incorrect, particularly above about 6 MPa,
where the unlikely result is obtained that Gvh becomes
almost constant with increasing p9.
CONCLUSIONS
A comprehensive investigation of the performance of
bender elements in the triaxial apparatus has been carried
use of transfer functions has revealed that the system is both
linear and constant parameter, an important conclusion that
has three significant implications. First, the system perform-
ance should be independent of the type of input signal used,
and single-cycle sine pulses should be suitable driving
signals, especially when the central frequency is near to the
main resonant frequency of the material. Second, the system
20 30 40 50
linearity implies that the individual contributions of the
components of the system can be superimposed. So, if the
individual contributions are known, it must be possible to
‘filter out’ the contribution of any given component from the
overall response of the system. This is encouraging, as it
means that the assumption of elastic shear-wave propagation,
which is the foundation of the technique, can still apply,
despite the observed complexity of the system and the
potential interaction of the shear-wave with other compo-
nents of the system, such as the sample boundaries and other
waveforms. The final implication is that, given its linear and
constant parameter nature, the transfer function of the sys-
tem can be obtained from pairs of input/output signals using
an FFT algorithm. This means that system checks can
routinely be carried out on any bender element set-up.
The analysis of the gain factors of the systems has
revealed their multi-vibrational nature. It has been observed
that the locations of the multiple modes of vibration change
as the effective stress changes. It has also been observed that
the rate of change of resonant frequency with effective stress
varies from mode to mode. This has the implication that, as
the effective stress increases, the original order of the modes
along the frequency spectrum may change. For example,
sample resonance may be induced before element resonance

10

Unload 8

7
Normalised amplitude

0·050 0·070 0·090 0·110 0·130 0·150

Time: ms

1 p⬘: 13 054 kPa 2 p⬘: 12 408 kPa 3 p⬘: 11 854 kPa

4 p⬘: 11 364 kPa 5 p⬘: 10 797 kPa 6 p⬘: 10 310 kPa
7 p⬘: 8321 kPa 8 p⬘: 2823 kPa 9 p⬘: 1842 kPa
10 p⬘: 294 kPa

Fig. 18. Selected first arrivals in time domain for artificial sandstone

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 ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BENDER ELEMENTS IN TRIAXIAL TESTS 15
10

7
Normalised amplitude

0·050 0·100 0·150 0·200 0·250 0·300 0·350 0·400

Time: ms

1 p⬘: 100 kPa 2 p⬘: 220 kPa 3 p⬘: 580 kPa

4 p⬘: 980 kPa 5 p⬘: 1180 kPa 6 p⬘: 3320 kPa
7 p⬘: 6370 kPa 8 p⬘: 10 500 kPa 9 p⬘: 16 300 kPa
10 p⬘: 22 400 kPa

Fig. 19. Selected first arrivals in time domain for Toyoura sand (after Alvarado & Coop, 2007)

4000

First arrival (time domain)

3500
tarr (frequency domain)
tg (group arrival)
3000

2500
Gh: MPa

Elastic domain
2000

1500

1000
Curing stress
500

0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10 000 12 000 14 000 16 000
p⬘: kPa

Fig. 20. Shear modulus during unloading of artificial sandstone

at a given stress level, while at another stress the order
might invert. The analysis of the phase factor has confirmed
the dispersive nature of the system, and more importantly
the variability in the amount of dispersion. This implies that
the common assumption used for frequency domain inter-
pretation that shear-wave velocity is equal to group velocity
is reasonable in some cases, but for other cases it may lead
to inconsistent results. The variability observed in the differ-
ence between phase and group velocities means that inter-
pretation in the frequency domain should be supported by a
quantification of the dispersion.
A parametric study using a simulated system has been
carried out in order to identify the influence of some of the
features observed in real bender element set-ups on system
performance. In particular, the variation of the ratio tg /tarr
has been investigated. It has been found that if the analogy
between the simulated system and the real one is correct,
one of the most influential parameters will be the number of
additional cycles, n, in the output compared with the input.
This parameter seems to be related to damping within the
system, but the nature of this relationship has not been
investigated within this study. Additionally, the simulations
indicate that the proximity of an additional resonant mode to
that associated with wave propagation can influence the ratio

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 16 ALVARADO AND COOP
D( f ) Fourier transform of displacement
d(t ) displacement time history
F( f ) Fourier transform of force
f frequency
f (t ) input force time history
fb resonant frequency of mode B
fn natural frequency
fso fundamental frequency
1000 G shear modulus
Ghh shear modulus in horizontal plane (measured for wave
propagation in horizontal direction with polarisation in
horizontal direction)
Gvh: MPa

Gvh shear modulus in vertical plane (measured for wave

100
First arrival (time domain)
tarr (frequency domain)
tg (group arrival)
Tatsuoka (2005)
10
100 1000 10 000 100 000
p⬘: kPa
Fig. 21. Shear modulus for Toyoura sand (adapted from Alvarado
& Coop, 2007)
tg /tarr , although not to the same degree as the number of
extra cycles. The parameter Rdso , equal to the number of
wavelengths at the fundamental frequency of the material
that fit between the elements, has been identified as another
parameter controlling the ratio tg /tarr : From the parametric
study a set of equations that allows the estimation of tg /tarr
has been proposed (equations (12) and (13)). These are
applicable to those cases where two clear modes of vibration
can be identified, and can be used to aid interpretation in the
frequency domain. The estimated ratio tg /tarr can also be
useful as a criterion to quantify system dispersion.
Two examples of bender element interpretation, in the time
domain and in the frequency domain, have been presented to
illustrate the use of transfer functions in interpretation, and to
highlight the differences between time and frequency domain
interpretation. Equations (12) and (13) were used to estimate
shear-wave velocity in the frequency domain. Both examples
confirm the trends observed in many other cases studied,
showing that frequency domain interpretation without a cor-
rection for system dispersion can lead to large errors. Second,
despite the discrepancies between time domain and frequency
domain interpretation, both with and without correction for
dispersion, the obtained trends of G with log p9 are very
similar, with some exception at very high stress levels.
Finally, it appears that actual G values range between those
predicted from the time domain and the frequency domain
(after correction for dispersion), and at present it might be
appropriate to use an average for design purposes.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support
of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
and BP.
NOTATION
c damping coefficient of dashpot
D distance of wave propagation
propagation in vertical direction with polarisation in
horizontal direction)
H( f ) transfer function
j H( f )j gain factor of transfer function
k spring constant
m mass
Narr normalised arrival time
N arr average Narr
Nf normalised frequency
Nt normalised arrival time
p9 mean effective stress
Rd normalised distance (Jovićič et al., 1996)
Rdso fundamental normalised distance
T period of a harmonic wave
t elapsed time
tarr shear-wave arrival time
tg group arrival time
Vg group wave velocity
Vs shear-wave velocity
 damping ratio

standard deviation of Narr

u upper limit of

 phase angle of output signal
f phase factor of transfer function
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