Estimation of near-surface shear-wave velocity by inversion of Rayleigh waves

Geophysics
By: , and 

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Abstract

The shear‐wave (S-wave) velocity of near‐surface materials (soil, rocks, pavement) and its effect on seismic‐wave propagation are of fundamental interest in many groundwater, engineering, and environmental studies. Rayleigh‐wave phase velocity of a layered‐earth model is a function of frequency and four groups of earth properties: P-wave velocity, S-wave velocity, density, and thickness of layers. Analysis of the Jacobian matrix provides a measure of dispersion‐curve sensitivity to earth properties. S-wave velocities are the dominant influence on a dispersion curve in a high‐frequency range (>5 Hz) followed by layer thickness. An iterative solution technique to the weighted equation proved very effective in the high‐frequency range when using the Levenberg‐Marquardt and singular‐value decomposition techniques. Convergence of the weighted solution is guaranteed through selection of the damping factor using the Levenberg‐Marquardt method. Synthetic examples demonstrated calculation efficiency and stability of inverse procedures. We verify our method using borehole S-wave velocity measurements.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Estimation of near-surface shear-wave velocity by inversion of Rayleigh waves
Series title Geophysics
DOI 10.1190/1.1444578
Volume 64
Issue 3
Year Published 1999
Language English
Publisher Society of Exploration Geophysicists
Description 10 p.
First page 691
Last page 700
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