Acoustic Emissions Monitoring In Soil Compressibility Laboratory Tests

Extended Abstract The detection and monitoring of acoustic emissions in soil mechanics is a study technique still little developed and investigated, although the applications that can be derived from this new discipline are very numerous. Among these, the most interesting from the geotechnical point of view are the study of soil compressibility [1] and the ground shear strength [2]. For this reason, in the Geotechnics Laboratory of the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT) an investigation that aims to delve into this discipline has been started, in order to find trends or correlations between the compressibility and shear parameters of the soil and the characteristics of the acoustic emissions generated by the relative movement of grains. The research is in its initial phase, although all the necessary equipment to carry it out is already available: in addition to the classic laboratory equipment (oedometric bench; uniaxial loading cell for simple compression; direct shear equipment), there is a multi-channel acoustic emission capture equipment (Vallen AMSY-6), to which a pair of low-frequency sensors (with sensitivity between 10-100 kHz) and another pair of medium-high-frequency (with sensitivity < 900 kHz) are connected.