Surface Wave Methods for Predicting Oil Sand Properties

The use of seismic analysis to estimate ground material properties such as bulk modulus, shear modulus or stiffness has been the subject of research in recent decades. In general, the velocity of a generated wave depends on the properties of the ground through which it travels. While in the case of subsurface methods, where the P- and S-wave velocities are measured, surface methods rely on the velocity of surface waves such as Rayleigh waves (Tokimatsu et al. in Soils Found 31(2):153–163, 1991, doi:10.​3208/​sandf1972.​31.​2_​153; Matthews et al. in Proc ICE-Geotech Eng 119(2):84–95. 1996). The results of previous analyses on passive seismic monitored truck motion on oil sand was collected via an array of 72 geophones spaced at 1 m intervals on an oil sand haul road. This paper describes the principles to determine a ground shear modulus from seismic data. The method applies to stationary envelopes of data filtered to obtain a conclusive comparison.