Assessment of the coefficient of the earth pressure at rest from shear wave velocity measurements

The paper presents an attempt to evaluate the feasibility of predicting the value of the coefficient of the earth pressure at rest K-omicron of natural soil deposits on the basis of the measured velocities of the seismic shear waves. The experimental data presented were obtained from seismic tests performed in a calibration chamber on laboratory prepared specimens of seven granular materials, with grades ranging from fine sand to gravelly sand. The relationship between K-omicron and the shear wave velocity established using the calibration chamber results was used successfully to predict K-omicron at two well-documented sites for which both cross-hole seismic and seismic piezocone penetration test results are available.