Numerical Investigation of 3D multichannel analysis of surface wave method

Multichannel analysis of surface wave (MASW) method is an efficient tool to obtain near-surface S-wave velocity, and it has gained popularity in engineering practice. Up to now, most examples of using the MASW technique are focused on 2D models or data from a 1D linear receiver spread. We propose a 3D MASW scheme. A finite-difference (FD) method is used to investigate the method using linear and fan-shaped receiver spreads. Results show that the 3D topography strongly affects propagation of Rayleigh waves. The energy concentration of dispersion image is distorted and bifurcated because of the influence of free-surface topography. These effects are reduced with the 3D MASW method. Lastly we investigate the relation between the array size and the resolution of dispersion measurement. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.