Shallow SH~Wa ve Seismic Exploration for Subway Construction in
Shanghai
Zhang Shihong*
Abstract
TIte firstproblemencoonteredinshallowseismicex
ploralion of subway construclion;s ci!y noise soun:es;
aOO a high resolution is needed 100Ulline hard bearing
clay. weak mudclay.lltinsand layeno.etc
TIte noise sources affecling Ihe shaJlow seismic ex
ploralionof subwayconstroction in Shanghai are from
( 1)ma:ltanicalvibration. (2)powerlines.aOO(3)buried
man-made struclures. TIte noise from compressivc vi
bralioncan be cons tricted by frequency filtering. wltile
thenoi seduetosllearvibralioncanbesuppressedby
venical stacking. Noise from power lines may be elim
inatedbytlleuseofnotchfillersaoobyincreasinglhe
insulalion resislance between the ground and the geo
phone. Noisedueloburiedman-madestroclures iscom
plicated;care is neededindealingwilhlhem
The watcr tablc in Shanghai is quitc shaJlow. gencr
ally O.S-I m. For unconsolidatcd sediments. tlle P-wave
vclocityishighandsubjedtowatersaturation.resuhing
in lowresolution: while fortheS-wavetheresolution is
high: tha! is why tlle S-wavc has beco selecled for Ihe
shallow \.Cismic c~plor~tion in Shanghai. The ES-24ISF
system. made in the U.S.A. by Geome!rics. wilh a max
imum gain of 102 dB. complete with pre-fihel'll and sig
nal enhancem..,nt. was used in oor exploralion. Horiron
tal gcopholM:s of 30 Hz were chosen for reiving
SH-waves. Generally. no Love wave will be produced
ifthe cxcitation is carried outon a haTd concrete road
By using a chanlM:l separalion of I m and venical en
hancemenl. 600 lO 1200 per<:ent coverage. rene<:tions fmm
60 m deep can be observed even Ihough SH-waves are
excited by hammering a plank slud on the ground. The
mud clay and han! clay (bearing bed) can be distin
guished.
lnSlilule of Gcophys;cal and Geoc~mical Explorat;on. M;n;stry of Geology and Mineral Resourcel . Langfang. Hebei. China .
lntroduction
In general.depth ofasubwayrangesfrom 18103Om.
Duringtlledesignandexcavationitisnecessarytohave
geologicaldata.suchasdistribulionsandlhickncssesof
bcaringlayel'llandmudclaylayers.anddistribulionsof
thinsaOObodiesandpaleochannels.Thesege<.llogicaldata
are usuallyobtailM:dbydrilling:shallowseismicexplo
ration should be followed to invesligale interval varia
tions and detailed structures between lhe boreholes.
References concerning the application ofseismic
melhods lO engineering investigation include Stumpel el
al. (1984). Suyama (1984). Yokokuraet aL (1986). Zhang
(l986). and Ren (1987). However there are only a few
papers that deal with shallow seismics in a city under
lheinfluenceofstrongnoisesources
The cToss-borehole methCKl was used 10 meiiSure P_
and SH-wave velocilies of shalJow layers in Shanshai
Figure 1 shows Ihe measured curves of P-wave aOO SH
wave inlerval velocily at shalJow deplhs in Sltangltai
1e velocily interfaces of lhe SH-wave closeJy COlTC
spondtothegeologicallayers. Here. theSHvelocityof
IhefirstclayeysoilGl is IISm/s: 14Sm/sfoTthemud
clay <iI; 180m/s forthe mudclayey soil <3) : 26S mIs
forlhehardclay(bearing layer): and 220 m/sforthe
secoOO clayey soil (!l ; the sand ayer Ij) has the highest
velocly 300 mIs. When the predominant frequency of
theSH-waveis60 Hz, the velocityvarialionoftheabove
materials is liS m/s-300 mIs, coTTesponding 10 wave
lenglhsof2- S m. Considering 1/4 wavelensth asstan
dard resolution the recogni~able Ihicknessofa layerwilJ
beO.S- I.2 m.
TIte P-wave interval velocities do nOI correspond 10
tlle geological layers very weJJ. If a P-wave resolution
of 0.5-1.2 m is required. then tlle predominant fre

p. and SHwave ;merval velocilics and koown geo
logicalcolumnarse<:lion: (1 ) roncrcteroad,(2) firstclay. (J)
first clayey so;1, (4) mud clay. (5) mudclayeysoll, (6)serond
clay.(7)=ondclayeysoil, (8)SlIndlayer
quency of Ihe Pwave must be 420- 670 H z. Jt is very
difficull to get that high predominant frequelley (see
Steeples alld Miller. Vol. ti . Geotechnical and Environ
memal GeophY$ies for means 10 ootain such frequeocies.
Ed. ), Hence. for the sake of resolution the SHwave
seismicexploration was seJeeted
BecauseoflheacclImulated material in lhe eity (s uch
as industrial and domcstic rubbish and fitt soit from
buildings). the surface strueturc iseomplicaled. Thus ji
jsdifficlIltlocalT)'oulaseismieslaticcorrection. How
ever. if the operation is on a concrele road or asphalt
road. Ihings are much beller. To exci te and reeeive the
SH'wave is beneficial
Thcre are lIsuatty several kiods of pipeJioes benea lh
mainroadsofacity. Positionsofthesepipelincsshollld
be investigaled in orderto avoid seis mie measurements
righloverlhem.
Dstinct rcflcction coe fficiems exist on shallow geo
logeal boundaries in Shanghai (se" Table 1). The mea
sured seismic data also illdieale Ihal IheSHwave field
Tabte l. I'by,kal I'aramctcrs nr Ihe ShaUnw
Sff " 'He" c!odty
~':!t);
Layer V.( m/s)
Fin;tday 1.83
Fin;tc!ayeysOII
Mudclay
Muddayc)' soi l
U3
1,67
UI
SecoJl<Jclay 2.00
~n:;ndclayeYSOil
''''
193
(Aftcrlb< d.lOofli.ngouGa>phy.i,alExpl"",toonBrig><l<. 1987)
Zhang
isnotcomplicatcdhere, whichnICanslhereisgoodcor
relation between thereflccl io nsandlhelaye;
Suppression of Sou r ces 01'
Seismic Noise
The melhod of investigating scismic noise is lo 00
serve direellyand record lile noir.e waves insitu. ln Fig
ure 2. (a) isa lIOise waveofvibralionduelOatrainand
(b) isthe recordofavibrationwaveduetoatruck. The
lIOir.e produced by meehanical vibralions basieally are
from the molionofvehides. pedestrians. anddynarnie
machines in faclories, Sorne mcchanical vibrntions are
verystmngandverydifficulttosuppress.5uchas.lhe
pulscvibrntionproduccdbypiledrivingthatisquite
similarloa h.arnrnersouree. ThemOlionofvchicles and
pede,(ri~ ns is ehar.,lcterizcd by low frequency vibralions
rnnging fmm 30 lO 60 II z. Howevcr. Ihe vibrntion en
ergyfromvehiclesattc nuatesquicklyawayfromOOser
valion points. Thus. the mechanical vibr.,llons can be
easilysuppressedbyfrcqucncy filtering(see Figure2(c)
and (d) . ~1aternlvibmtionprodlleedby mcchanieal
vibra!ion is weak and can be su pprcssed by veMical
stacking.
The cl<'Ctrie ooise creata! by a power ne!work is mainly
of SO Hz and 150 Hz. Poor insulalon of the seismic
geophone and cable wilJ produce SO Hz noise. Byusing
SO HznOlchfiltersorincreasinglheinsuJationresislancc
again51 lile ground the 50 Hz noi se will be effcctivcly
cancellcd . The 150 Hz noise is an odd hamxme pro
duced by oversalUrated magnctization of a powcrtrnns
fOffilCr . Thiskindofnoisegencr.,lJly will onlyaffecttOOse
geophoneswhichhavepoorinsulation.Thcrdorc.hyin.
creasingthcirinslllaliooresislanceagainstthcgrouoolhis
noisewill becornplctclycancellcd.
In a c ily. survcyarca.,arealways ncarbuildings, so
thatacoustic rcf1ections will greatlyaffectlhequality of
Ihe records. The beSI melhod to overeome Ihi s prOOlcm
Lay~rsin Shan.:hai
Wa.-eiml"'dance
R~nl..,tion
V.(Il / cm's) COI'ffident (k)
181.17 0.074
'""
'"
'SO
t7S.9S
242.15
271.80
OIIS
0.107
0,1%
265 530.00 0,092
'"
""
418.00
S79.oo
Subway Conslru clion in Sha nghai
FIG. 2. Vibr.llionnoi..,source. andltw.irfrcquency~pcclrums
(a) Vibralion noise and frequency spcclrum. of a lrain, (b)
Vibralion noiscandfretucncyspcclrumof.naulomobile.(c)
Seismogr.m after 100 H~ cUI-on fiherin:. (d) Seisomogr"m
afkr 200 HZCUl-offfihering .
is 10 sereen the acouslic reneelions by using a I m x
2 m pl~Slic sponge.
TIte reneetion . refra<.:tions. Of diffroctions produccd
by undergrourxlconstructionarcquite oomplicatcd. Whcn
aseismic source is puton the groundjusloverunder
ground man-made structures (forexample. awalerdrdin
pipe. water supply pipes. orairddensesystems. etc.)
Thesestruclureswillsereen theeismicsourcebeca use
they have great renection coefficiems. Undcrgrounu
struetures at the ,iue ()f oeismic sources wil! form see
onuarysourccs. resullingincomplicmedinterference.lt
is ve!)' important to ..,Iocate the .~ite ofan exciling >OI.IfCC.
soastosuppressinterl"erence.
Seismic Data Acquisition of the
alongwiththeexeilingdireetionoftheseismic~rce.
Shallow SH Wave
Figure 3b is for forwaru excilaliOll and Figure 3c is fOf
TIte SH-wave rcneetion profiling method was con~
ducted al Ihe busy Nanjing Road whieh wil! be a main
lineoflhe subway in Shanghai. Sorne geological uata,
suehaslhcdeplhsandthickncssesofclay,clayeysoil.
and muu clay layers. etc .. had already been collected
from boreholes. Seeauseoflhc greal dislanccs betwee n
boreholes.lhehorizomalvariationoftheearthcannOlbe
very wel! inferrcd. Howe\er. Ihe SH-wave reneetion can
beusedloinvestigatethevariationoftheearthinbolh
horizonlal and vertical dircelions.
TIte acquisilion proccdure of shallow SH-wave renee
lion inaeityisdiffcrentfromconvenlional seismic ac
quisilion melhods. They uiffer mainly in the exeitmion
177
and reeeiving modes. On an asp/lalt road a 2 x 0 .6 x
0.3 m hard wooden plank laidon lhegroundwasused
for exciting SH-wa"cs. To increase Ihe eoupling be
tweenlhewoodcnplankandtheground.2emironnails
werc mounted beneath lhe plank. HalOmering al an e nd
oftheplankandusingmuhiplcenergyenhancemem.re
neelion records of lhe SH-wave for 1 s durUlion eould
bcohlained. On aeonerete road. hard rubber is beller
than the iron nails for eou pling. The horizonlal geo
phones were stuck firml y on the ground by using cooked
gypsum. Gypsum was more effeclive and econornic than
greaseandrubberplaslicine.
The frequency of SH reneclion wa~es gene rally is 40
50 tl z and ilS velocily is quite low. Selecling a small
ehannelinlervalshouldavoidaliasing;theehanllelin_
Icrval of 1-2 m was se lectcd forourease
For the shaUow renection method. lurge offsel should
not be used in orderlo avoid rcneclions with angles of
reneclion grcalerthan lhe critical angle unu lhe w3vclel
dislOrtion resulting from Ihe extension effeel which is
ereated by lhe nonnal moveout correcti"n. Zero offset
was used whctherlheexeiling source wasm oneendof
lhespreadoratlhemiddleofthespread. WhentheSH
wavc isexciled on an asphalt (conercle) road, no Love
wave is creatctl iflhe velocity of lhe SH;wave for lhe
toplayers isgrcaterlhan thaloflhe lowef layers. How
ever.forthegeophonesnearlhescismicsource.thepar_
asitewithfrequeney JO times higherlhanlhecigenfre
quencyofhorizonlal gcophones wiU casilybe produeed
(see Figurc 33). Sai and Sun (1986) reported Ihis high
freque ncywasuuetopardsitichangingof the geophone
syslcm which. by using a low-pass filter. would easily
be removed
A wcak Love-wave noisc with low apparenl velocity
exists in reeordingsin someeases. bUI can be removed
byhorizonlalslacking.
TIte p"lari1,ation direclion of the SH-wave will changc
rcverseexeitation.l1le features secn from lhe figure (low
,'el~ily, large.arrivaltimet. lincupsappcaringashy
perbola. and hlgh apparent VCIOClty) inuicate that whal
are reeordedon the figure are SH reneetions.
Data Processing of Shallow
SH Renection
l3eeauseofbackfilJed soi!. lhe variation"f SH-wave
velocilyal shallowdepths is verylarge. The velocilyof
the SH-wave is gcnerally 200 m/s-J(X) mIs. Even a small
changc in SHwave vclocity of 30m/s-50 mIs. for ex
ample. wiJl resul! in a large relative variation uf SH
178
FIG. 3. SH-wave reOccl;on records . (a) SHwa,'e =ord and
lIS fre.uency sJIe<:trum with parasitic rcsonanceooise, (blSH
""a" e rdlc<:tionrecordbyforwardexcitation. (c) SIl-wav~re
Oectionrecordbyrcversecxcillllion
wave vclocity. A vcJocity scanOfsmlll stcp Icngth was
used 10 gel [he stad.:ing velocily and [Ooblain ve!ocity
aroomaly seclion5. Howcver, he optimum Slacking ve
locily should he carefully detennined through experi
mcms
Forstaties.thevelocityatshalJowdeplhcouldbecal
cuJated based 011 he first arrivaJ. GeneraJly , a planeon
whichlhevclocilyvarialionisthesmallestcanbeluken
as Ihe reference. However, for a section having a ve
Jocity anomaly. we had 10 mke a deep sUfface aS Ihe
reference for automalic residual static com:ction. In soft
soillayers ,the stacking velocilyofSHwavcuecreases
wilh increasing depth. This decrease is relared to the
thickncssoftheundcrlyingmudclaylaycroflowcrvc
locity
lnterpretatioll of Fin al
Stacked Profile
In order ro slress the mainobjective layerslhebest
limewindow was selecleu 10 prescnt lhe scismic lime
prolile. scc Figure 4a. lbe c<.>mpanson of the mai n re
fleclion groups in the scismic Imeprofile wilh lhe data
from borehole B, (Figure 4b) has show n thal the indio
cated A. B. C . D. and F layers are clay. clayey soil.
mud clay. subsand soil. ami scco nd clay (ocaring hon
zon).respeelively. lnlheprolilc (b) nosecondclaylayer
(E horizon) was intersected due 10 insufficiem depth of
thcboreholeandprovcdbylhcdaraofncarbyborehole
BJ. DandFhorizonsseem tohave noJi soominuityhor
Zha ng
FIG. 4. SH....ave sei"nic time profile. (a) Cornmon-<leplh.point
slacking SH-wavc t,me profile. (b) Geological interpretat;"n
b..",donFigurc4a.
itontallyandtheirdistnbulonsarestablc. WhiJeA. B.
and e layers are fauheu Ix:lwcen CDP 110-170. oo
viously, and are filled wilh marerials of low velocity.
Thereason forthisgrologicalphenomenon inthcyoung
Quatemaryisnolunderstoodbut itmightberelatedto
a local collapsc. Wesholl ldeonsidcrthepossibililyof
water leaking within 18 m-JO m depth in Ihe scclion
filled with low velocity matenal duringexcavation. Be
twccn CDP 190-210. layer E has a discontinuity. The
effccl0fthisdiscontinllityonexeavationshouldbecon
sidere<!
Conclusion
SH-wave velocity is nllleh lower than Pwave velocily
inunconsolidatedsedimentsandtheSHwavehashigher
resollllon than the P -wave. In watersarurated uneon
solidaled scdimems. Ihe SH wave will n01 be affectoo
by water-sarurarion and ils slrong wave impedancc in
terfaces will be well correlated 10 earth interfaces. Be
eauscoflowSH-wave velocity. the lateral varialonof
SHwavc velocily will c:<ertagreat innuence. thcrcfore.
tlle stacking velocilyshould becarefuJlydetermineddur
ingthedataprocessing
Compressive vibralion in a eily is "ery slrong but its
frequency is quite low. Shcaring vibration is mainly
transformed fmm compressive vibration anJ is usualJy
weak. Surfidal inhomogeneilies wiH cause majorprob
Icmsforshallowseismic in"estigation incitiesandwill
senously afreet SHwave e:<ploralion.
Subway Cn ns truct i"n in Shan gha i
ShallQw seismic SHwave profiling should be able lO
deJincmcsedimenlarysequellCe.losearchfordisconlin
Uilicsin Iheearth, amI lo I"cale anomaloussectionsof
Iheearth. Allofthesedataare importalllforthedesign
amlconslruclionoflhcsubway projcct
Acknowledgment
The aUlho' ex pres~es his Ihunks lo Ihe orgaJ1ization
andworkersjoiningintheShanghai shallow >eismic ~n
gineeringinvcsligationprujtx:1
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179
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