RADIO FREQUENCY DIELECTRIC DISPERSION WITH ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS

Over the past several decades, powerful analytical and numerical tools have become available for analyzing geotechnical problems. However, th3e ability to characterize the in-situ physical properties of soils as input to these powerful tools has not significantly advanced. In many cases blow counts associated with driving a sampler into a soil are still used as an indirect measure of a soil engineering parameter as was done decades ago. Clearly future advances in the ability of geotechnical engineers to perform more accurate analysis will be dependent on the development of methods to more accurately characterize in-situ properties. The t beneficial characterization method would be performed in a bore-hole so as to eliminate the need for obtaining the always difficult, if not impossible, "undisturbed" sample that must be tested in a laboratory by some destructive test method after its in-situ stresses have been altered.