Executive Summary : | This study aims to design and fabricate cost-effective prototype acoustic-based physical sensors for continuous and accurate soil slope instability monitoring. The acoustic emission of the active waveguide system depends on several factors, including interface shear and deformation behavior of the tube and annular fill, triggering mechanisms, and testing conditions. The first phase of the study focuses on shear tests between different granular-continuum interfaces to guide the selection process of the material. The combined effect of interface shear and deformation of the waveguide while shearing on A.E. response is studied through experiments using modified static compression and large direct shear tests. The database of correlation between various influencing parameters and A.E. response will be used to study the performance of the waveguide placed in a model test subjected to an actual failure mechanism under different instability triggering mechanisms. The project's final phase focuses on developing an in-house economic and efficient A.E.-based active waveguide prototype device based on the data produced from the series of experiments and model tests. The device would be capable of transmitting high-resolution temporal and multidimensional data wirelessly to monitor slopes. |