Development, fabrication, and validation of custom-built accelerometers to monitor wave propagation during vibratory soil compaction

Abstract Historically, accelerometers have been heavily utilized in the geotechnical community for applications such as earthquake ground motion monitoring, centrifuge testing, pile driving analysis, and continuous compaction control of soils. Industrial-grade accelerometers that are commonly used for these types of studies can be expensive for monitoring programs requiring a dense configuration of accelerometers. In the current study, a dense array of relatively inexpensive custom-built accelerometers, previously developed by the authors, were deployed along an earthen embankment and subjected to real-world vibratory soil compaction conditions. Several industrial-grade accelerometers were also installed along the embankment for comparison purposes. This study describes the fabrication, calibration, and installation process of these custom-built accelerometers and compares their performance against the industrial-grade accelerometers. Accelerations recorded by both sensors during compaction were generally consistent with one another ultimately indicating that these custom-built accelerometers could offer a cost-effective option for dense sensor arrays for future geotechnical monitoring programs.