Natural Hazards

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-024-06782-z

ORIGINAL PAPER

Correlation between shear wave velocity (Vs) and

penetration resistance along with the stress condition of
Eskisehir(Turkey) case

Ebru Civelekler1 · Kamil B. Afacan1

Received: 23 August 2023 / Accepted: 4 July 2024

© The Author(s) 2024

Abstract
Shear wave velocity (Vs) is an important characteristic in geotechnical earthquake en-
gineering practices for estimating site response. Seismic refraction and well seismicity
are the common ways to determine the shear wave velocity. However, these methods
require on-site land studies. For this reason, there are empirical approaches that have
been proposed to calculate Vs depending on the number of SPT-N obtained from the
Standard Penetration experiment data. Studies in the literature have different aspects and
correspond to varied empirical approaches. The study aims to establish empirical correla-
tions between the Shear Wave Velocity (Vs), Standard Penetration Test results (SPT-N),
and stress conditions of soils considering the soil types of the local sites in Eskişehir,
Turkey. The Vs values of the soil from the data set we used in this study were obtained
from seismic refraction-reflection studies in 22 different locations in Eskişehir. SPT-N
values obtained from 42 boreholes representing the Eskişehir ground were used. The Vs
values calculated from the empirical approaches given depending on the SPT-N values and
the Vs values measured on the site were compared. In addition, regression analyses were
performed between SPT- N and Vs. As a result of the regression analyses performed, new
empirical correlations were developed according to soil types. Finally, new empirical cor-
relations are established that can predict Vs at different soil depths and conditions taking
the soil type and overburden pressure into account and contributing valuable insights for
geotechnical earthquake engineering purpose. The regressions show that there is a good
correlation between the Vs-SPT-N along with the total stress with high R2s and soil types
are effective on predicting the shear wave velocity.

Keywords Shear wave velocity · Standard penetration test · Seismic refraction and
reflection · Correlations

Ebru Civelekler
[email protected]
Kamil B. Afacan
[email protected]
1
Department of Civil Engineering, Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Eskişehir 26480, Turkey

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1 Introduction

The design of earthquake-resistant structures and facilities requires the determination of

the behavior of soil under seismic loads. It is very well known that change of soil behavior
under the influence of seismic loads have important effect on seismic site response and as
well as the damage distribution of incoming seismic waves. Major damages observed on
soft soil sites in the Michoacán earthquake of 1985 and have been found to cause structural
damage in many earthquakes such as the 2011 Van, 2020 Izmir and 2023 Kahramanmaraş
earthquakes to date. For this reason, ground response analyses are carried out to determine
the soil behavior of a site. In these analyses, shear wave (Vs) which represents the hardness
of the ground layers, is the input parameter. Hydrological conditions of the site are also
important in soil response. As a result of repetitive stresses occurring in saturated soils under
seismic loads, damages may occur due to soil problems such as liquefaction, amplification
and loss of bearing capacity. For this reason, site-specific hydrological model studies are
carried out (Talebmorad and Askari, 2022; Ghashghaie et al. 2022).
Determining the engineering characteristics of the ground is vital in geotechnical
engineering. Therefore, firstly, the SPT values and soil properties of the layers should be
determined. Standard Penetration Test is one of the oldest field experiments widely used
in geotechnical engineering applications. SPT is a dynamic shear experiment performed
to determine the engineering properties of soil layers and provides information about soil
strength and density (Sivrikaya and Togrol, 2007). The N60 value obtained from the SPT
has corrected SPT blow count, N ground is raw SPT blow count in ground. In this study,
corrected were estimated using the SPT-Ns taken from the field using the correction factors.
Regarding the soil profile of the studied area, it is known that shallow depths are mostly
composed of fine-grained soils with high plasticity, and towards the depths, they transition
to soils with low plasticity. In addition, as the depth increases, the relative amount of silt
and SPT blow count increases and consists of harder layers (Civelekler and Pekkan 2022).
The shear wave velocity is determined by measuring it in the terrain using seismic meth-
ods. But, these methods are not that convenient in the manner of time and economy due to
it requires large labor. Therefore, the shear wave velocity of the ground is approximately
determined by empirical correlations depending on the number of SPT-N in the terrain, and
the rigidity characteristics of the ground, such as cone tip strength. In this study, the relation-
ship between the shear wave velocity (Vs) and the standard penetration test pulse (SPT-N)
was determined by using the empirical correlations according to soil properties to prediction
the shear wave velocity profiles in Eskişehir sites.
For the last fifty years, many researchers have been developing empirical correlations
between Vs and geotechnical properties. In these studies, different parameters were evalu-
ated such as geological conditions, density, fines content, standard penetration test value
(SPT-N) and cone penetration test (CPT) to develop empirical correlation for all soils
(Fujiwara 1972; Ohsaki & Iwasaki 1973; Imai et al. 1975; Ohta and Goto 1978; Seed &
Idris 1981; Imai & Tonouchi 1982; Tonouchi et al. 1983; Kalteziotis et al. 1992; Athanaso-
poulos 1995; Şisman 1995; Iyisan 1996; Jafari et al. 1997; Kiku et al. 2001; Jafari et al.
2002; Hasançebi & Ulusay 2007; Hanumantharao and Ramana 2008; Akın et al. 2011; Lu
& Hwang 2019; Rahimi et al. 2020). Also, there are correlations presented a relationship
between Vs and energy-corrected SPT-N (N60) according to soil properties (clays soils and

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sands soils) (Imai 1977; Lee 1990; Pitilakis et al. 1999; Jafari et al. 2002; Dikmen 2009;
Xiao et al. 2021; Zachariah and Jakka 2021; Khan et al. 2022).
Recently, many studies have been conducted that reveal the relationship between site-
specific SPT-N and Vs. Hanumantharao and Ramana (2008) determined the correlations
between the standard penetration test (N) and the shear wave velocity for the Delhi site of
India. In the study of Chatterjee and Choudhury (2013) obtained a new correlation between
shear wave velocity (Vs) and SPT N value for various soil profiles of Kolkata city. Clavero et
al. determined the shear wave velocities by dividing the Spain-Malaga basin into 3 regions
according to geological conditions (Clavero et al. 2014). Kirar et al. (2016) an empirical
correlation was developed between Vs and N for all soil types, sands only and clays only
in the Roorkee Region. Thokchom et al. (2017) a set of correlation relations between stan-
dard penetrations tests (SPT-N values) and shear wave velocity (Vs) for different categories
of soils is developed for Dholera region, Gujarat state, Western India. Ataee et al. (2019)
developed new correlations between Vs and SPT-N for Mashhad city (Iranian). In the study
of Duan et al. (2019) which is one of the latest studies, have proposed correlations that
reveal the relationship between the shear wave velocity of Jiangsu clays and other geotech-
nical parameters. Daag et al. (2022) developed a correlation between the SPT-N value and
the shear wave velocity (Vs) for various soil profiles for soils Metro Manila, Philippines.
However, these proposed empirical correlations are local due to differences in soil type and
properties from region to region and were estimated only for sites with similar lithology.
Therefore, despite the numerous proposed empirical correlations, there is still a great impor-
tance in correlating Vs and SPT-N using site-specific datasets.
In this study, the variation of shear wave velocity and energy-corrected SPT-N60 for all
soils were investigated, at the beginning. Then, the boreholes were separated according to
the soil characteristics, in terms of the plasticity index and the fine grain ratio. Regression
analyses were made between the uncorrected SPT-N blow count and the corrected SPT-N
(N60) blow count with respect to shear wave velocity (Vs). The novelty of the study appears
by taking the stress condition and soil type into account in the correlations. As a result of
this study, new correlations have been proposed for estimating the shear wave velocity. The
estimation ability of these correlations (R2) were evaluated according to the soil classes and
the stress conditions.

2 Description of the study area

Eskisehir city is located in the northwest of Turkey. The study area covers an area of about
30 km2, at 280.000-292.000 E and 4.402.800–4.410.300 N as shown in Fig. 1. The Porsuk
River is the city’s most important stream.

2.1 Geology of the study area and seismicity

The geology of the region is observed clastic sedimentary rock formations. The basin was
formed of (from bottom to top) Mesozoic gabbro and marble, conglomerates, sandstone,
claystone and limestone. At the top, sediment and alluvial material belonging to the Quater-
nary age cover the site. Alluvial soil extends in a considerable portion of the Eskişehir city
center. The Eskisehir fault zone is an active tectonic structures that threatens the region. The

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Fig. 1 Map of the investigated area with boring locations

main geological units in the region are observed from metamorphic rocks in the Triassic
to alluvium in the Quaternary (Gözler et al., 1985; Ölmez et al. 1986; Gözler et al., 1996;
Altunel and Barka 1998; Orhan 2005). The Porsuk River, the region’s most important river,
flows through the city from west to east, dividing it in two. Geological map of the study area
is presented in Fig. 2. Some researchers classify this alluvial soil expanding in Eskisehir city
center into two categories: old alluvium and new alluvium. (Akdeniz et al. 2011a) (Akdeniz
et al. 2011b) (Civelekler and Pekkan 2022). The New alluvium observed in some areas of
the study region is geologically younger and looser material. The old alluvium defined as
the Akçay formation, on the other hand, consists of materials that were formed relatively
earlier than the new alluvium and have more compact soil layers. In alluvium soil, high
plasticity clay-silt levels are found up to 5–6 m from the surface, while at lower levels, it
alternates from low plasticity soils to sand and gravel levels (Civelekler and Pekkan 2022).
In addition, there are poorly graded sand and silty sand-clay sand layers at the middle levels
of some soundings at 30 m depth.
The Eskişehir basin (about 640 km2) can be considered as alluvial plains surrounded by
basins that are restricted with faults in both south and north and it is presented in Fig. 3. The
lateral strike slip faulting type and normal faults is seen in the region and the fault spreads in
the northwest and southeast direction. According to tectonic studies conducted in the region,
Eskişehir Fault Zone is one of the important neotectetonic structures (Yaltirak 2002; Tokay
and Altunel 2005; Ocakoglu 2007). The Eskisehir Fault Zone is a right lateral strike slip
fault, according to tectonic investigations for the city center and its surroundings. Altunel
and Barka 1998). According to seismic studies, the region has been experienced to large

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Fig. 2 Surface geology map (Güney et al. 2013)

Fig. 3 Seismicity and seismotectonic map of the study are and fault segments ((a) Kocyigit and Ozacar
(2003), ((b) Ocakoglu (2007) and (c) Seyitoğlu et al. (2015)

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earthquakes in the last 100 years. The most devastating happened on February 20, 1956
(M = 6.4). This earthquake caused great damage in and around Eskişehir city center (Altunel
and Barka 1998). Altunel and Barka (1998) discovered that the zone defined as the Eskisehir
Fault Zone was present in various stretches along the Inönü-Oklubali-Turgutlar-Sultandere
line. In Furthermore, it was discovered in a study done by Seyitoğlu et al. (2015) that recent
earthquakes occurred near the Çukurhisar-Sultandere section. This shows that the region’s
biggest seismic hazard is the Çukurhisar-Sultandere segment (Fig. 3). Additional informa-
tion about the site can be found in the previous papers (Civelekler et al. 2021, 2024).

2.2 Ground properties of the study area and site classification

The earthquake characteristics that are effecting the engineering structures are changing
based on ground properties within very short distances. For this reason, determining these
ground properties is the most important task in terms of risk assessment of future possible
earthquake scenarios. Soil amplification, bearing capacity degradation and liquefaction of
the soil which would occur during the earthquake cause structural damages due to the differ-
entiation of the ground properties. Shear wave velocity is a critical parameter in determining
stiffness of the sediment and the amplitude of ground motion. It is also an important factor
for calculating the site response and characterizing local soil conditions.
In this study, 42 exploratory boreholes were investigated to obtain and correlate SPT
and Vs. The shear wave velocity of the study area ground contains 22 seismic reflection-
refraction data (Anadolu University Project No: 080240). The depths of these boreholes
were 30 m. Seismic site characterization, which is an important component in terms of
determining the earthquake risk, can be performed with the average shear wave veloc-
ity (Vs30) of the sediment near surface down to a depth of 30 m(Vs30). Therefore, in
this study, anattempt was made to estimate the Vs 30 of the near-surface sediment of
Eskişehir City. Within the scope of the study, SPT blow counts were recorded in the
boreholes at 1.5 m intervals. Boreholes and seismic reflection-refraction studies were
carried out on alluvium ground.
The geotechnical parameters of soil in the investigated area were determined from the
SPT field tests and laboratory tests such as sieve analysis, The Atterberg limits, etc. This
study assessed 1320 m of boreholes, containing 792 SPT and 587 physical test samples.
Laboratory and field test datasets are presented in Table 1.
The variation of shear wave velocities with depth was obtained from seismic reflec-
tion-refraction measurements completed by Güney et al. (2013) in the study area. In
their studies, Güney et al. (2013) used the 36-barrel P Gun (seismic source) to determine
the shear wave velocity values of the soil. Seismic data were determined by shooting at
certain lengths with the P gun (for example, Sazova: 213 m). Within the scope of this
study, shear wave velocity profiles of the study area are needed to investigate the rela-
tionship between Vs and SPT-N. These values were obtained directly from the seismic
studies on the Eskisehir ground made by Güney et al. (2013) (Fig. 4).

Table 1 A summary of laboratory Study Type Number

and field studies
Boreholes 42
Total Borehole Length (m) 1320
SPT 792
Classification Tests 587

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Fig. 4 Boreholes and seismic reflection-refraction survey location (Güney et al. 2013)

Table 2 Local soil classes according to TEC 2018

LOCAL SOIL TYPE Average in the top
SOIL 30 m
CLASSES
ZA Sound, hard rocks Vs(30) > 1500 (N60)(30 (blow (Cu)30
count/30 cm) [kPa]
ZB Slightly weathered, medium sound rocks 760 < Vs(30) < 1500 - -
ZC Very dense sand, gravel and hard clay layers or dissociated, very - -
cracked weak rocks
360 < Vs(30) < 760
ZD Medium dense – dense sand, gravel or very solid clay layers > 50 > 250
180 < Vs(30) < 360
ZE Loose sand, gravel or soft - solid clay layers or profiles with a soft 15–50 70–
clay layer (cu < 25 kPa) thicker than 3 m, providing PI > 20 and 250
w > 40% conditions Vs(30) < 180
ZF* 1. Soils under the risk of failure and excessive settlement (liquefi- < 15 < 70
able soils, highly sensitive clays, poor cemented soils etc.)
2. The total thickness is more than 3 meters’ peat and / or high
organic clays,
3. Clays with high plasticity (PI > 50) having a total thickness of
more than 8 m,
4. Very thick (> 35 m) soft or medium solid clays.

In the scope of site classification, international building codes such as the Turkish
Earthquake Code (TEC 2018), classifies sites based on Vs of the upper 30 m of the soil
profile (Vs30). According to TEC (2018), the local soil class is presented in Table 2. TEC
(2018) defines 6 different soil groups by taking into account the soil properties and the
shear wave velocity. In our past study, according to TEC 2018 mapping of site classifi-
cation for the study area was created (Civelekler et al. 2021). According to this map, the
soil characteristics of the study area mostly consist of ZD, ZE and ZF groups (Fig. 5).
Also, a groundwater level map of the study area was made taking into account the studied
geotechnical ground data that varies between 1.5 and 14 m and Fig. 6 shows the deviation.

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Fig. 5 Site classification of the study area (Civelekler et al. 2021)

Fig. 6 Groundwater level map of the investigated area

3 Vs and SPT-N correlation

3.1 Relation between standard penetration blow count, total stress, effective stress
and shear wave velocity

In this part, different parameters were statistically studied in order to get a good
correlation.

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3.1.1 Empirical correlations between Vs–SPT-N

SPT is an on-site test that is widely used to determine the geotechnical properties of the soil.
This test is a low-cost technique for determining geotechnical site characterization of mostly
near-surface sediments, and SPT data is easily accessible. Vs can be directly measured by
various methods such as crosshole seismic, seismic cone penetration test and seismic refrac-
tion microtremor analysis. However, these methods require certain costs. Therefore, shear
wave velocity correlations with standard penetration test (SPT) data are needed.
The correlation between Vs (shear wave velocity) and SPT-N (standard penetration test
blow count) is important for a few reasons: (i) Shear wave velocity (Vs) is directly related to
the stiffness and strength of soil or rock materials. By establishing a correlation between Vs
and SPT-N, engineers can estimate this parameters at a site based on SPT-N data (ii) SPT-N
data is used to characterize soil profiles. A possible correlation will help understanding the
subsurface conditions and make informed decisions regarding foundation design, slope sta-
bility analysis, and other geotechnical considerations. (iii) Seismic design parameters are
dependent on Vs therefore a correlation is crucial and needed when Vs measurements may
not be available. Having a correlation allows engineers to leverage readily available SPT-N
data to estimate important geotechnical parameters, facilitating more informed and efficient
engineering decisions.
Correlations have been found between the shear wave velocity which is a dynamic prop-
erty of the ground and some soil properties. In terms of geotechnical engineering, correla-
tions between the value of Vs and SPT-N are the most widely used. Some researchers have
determined the relationship between Vs and SPT-N for all soil classes. Other researchers
have divided the datasets of Vs measurements into soil classes (grouping similar character-
istics) and developed statistical distributions of Vs,30 (mean and standard deviation).
This study was carried out for geological Alluvial soil located in Eskisehir city center.
All boreholes and seismic lines are located on Alluvial soil. This Alluvium is of Quaternary
age. In this study, Alluvium have divided into as fine and coarse-grained according to soil
characteristics and the statistical distribution of the mean and standard deviation of Vs30 for
both normal and lognormal distributions in both categories have defined. In the scope of
the study, the empirical relationships proposed in the literature for all soils, clay and sandy
soils from SPT-N based Vs correlations according to different researchers were evaluated.
Although the SPT-N blow count is commonly taken into account in these relationships, it
has been proposed to use the energy-corrected SPT-N pulse number (N60) for some rela-
tionships. Table 3 summarizes the empirical connections between SPT-N blow count and
Vs used in this investigation. A general property of these empirical correlations does not
affected by effective stress or depth.
Regression analysis is often used in geotechnical research to determine relationships
between datasets. However, the first consideration in the regression analysis is whether the
data are interrelated and comparable (Akkaya et al. 2019). SPT test results for 42 different
drilling wells and 22 different seismic velocity data were used in this investigation. Approxi-
mately 1000 regression analyses were performed in this study. Vs was the dependent vari-
able and the independent variables were SPT-N, SPT N60, and SPT(N1)60. These analyses
used SPT-N and Vs data from depths of 1.5 m to 30 m.
Vs is shear wave velocity in m/s; D is depth of soils in m, N60 is blows of SPT subjected
to SPT energy ratio of 60%.

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Table 3 Some empirical correlations between SPT-N and Vs used in this study

SPT-N values are an important parameter that can vary depending on the soil character-
istics, and it is more accurate to interpret the relationship for the same soil types. Therefore,
the results of regression analyses between data sets divided into 4 different soil groups are
presented according to the dominant characteristics of soils and showed in Fig. 7. As seen
from the figure, number of the soil types are varied and clayey soils are principal soil type in
the region whereas gravelly soils are not seen that much. Although the data is a bit low to get
meaningful correlation, the regressions developed between SPT-N and Vs, has the highest
R2 for gravelly soils. The proposed equation for clayey soils comes as the second best for

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Fig. 7 Statistical results of the regression analysis between SPT-N and Vs

estimating Vs from SPT-N. R2s were obtained as 0.8 and 0.71, respectively. The figure also
shows that, existence of silt content affects the behavior and the correlations happened to
be in the lower side with R2s of 0.42 and 0.52. (According to the Unified Soil Classification
system, the soils are classified as follows: (CH: High Plasticity Clay, CL: Low Plasticity
Clay, MH: High Plasticity Silt, ML: Low Plasticity Silt, SC: Clayey Sand, SM: Silty Sand,
SP-SM: Poor Graded Silty Sand, SW-SM: Well Graded Silty Sand, GP-GM: Poor Graded
Silty Gravel, GW-GM: Well Graded Silty Gravel, GC-GM: Well Graded Clayey Gravel).
It is customary to assess the relation between the corrected SPT-N and Vs as well. There-
fore, the relationship between Vs and energy corrected SPT-N (N60) was examined. Figure 8
depicts the variation of the data for different soil types. When compared to earlier correla-
tions, equations based on uncorrected SPT-N values fit marginally better than equations
based on energy-corrected SPT-N (N60).
N1,60 is another corrected SPT-N value of 60% of the theoretical free fall energy and
100 kPa of the effective vertical pressure. CN can be calculated depending on the overburden
pressure (Eq. 1).

N1,60 = CN • N60  (1)

At the same time, the equations estimating Vs from N1,60 were constructed in the study.
Regression analyses were performed for each soil types and the graphs showing the N1,60 -

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Fig. 8 Statistical results of the regression analysis between SPT-(N60) and Vs

Vs relations are presented in Fig. 9. According to the regression equations, no good fit was
observed. This concluded the path for further work as to investigate only SPT-N values to
construct any good relations estimating the Vs rather than corrected SPT values.

3.1.2 Relation between Vs–Total stress

It is a general case that deeper soils have higher shear wave velocities. Therefore, the rela-
tionship between total stress and Vs was also evaluated additionally. The highest correlation
coefficient is observed on clayey and silty soils (0.89 and 0.91) as presented in Fig. 10. On
the other hand, the data are very scattered on sandy soils. This is due to the fact that silt on
sandy soils affects the entire behavior. However, it is still associated with a number of 0.55
for the total stress and shear wave velocity relation.

3.1.3 Relation between Vs–Effective Stress

The effective stress is also an important parameter in estimating the shear wave velocity
of the soil. Rollins et al. (1998) determined that the effective stress in the estimation of the
shear wave velocity improves the results when included in the regression equation. Since

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Fig. 9 Statistical results of the regression analysis between SPT-(N1,60) and Vs

the water table of the studied area is well defined, the correspondence of effective stress and
shear wave velocity was also investigated by performing regression analyses. The outcome
is presented in Fig. 11. Compared to regression between Vs and total stress, the overburden
pressure did not come out as a better estimator with lower coefficient of determination as the
highest was observed as 0.78). That directed the investigation towards to SPT-N and total
stress for estimating the shear wave velocity at a certain depth.

3.2 3D and multi-varied regression analyses

Both 3D and multivariate regression analysis are powerful tools for understanding complex
relationships between variables and making predictions based on varied factors. They are
used in different disciplines to analyze data and draw meaningful conclusions about the
processes underlying the subjects being studied. Multi-variate regression analysis extends
the concept of simple linear regression to multiple dependent variables. Moreover, instead
of traditionally modeling the relationship between two variables, the relationship between
three variables is modeled In 3D regression analysis. This involves fitting a regression sur-
face in a three-dimensional space.

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Fig. 10 Statistical results of the regression analysis between Total Stress and Vs

In this study, 3D regression and many multi-varied regression analyses were performed
according to the soil types. Therefore, the results are presented separately as follows.

3.2.1 Gravelly soils

Regarding the gravelly soils, 3D regression analyses were performed between 3 variables
(Vs, N, σv). The results of 3D regressions are presented in Fig. 12. Relationship between
Vs (m/s), SPT-N and total stress for gravelly soils are given in following equation (Eq. 2)
with correlation coefficient R2 = 0.83. In order to work with dimensionless parameters, total
stress is normalized by the atmospheric pressure (Pa). From now on, normalized total stress
is used as an estimator.
Multi-varied regression analysis was also obtained for gravelly soils and it is shown in
Fig. 13. As observed in the figure, multivariate of SPT-N and normalized total stress also
revealed a good regression with an R2 of 0.77.

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Fig. 11 Statistical results of the regression analysis between Effective Stress and Vs

3.2.2 Sandy soils

The regression analyses’ results for sandy soils, are shown in Fig. 14. Relationship between
Vs (m/s) and SPT-N for sandy soils are defined with correlation coefficient R2 = 0.57. The
main reason for a low correlation coefficient is the dominancy of silt and clay. But, still 0.57
is the best value observed for sandy soils compared to all regressions.
Regarding the multivariate regression, the estimations did not improve that much. It
should be noted that natural logarithm of SPT-N worked better compared to other options
with a correlation coefficient of 0.55 as presented in Fig. 15.

3.2.3 Clayey soils

The variation of the data for clayey soils is presented below. As seen in Fig. 16, even low
and high plasticity clayey soils could be evaluated separately; however, they were consid-
ered together for the sake of the brevity. Results of these regressions shows that both SPT-N
and normalized total stress complete each other to predict shear wave velocity with a high
R2 of 0.9. Similar results were also observed for the multivariate analysis for clayey soils
(R2 = 0.9) (Fig. 17).

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Fig. 12 Statistical results of the 3D regression analysis for gravelly soils

Fig. 13 Correlation between Vs and uncorrected N for gravelly soils

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Fig. 14 Statistical results of the 3D regression analysis for sandy soils

3.2.4 Silty soils

Both 3D and multivariate regression analyses proves that SPT-N along with normalized
total stress did a good job to estimate Vs as much as it did for clayey soils as seen in Figs. 18
and 19 with a pretty R2s (0.89 and 0.87, respectively).

4 Results and discussion

The local site conditions are important since the soil behavior and seismic design solely
are related to the shear wave velocity. However, the results show that possible correlations
between the shear wave velocity and penetration numbers differ by the soil type having
different R2’s. Furthermore, the stress condition is a good estimator on the correlation that
is a very novel outcome of the study. It is hard to find a single soil type throughout a soil
profile therefore estimating shear wave velocity for different soils and depths are important
to estimate Vs,30 in order to predict the seismic design parameter.
The purpose of the study is to estimate the shear wave velocity of soil at a specific depth
with penetration numbers along soil characteristics. Many regression analyses were con-
ducted regarding to index parameters along with the stress condition and both raw and cor-

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Fig. 15 Correlation between Vs and uncorrected N for sandy soils

Fig. 16 Statistical results of the 3D regression analysis for clayey soils

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Fig. 17 Correlation between Vs

and uncorrected N for clayey soils

Fig. 18 Statistical results of the

3D regression analysis for silty
soils

rected SPT numbers. The best outcomes presented above and the others were not discussed
here for conciseness. The soil types were taken into consideration during the regressions and
observations were discussed with the soil type. The results show that the normalized total
stress term is a good estimator along with the raw SPT-N values and improve the correla-
tions compared to the ones with conducted SPT-N solely. The numbers also tell us that these
two parameters are significantly good estimators for all types of soils except sandy soils due
to the dominance of non-plastic silts. The highest correlations were noted for clayey soils
with a R2 of 0.9 and the lowest R2 is was calculated as 0.55 for sandy soil.
Table 4 summarizes the best correlations found in this study along with the correlation
coefficients.

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Fig. 19 Correlation between Vs and uncorrected N for silty soils

Table 4 The results of regression analyses

Soil Type 3 D Regression Multivariate Regression
R2 The Correlation Equation R2 The Correlation Equation
Gravelly 0.83 Vs =43.137 + 375×N + 37.205×(σv’/Pa) 0.77 Vs =318.485 + 1.373×(N + 37.20
5×(σv/Pa)
Sandy 0.57 Vs =155.514 + 2.887×N + 62.029×(σv/ 0.55 Vs =227.485 + 20.504×(ln(N)×(σv/
Pa) Pa)
Clayey 0.90 Vs =23.332 + 4.829×N + 74.103×(σv/Pa) 0.90 Vs =169.2683 + 1.923×(N) ×(σv/
Pa)
Silty 0.89 Vs =82.810 + 0.198×N + 95.647×(σv/Pa) 0.86 Vs =123.71 + 23.690×(ln(N) ×(σv/
Pa)

5 Conclusion

Shear wave velocity is one of the parameters that affect soil behavior and seismic design.
The traditional field test, the standard penetration test, is widely used to estimate this param-
eter. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of soil type and stress state in addition
to the number of penetrations on shear wave velocity estimation and the following results
were obtained.

1) The results obtained in this study show that the penetration number is still a very impor-
tant source for shear wave estimation.
2) In order to develop better models, soil conditions were considered and different R2
values were obtained for different soil classes. This shows that the predictive capacity
varies depending on the soil class.

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Natural Hazards

3) Traditional methods often estimate the average shear wave velocity of a 30 m layer, but
since the stratification is very different in nature, a single estimate for 30 m would not
be accurate. Within the scope of this study, the stress state at different depths was inves-
tigated and it was found that the total stress also has an effect on shear wave velocity
estimation and better results are obtained by normalizing this value with atmospheric
pressure and adding it to the correlations.
4) Naturally, correlations should be tested for different soils to validate the proposed mod-
els. For this purpose, within the scope of ongoing projects, new measurements will be
taken, the models will be tested and the number of data will be increased and the models
may perhaps be built.

Acknowledgements This research was supported by the Anadolu University Research Fund under Project
Numbers 080240.

Author contributions Ebru Civelekler and Kamil Bekir Afacan wrote the main manuscript text. Ebru Civele-
kler has done regression analyses by creating conceptualization and methodology. Kamil Bekir Afacan has
contributed to the development of regression analyses and empirical correlations. All authors reviewed the
manuscript.

Funding Open access funding provided by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye
(TÜBİTAK).

Data availability All of the data used in this study obtained by Anadolu University Research Fund under
Project Numbers 080240.

Declarations

Ethical approval We confirm that the present manuscript is in compliance with the Ethical standards of the journal.

Conflict of interest The authors declare no competing interests.

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copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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