VOL. 11, NO. 6, MARCH 2016 ISSN 1819-6608 ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences © 2006-2016 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved. www.arpnjournals.com 3759 SOIL INVESTIGATION USING MULTICHANNEL ANALYSIS OF SURFACE WAVE (MASW) AND BOREHOLE Aziman Madun 1,2 , Muhammad Ersyad Ahmad Supa’at 1 , Saiful Azhar Ahmad Tajudin 1,2 , Mohd Hazreek Zainalabidin 1,2 , Salina Sani 1,2 and Mohd Fairus Yusof 1,2 1 Department of Infrastructure and Geomatic, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia 2 Research Centre for Soft Soil, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia E-Mail: aziman@uthm.edu.my ABSTRACT Multichannel Analysis Surface Wave (MASW) measurement is one of geophysics exploration techniques to determine the soil profile based on velocity. Meanwhile borehole intrusive technique identifies the changes of soil layer based on SPT N value. Both techniques were applied at the University campus test site and Parit Jelutong as part of soil investigation. A 7 kg of sledge hammer was used as source, 24 units of 4.5 Hz geophones used as detectors (receivers) and Terraloc Mark 8 ABEM was used as a recorder. SeisImager software was used for seismic data processing. The MASW test configuration was 5 m geophones spacing and 5 m source offset distance at Parit Jelutong, and used 1 m geophones spacing and 2 m offset distance at the University campus test site. All the MASW test array was conducted near to the boreholes. The reliable seismic results at Parit Jelutong were from depth 0.5 m to 14 m and 3.7 m to 27 m the University campus test site, respectively. Comparison between MASW and borehole data indicates that a very soft clay shear wave velocity is below than 165 m/s, soft clay at 170 m/s to 195 m/s and firm layer at 194 m/s to 317 m/s. There was not available shear wave velocity result of hard material. In conclusion, the MASW technique is potential to adapt in soil investigation to compliment the intrusive technique, which is non-destructive, non-invasive nature and relative speed of assessment. Keywords: multichannel analysis of surface wave, site investigation, shear wave. INTRODUCTION In situ field testing enables larger volumes of soil to be tested and so tends to be more representative of the soil mass compared with laboratory testing. In situ field tests have an advantage as samples do not need to be retrieved. For very soft clays, sands and gravels, sampling is a major problem because these materials easily change their soil structure and, as a result, produce disturbed samples. Good correlations have been produced between field tests and laboratory tests, which has led to acceptance of field techniques (Charles and Watt, 2002). Of the range of in situ tests, penetration testing, dynamic probing, pressuremeter testing, field vane shear testing, plate loading testing and geophysical testing are used for site investigations. Cost and time constraint factors are the main reasons why it is not easy to investigate the subsurface completely. Hence, site investigation may only involve the laboratory testing of samples collected by site personnel or field testing for limited areas. This may lead to either an underestimate or overestimate of the strength of the existing subsurface. Therefore, to achieve greater certainty of the site investigation, a robust approach is needed to adopt. Geophysical methods can provide excellent resolution of spatial variability across a site. The main advantages with such an approach are their non- destructive, non-invasive nature and relative speed of assessment. If calibrated, details of stiffness with depth can be relatively easily obtained. The choice of which geophysics tests to use depends on the parameters to be examined. However, obtaining the soil stiffness profile is particularly important in the site investigation (Mitchell and Jardine, 2002). Amongst geophysical methods, the seismic method based results are empirically derived Geotechnical properties such as maximum shear modulus, bulk modulus (B), Young’s modulus (E), and Poisson’s ratio (Charles and Watts, 2002; Crice, 2005). The seismic-based techniques have proved particularly useful in determining the shear modulus profile from site investigation (Moxhay et al., 2001; Siti Zuraidah et al., 2015). There are two methods of obtaining seismic wave data that can potentially be used for site investigation (1) borehole methods and (2) surface methods (Menzies, 2001). The surface wave data collection uses the surface method, which is more versatile than other methods because it is not constrained by any ground models and considered more economical in terms of field operation (Matthews et al., 2000). The Multi-channel Surface Wave (MSW) method originated 50 years ago in Japan and was called the micro- tremor survey method (MSM). In the late 1990s, electronic equipment for the MSW was developed by the Kansas Geological Survey called multi-channel analysis of surface wave, MASW (Park et al., 1999). This technique has been developed and tested for applications in civil engineering, for example, for site characterisation (Long and Donohue, 2007) and for compaction control by measuring the decay of soil vibrations (Adam et al., 2007) and quality of stone column (Madun et al., 2012). The approach of the MSW offers considerable advantages over conventional surface wave analysis techniques that are