Abstract：Raleigh wave exploration has been widely used in geotechnical investigation and geotechnical inspection in recent years. For the purpose of meeting the need of the exploration and achieving the best exploration result, we should make in-site test before the work, following the principle "from the known to the unknown", preliminarily understand stratigraphic and geophysical conditions of the surveyed area through the test, determine the distance between points, the distance between channels and the distance between deviations, the excitation ways and the instrument parameters and select the best observation window according to the aim and requirement of the exploration task in combination with the geological, topographic and physical conditions. Engineering examples on the application of transient Raleigh wave exploration are given, and it is shown that the Raleigh wave exploration method has great application potential for inspecting the shallow ground.
