Abstract: The shear wave velocity in soils was the main parameter generally used in soil mechanics researches and geotechnical engineering practices.A side-to-side type of source and receiver arrangement for bender element tests was proposed based on its plane directivity,and a new bender element system capable of measuring shear wave velocity on soil surfaces both in the laboratory and in the field was developed.It was shown by preliminary tests performed on sand model that,the travel distance of the proposed arrangement was taken as the distance between the inner edges of the elements,and the travel time of shear waves could be readily determined by the time domain first arrival method.The bender element tests with the side-to-side arrangement gave reliable measurement compared with that of the conventional tip-to-tip type,which offered a nondestructive tool for important themes such as assessment of soil disturbance and quality check of soil improvement.