A Flexible Interface for Tomographic Inversion of Real and Complex Resistivity Data in EIDORS

Abstract

The aim of this work is to present a Matlab interface called VEMI (Versatile interface for Electrical data Modelling and Inversion) included in the EIDORS package. The interface is able to invert 2D and 3D electrical data acquired in the time- or in the frequency-domain, both for cylindrical and prismatic geometries. Therefore it can be applied for inversion of both real and complex-valued resistivity tomography data. Application to laboratory and field data are discussed. The 3D laboratory example, consisting in a simulation of a shallow aquifer contaminated by a DNAPL, demonstrated the reliability of the interface to detect the DNAPL pathway within the physical model, through the analysis of the inverted phase model. The results of the 3D inversion of electrical resistivity tomography data acquired on a masonry building were compared with those obtained a common used commercial software. Although both software were able to detect the high-resistivity zone associated with the presence of the foundation wall, the resistivity values and the shape of the anomaly shown by the VEMI inverted model are more similar to those expected for this construction element.