Cross-borehole Electrical Resistivity Tomography Research Articles

Mapping and monitoring dense non-aqueous phase liquid source zone by fused surface and cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography

Effective characterization of dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) source zones is crucial for remediating polluted sites. DNAPL often reside as residuals or pools within high-permeability lenses and above impermeable layers due to soil heterogeneity, gravity, and capillary barriers. Given the high cost of drilling, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) techniques—including surface ERT and cross-borehole ERT, are commonly used for DNAPL source zone mapping and monitoring. However, the low spatial resolution of ERT increases uncertainty in source zone investigations. This study proposes a method for improving DNAPL mapping and monitoring by fusing surface and cross-borehole ERT data. Sandbox experiments were conducted to simulate a heterogeneous DNAPL source zone, employing both ERT methods for static mapping and dynamic monitoring. Reflective light imaging (RLM) was used to visualize DNAPL migration and provide saturation data, allowing for the quantification of ERT's effectiveness in characterizing DNAPL distribution. The results indicate that individual ERT methods face significant challenges in DNAPL source zone mapping due to background interference. Surface ERT alone tends to underestimate the extent of deeper DNAPL source zones. However, fusing surface and cross-borehole ERT results in a complementary enhancement of vertical spatial resolution, thereby improving the characterization of DNAPL source zones. The fusion of static and time-lapse ERT data substantially enhances DNAPL source zone mapping and monitoring capabilities. By calculating the ratio of the ERT-monitored area to the actual area using resistivity change contours (5 %, 10 %, 15 %), it was found that fusing surface and cross-borehole ERT data improved monitoring resolution by 50.48 % compared to surface ERT alone and by 22.95 % compared to cross-borehole ERT. Principal component analysis (PCA) was effective in fusing time-lapse data, while the weighted average method (WAM) outperformed PCA for static resistivity data fusion.

Managing the remediation strategy of contaminated megasites using field-scale calibration of geo-electrical imaging with chemical monitoring

Groundwater contamination is a threat to drinking water resources and ecosystems. Remediation by injection of chemical reagents into the aquifer may be preferred to excavation to reduce cost and environmental footprint. Yet, successful remediation requires complete contact between contamination and reagents. Subsurface heterogeneities are often responsible for diffusion into low-permeable zones, which may inhibit this contact. Monitoring the spatial distribution of injected reagents over time is crucial to achieve complete interaction. Source zone contamination at megasites is particularly challenging to remediate and monitor due to the massive scale and mixture of contaminants. Source zone remediation at Kærgård Plantation megasite (Denmark) is monitored here, with a new methodology, using high-resolution cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography (XB-ERT) imaging calibrated by chemical analyses on groundwater samples. At this site, high levels of toxic non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPL) are targeted by in-situ chemical oxidation using activated persulfate. It may take numerous injection points with extensive injection campaigns to distribute reagents, which requires an understanding of how reagent may transport within the aquifer. A geophysical (XB-ERT) monitoring network of unprecedented size was installed to identify untreated zones and help manage the remediation strategy. The combination of spatially continuous geophysical information with discrete but precise chemical information, allowed detailed monitoring of sulfate distribution, produced during persulfate activation. Untreated zones identified in the first remediation campaign were resolved in the second campaign. The monitoring allowed adjusting the number of injection screens and the injection strategy from one campaign to the next, which resulted in better persulfate distribution and contaminant degradation in the second campaign. Furthermore, geophysical transects repeated over the timespan of a remediation campaign allowed high-resolution time-lapse imaging of reagent transport, which could in the future improve the predictability of transport models, compared to only using on a-priori assumptions of the hydraulic conductivity field.

Cross-Borehole ERT Monitoring System for CO2 Geological Storage: Laboratory Development and Validation

Cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography (CHERT) technology has been implemented in field-scale CCS/CCUS (carbon capture and storage/carbon capture, utilization and storage) projects. It is highly desirable to investigate how to optimize the design of the ERT electrode arrays and corresponding working schemes for both laboratory experiments and field applications. A CHERT system was developed for laboratory experiments of CO2 geological storage applications. An optimization method was established for optimizing the structure of electrode arrays and corresponding working schemes. The developed CHERT system was calibrated systematically to determine the measurement range and accuracy of electrical impedance. Laboratory experiments were designed and implemented to validate the performance of the developed CHERT system. It has been illustrated that: (1) It is an essential step to optimize the structure of electrode arrays and corresponding working schemes of CHERT according to the real application background. The optimization method based on finite-element modelling provides an effective means for designing a field-scale CHERT system. (2) The quality of the images inverted from the CHERT data is highly dependent on the working schemes and specific modes, which is closely related to the size of the data sets used for the inversion. The AM-BN scheme is recommended due to the better uniformity of the resultant sensitivity field and application to larger borehole spacing. (3) Based on the calibration, the measurement range of the developed CHERT system can be determined as 100 Ω to 4.5 kΩ with an error limit of 1.5%. The maximum relative errors of the impedance magnitude and phase angle are 5.0% and 7.0%, respectively. Based on the test results the location of the CO2-bearing objects can be identified accurately. The shapes of the tested objects present distortion to some extent, but this can be alleviated by selecting working modes with a larger size of data set.

Investigation of subsurface karst in an opencast mine in southwestern China via surface and cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography

Subsurface karst features are significantly developed in Guangxi Province, China. This area mainly contains fractured subsurface rock, abundant karst channels, and widely distributed underground fissure networks. Such adverse geological conditions could potentially create hydrogeological hazards such as collapses, water inrush, and mud inrush during infrastructure construction. The Hejing limestone mine is an opencast mine in Pingnan County, Guangxi, that produces cement. Mining activities have altered the seepage fields in this area, causing large amounts of groundwater to flood into the mining pit; this has caused many ground collapses while severely reducing limestone production. More than 24 km of surface electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) profiles have been previously recorded in the region to identify potential karst positions and explore groundwater inrush paths. In this study. we employed surface and cross-borehole ERT surveys to delineate specific groundwater inrush paths on the eastern side of the mine and characterise karst distribution in the study area. Resistivity imaging results revealed some low-resistivity anomaly distributions and provided reliable geological information about the distribution of subsurface karst for future grouting work.

Design and implementation of resistive grout for cross-borehole electrical imaging

Electrically resistive grout mixtures were evaluated for cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) applications, which are increasingly used for environmental investigations. Grout is typically used to fill the annular space between the electrodes and the surrounding formation and therefore plays a critical role in electrically connecting the electrodes to the surrounding formation. The ideal grout for cross-borehole ERT applications has a resistivity that is higher than the surrounding formation so that the injected current is channeled within the formation instead of along the wellbore. Bentonite and Portland cement are typically used as materials to fill the annulus in wellbore installations; however, the resistivity of these materials is too low for high-quality ERT imaging. In this study, we tested grout mixtures that combine Portland cement with additives to develop resistive grout options to optimize ERT imaging while maintaining acceptable construction properties. Additives were chosen based on known chemical reactions, verified using powdered X-ray diffraction on select samples, whereby pore water and dissolved ions would be reduced, resulting in an increased resistivity. Additives include pozzolans such a Class F fly ash and Hess pumice. Other additives include slag, aluminum sulfate, and gypsum. Grouts were tested in three groups by additive, with one grout from each group with the highest resistivity selected for an X-ray diffraction analysis and other physical characteristic testing (strength, viscosity, and set time). The resistivity of pozzolan grouts can be predicted using the calcium to silicate and aluminate ratio with resistivities ranging from 76 to 680 Ω-m in 90 days. Grouts using sulfate minerals increase in resistivity more quickly than grouts only using pozzolan additives and have a resistivity range from 970 to 1820 Ohm-m in 90 days. Grouts containing pumice had reduced strength and increased viscosity, but grout containing fly ash and slag maintained similar physical properties to neat Portland cement. This study provides quantitative results that can be used to aid in selection of grout formulations that have a high likelihood of success in terms of construction and ERT image quality.

Brief communication: Combining borehole temperature, borehole piezometer and cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography measurements to investigate seasonal changes in ice-rich mountain permafrost

Abstract. A novel combination of borehole temperature, borehole piezometer and cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data is used to investigate changing ice and/or water contents in the creeping ice-rich Schafberg rock glacier in the Eastern Swiss Alps. Instrumentation techniques and first results are presented. The rock glacier ice is close to its melting point, and the landform has locally heterogeneous stratigraphies, ice and/or water contents and temperature regimes. The measurement techniques presented continuously monitor temporal and spatial phase changes to a depth of 12 m and should provide the basis for a better understanding of accelerating rock glacier kinematics and future water availability.

Investigation on moisture migration of unsaturated clay using cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography technique

Cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is an effective groundwater detection tool in geophysical investigations. In this paper, an artificial water injection test was conducted on a small clay sample, where the high-resolution cross-borehole ERT was used to investigate the moisture migration law over time. The moisture migration path can be two-dimensionally imaged based on the relationship between resistivity and saturation. The hydraulic conductivity was estimated, and the magnitude ranged from 10-11 m/s to 10-9 m/s according to the comparison between the simulation flow and the saturation distribution inferred from ERT. The results indicate that cross-borehole ERT could help determine the resistivity distribution of small size clay samples. Finally, the cross-borehole ERT technique has been applied to investigate the self-sealing characteristics of clay.

Application of Cross-borehole Integrated Geophysical Methods for the Detailed Investigation of Karst in Urban Metro Construction

With the significant development of China's metro construction, the development of urban underground karst poses a serious threat to related tunnel construction and public safety, with frequent occurrences of mud and water inrushes during tunnel construction and urban ground subsidence events. Because of the complex, urban, and shallow geological conditions and construction environments, conventional geophysical methods cannot meet the requirements for high-precision detection of small-scale and inhomogeneous complex geological bodies. Based on numerical simulation, herein we comprehensively applied both cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and cross-borehole seismic computed tomography (CT) to urban underground karst surveys of the Hangzhou-Fuyang intercity railway. The results showed that: 1) under limited urban construction conditions, the use of advanced geophysical monitoring equipment greatly improved construction efficiency; 2) utilizing drilling geological results to calibrate the abnormal geophysical field attribute parameters (including wave velocity and resistivity) improved the accuracy of karst exploration and reduce defective geophysical multi-explanation effects; 3) applying the joint comparative explanation of both velocity and resistivity profiles can distinguish and explain karst and fracture development zones; 4) 550 pairs of velocity and resistivity profiles were obtained which revealed 258 karst cave anomalies and 5 fracture development zones which integrated detection accuracy exceeded the 1 m level. Thus, the high-precision joint cross-borehole tomography technology was shown to be useful for guiding intercity railway construction.

Basis-constrained Bayesian Markov-chain Monte Carlo difference inversion for geoelectrical monitoring of hydrogeologic processes

Bayesian Markov-chain Monte Carlo (McMC) techniques are increasingly being used in geophysical estimation of hydrogeologic processes due to their ability to produce multiple estimates that enable comprehensive assessment of uncertainty. Standard McMC sampling methods can, however, become computationally intractable for spatially distributed, high-dimensional problems. We have developed a novel basis-constrained Bayesian McMC difference inversion framework for time-lapse geophysical imaging. The strategy parameterizes the Bayesian inversion model space in terms of sparse, hydrologic-process-tuned bases, leading to dimensionality reduction while accounting for the physics of the target hydrologic process. We evaluate the algorithm on cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) field data acquired during a heat-tracer experiment. We validate the ERT-estimated temperatures with direct temperature measurements at two locations on the ERT plane. We also perform the inversions using the conventional smoothness-constrained inversion (SCI). Our approach estimates the heat plumes without excessive smoothing in contrast with the SCI thermograms. We capture most of the validation temperatures within the 90% confidence interval of the mean. Accounting for the physics of the target process allows the detection of small temperature changes that are undetectable by the SCI. Performing the inversion in the reduced-dimensional model space results in significant gains in computational cost.

Coupled hydrogeophysical inversion of DNAPL source zone architecture and permeability field in a 3D heterogeneous sandbox by assimilation time-lapse cross-borehole electrical resistivity data via ensemble Kalman filtering

Characterization of dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) distribution is important to facilitate the decision of remediation strategies. However, it is still a great challenge to characterize DNAPL source zone architecture with high resolution due to subsurface heterogeneity and relatively sparse data from traditional hydrogeological investigations. To overcome difficulties from such sparse data, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is introduced to locate DNAPL using time-lapse cross-borehole measurements. Due to the significant impact of geological heterogeneity on DNAPL source zone architecture, a data assimilation framework based on the coupled multiphase fluids-ERT model is developed to jointly invert DNAPL saturation and the permeability field using time-lapse ERT data. To validate the efficiency and performance of this framework, synthetic and laboratory experiments are both performed to monitor DNAPL migration and distribution in 3D heterogeneous sandbox with cross-borehole ERT. Result shows that time-lapse ERT and direct inversion can map the evolution of the DNAPL plume but loses details regarding the plume morphology due to the over-smoothing caused by geophysical inversion using an isotropic and homogeneous roughness-based regularization procedure. By contrast, the coupled inversion is successful to characterize both the permeability field and the evolution of the DNAPL plume with a higher resolution. This is because the coupled inversion is able to directly translate raw geophysical data into hydrologic meaningful information and therefore avoid artifacts caused by direct geophysical inversion.

Comparison of smoothness-constrained and geostatistically based cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography for characterization of solute tracer plumes

Experiments using electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) have shown promising results in reducing the uncertainty of solute plume characteristics related to estimates based on the analysis of local point measurements only. To explore the similarities and differences between two cross-borehole ERT inversion approaches for characterizing salt tracer plumes, namely the classical smoothness-constrained inversion and a geostatistically based approach, we performed two-dimensional synthetic experiments. Simplifying assumptions about the solute transport model and the electrical forward and inverse model allowed us to study the sensitivity of the ERT inversion approaches towards a variety of basic conditions, including the number of boreholes, measurement schemes, contrast between the plume and background electrical conductivity, use of a priori knowledge, and point conditioning. The results show that geostatistically based and smoothness-constrained inversions of electrical resistance data yield plume characteristics of similar quality, which can be further improved when point measurements are incorporated and advantageous measurement schemes are chosen. As expected, an increased number of boreholes included in the ERT measurement layout can highly improve the quality of inferred plume characteristics, while in this case the benefits of point conditioning and advantageous measurement schemes diminish. Both ERT inversion approaches are similarly sensitive to the noise level of the data and the contrast between the solute plume and background electrical conductivity, and robust with regard to biased input parameters, such as mean concentration, variance, and correlation length of the plume. Although sophisticated inversion schemes have recently become available, in which flow and transport as well as electrical forward models are coupled, these schemes effectively rely on a relatively simple geometrical parameterization of the hydrogeological model. Therefore, we believe that standard uncoupled ERT inverse approaches, like the ones discussed and assessed in this paper, will continue to be important to the imaging and characterization of solute plumes in many real-world applications.

A REVIEW OF APPLICATION ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE TOMOGRAPHY FOR ROOTED HERB TREE DETECTION

This paper presents the measurement strategy of Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) for a system using underground investigation and comparison with other application such as conducting vessel pipe and concrete. Measurement of electrical strategy commonly used are adjacent strategy, opposite strategy, diagonal strategy and bounding conducting. This paper also discussed in measurement strategy for underground such as the Wenner-alpha configuration, Pole-Dipole array, cross bore-hole ERT and pseudo-section. This paper focuses on the principle and advantages measurement strategy for underground investigation and for other system such as conducting vessel pipe. The soil resistivity testing was described for related with rooted tree detection in soil.

Geoelectrical monitoring of simulated subsurface leakage to support high-hazard nuclear decommissioning at the Sellafield Site, UK

A full-scale field experiment applying 4D (3D time-lapse) cross-borehole Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) to the monitoring of simulated subsurface leakage was undertaken at a legacy nuclear waste silo at the Sellafield Site, UK. The experiment constituted the first application of geoelectrical monitoring in support of decommissioning work at a UK nuclear licensed site. Images of resistivity changes occurring since a baseline date prior to the simulated leaks revealed likely preferential pathways of silo liquor simulant flow in the vadose zone and upper groundwater system. Geophysical evidence was found to be compatible with historic contamination detected in permeable facies in sediment cores retrieved from the ERT boreholes. Results indicate that laterally discontinuous till units forming localized hydraulic barriers substantially affect flow patterns and contaminant transport in the shallow subsurface at Sellafield. We conclude that only geophysical imaging of the kind presented here has the potential to provide the detailed spatial and temporal information at the (sub-)meter scale needed to reduce the uncertainty in models of subsurface processes at nuclear sites.

Imaging Pathways in Fractured Rock Using Three-Dimensional Electrical Resistivity Tomography.

Major challenges exist in delineating bedrock fracture zones because these cause abrupt changes in geological and hydrogeological properties over small distances. Borehole observations cannot sufficiently capture heterogeneity in these systems. Geophysical techniques offer the potential to image properties and processes in between boreholes. We used three-dimensional cross borehole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) in a 9 m (diameter) × 15 m well field to capture high-resolution flow and transport processes in a fractured mudstone contaminated by chlorinated solvents, primarily trichloroethylene. Conductive (sodium bromide) and resistive (deionized water) injections were monitored in seven boreholes. Electrode arrays with isolation packers and fluid sampling ports were designed to enable acquisition of ERT measurements during pulsed tracer injections. Fracture zone locations and hydraulic pathways inferred from hydraulic head drawdown data were compared with electrical conductivity distributions from ERT measurements. Static ERT imaging has limited resolution to decipher individual fractures; however, these images showed alternating conductive and resistive zones, consistent with alternating laminated and massive mudstone units at the site. Tracer evolution and migration was clearly revealed in time-lapse ERT images and supported by in situ borehole vertical apparent conductivity profiles collected during the pulsed tracer test. While water samples provided important local information at the extraction borehole, ERT delineated tracer migration over spatial scales capturing the primary hydrogeological heterogeneity controlling flow and transport. The fate of these tracer injections at this scale could not have been quantified using borehole logging and/or borehole sampling methods alone.

Challenges and opportunities for fractured rock imaging using 3D cross-borehole electrical resistivity

There is an increasing need to characterize discrete fractures away from boreholes to better define fracture distributions and monitor solute transport. We performed a 3D evaluation of static and time-lapse cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data sets from a limestone quarry in which flow and transport are controlled by a bedding-plane feature. Ten boreholes were discretized using an unstructured tetrahedral mesh, and 2D panel measurements were inverted for a 3D distribution of conductivity. We evaluated the benefits of 3D versus 2.5D inversion of ERT data in fractured rock while including the use of borehole regularization disconnects (BRDs) and borehole conductivity constraints. High-conductivity halos (inversion artifacts) surrounding boreholes were removed in static images when BRDs and borehole conductivity constraints were implemented. Furthermore, applying these constraints focused transient changes in conductivity resulting from solute transport on the bedding plane, providing a more physically reasonable model for conductivity changes associated with solute transport at this fractured rock site. Assuming bedding-plane continuity between fractures identified in borehole televiewer data, we discretized a planar region between six boreholes and applied a fracture regularization disconnect (FRD). Although the FRD appropriately focused conductivity changes on the bedding plane, the conductivity distribution within the discretized fracture was nonunique and dependent on the starting homogeneous model conductivity. Synthetic studies performed to better explain field observations showed that inaccurate electrode locations in boreholes resulted in low-conductivity halos surrounding borehole locations. These synthetic studies also showed that the recovery of the true conductivity within an FRD depended on the conductivity contrast between the host rock and fractures. Our findings revealed that the potential exists to improve imaging of fractured rock through 3D inversion and accurate modeling of boreholes. However, deregularization of localized features can result in significant electrical conductivity artifacts, especially when representing features with a high degree of spatial uncertainty.

Quantitative temperature monitoring of a heat tracing experiment using cross-borehole ERT

The growing demand for renewable energy leads to an increase in the development of geothermal energy projects and heat has become a common tracer in hydrology and hydrogeology. Designing geothermal systems requires a multidisciplinary approach including geological and hydrogeological aspects. In this context, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) can bring relevant, qualitative and quantitative information on the temperature distribution in operating shallow geothermal systems or during heat tracing experiments. We followed a heat tracing experiment in an alluvial aquifer using cross-borehole time-lapse ERT. Heated water was injected in a well while water of the aquifer was extracted at another well. An ERT section was set up across the main flow direction. The results of ERT were transformed into temperature using calibrated petrophysical relationships. These ERT-derived temperatures were then compared to direct temperature measurements in control piezometers collected with distributed temperature sensing (DTS) and groundwater temperature loggers. Spatially, it enabled to map the horizontal and vertical extent of the heated water plume, as well as the zones where maximum temperatures occurred. Quantitatively, the temperatures and breakthrough curves estimated from ERT were in good agreement with the ones observed directly during the rise and maximum of the curve. An overestimation, likely related to 3D effects, was observed for the tail of the heat breakthrough curve. The error made on temperature can be estimated to be between 10 and 20%, which is a fair value for indirect measurements. From our data, we estimated a quantification threshold for temperature variation of 1.2°C. These results suggest that ERT should be considered when designing heat tracing experiments or geothermal systems. It could help also to assess the geometrical complexity of the concerned reservoirs. It also appears that ERT could be a useful tool to monitor and control geothermal systems once they are in operation.

A saline tracer test monitored via both surface and cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography: Comparison of time-lapse results

In contrast to traditional field investigation techniques in hydrogeology, geophysical methods are relatively non-invasive, cost effective and can be performed with a higher spatial sampling. The most commonly applied technique in hydrogeophysics is electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), both from the ground surface and in cross-borehole configurations. To infer reliable results from such a hydrogeophysical application, however, the uncertainty related to the data inversion has to be taken into account and specific attention must be paid to the experimental set-up and design, especially when the main target of the study is a quantitative estimation of some relevant hydrological quantity. The sensitivity and resolving power of ERT depend on the type of acquisition methodology; operating from the ground surface only, for example, could lead to severe limitations in terms of resolution, thus limiting the quantitative utilisation from a hydrogeological perspective. In this work, we present the results of a saline tracer test experiment performed in the saturated zone at the water works facility at Valdobbiadene (Treviso, North-East Italy), where an alluvial phreatic aquifer is heavily exploited for irrigation and drinking water supply. The experiment was monitored by time-lapse ERT acquisitions, using both surface and cross-borehole configurations. We compared the results of the two approaches and conclude that, in general, ERT has excellent imaging capabilities for saline tracer tests, however, significant limitations are inherent in the use of surface electrode configurations only. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Monitoring hydraulic processes with automated time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ALERT)

Hydraulic processes in porous media can be monitored in a minimally invasive fashion by time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT). The permanent installation of specifically designed ERT instrumentation, telemetry and information technology (IT) infrastructure enables automation of data collection, transfer, processing, management and interpretation. Such an approach gives rise to a dramatic increase in temporal resolution, thus providing new insight into rapidly occurring subsurface processes. In this paper, we discuss a practical implementation of automated time-lapse ERT. We present the results of a recent study in which we used controlled hydraulic experiments in two test cells at reduced field scale to explore the limiting conditions for process monitoring with cross-borehole ERT measurements. The first experiment used three adjacent boreholes to monitor rapidly rising and falling water levels. For the second experiment, we injected a saline tracer into a homogeneous flow field in freshwater-saturated sand; the dynamics of the plume were then monitored with 2D measurements across a 9-borehole fence and 3D measurements across a 3 × 3 grid of boreholes. We investigated different strategies for practical data acquisition and show that simple re-ordering of ERT measurement schemes can help harmonise data collection with the nature of the monitored process. The methodology of automated time-lapse ERT was found to perform well in different monitoring scenarios (2D/3D plus time) at time scales associated with realistic subsurface processes. The limiting factor is the finite amount of time needed for the acquisition of sufficiently comprehensive datasets. We found that, given the complexity of our monitoring scenarios, typical frame rates of at least 1.5–3 images per hour were possible without compromising image quality.

Three-dimensional effects causing artifacts in two-dimensional, cross-borehole, electrical imaging

Summary Cross-borehole electrical resistance tomography (ERT) experiments utilize downhole electrodes, typically placed in a borehole filled with material of contrasting resistivity to the host rock. The circular geometry of the boreholes is three-dimensional, and inversion routines are typically two-dimensional. Because of the resistivity contrast, artifacts in the form of borehole inversion effects develop in the resistivity images. Other 3D effects resulting in inversion artifacts are shadow effects caused by use of a 2D code to invert data from a 3D body located outside the image plane. In both cases the inversion model misrepresents the spatial change in voltages as a corresponding spatial change in resistivity. Borehole inversion effects and shadow effects result as the forward solver attempts to resolve the discrepancy in the voltages for numerous electrode pairs into a meaningful resistivity distribution. Borehole inversion effects are shown to be related to the resistivity contrast between the borehole fill and the host medium, and to borehole diameter. Borehole inversion effects do not materialize with small diameter boreholes (e.g. ⩽0.1 m) when the fill resistivity contrast is one order of magnitude or less; however, a borehole fill resistivity contrast of two orders of magnitude causes artifacts in the form of sheaths near the boreholes, and a conductive artifact between the boreholes. Larger diameter borehole (e.g. 0.2 m) induce significant borehole inversion effects with as little as one order of magnitude fill resistivity contrast. The general resistivity patterns are similar for the borehole inversion effects. However, the artifacts are amplified as resistivity contrast and/or borehole diameter increase. These results are significant because borehole inversion effects may mask a target heterogeneity or an artifact may be confused for an anomaly resulting in improper actions for site characterizations or remediation strategies. Suggestions of best practices for experimental design to prevent or minimize borehole inversion effects include: minimizing borehole diameter, minimizing borehole fill resistivity contrast, measuring and inputting the resistivity of the borehole fill/water into the model, and inverting changes in resistivity for time-lapse ERT data. Shadow effects are shown to be related directly to the distance of the target heterogeneity out of the image plane. Our results show that shadow effects become insignificant when the target is between 3 and 5 m outside the 10-m wide image plane. Because the size of the target and resistivity contrast of the target to the host rock are site-specific variables, the actual distance at which shadow effects become insignificant will vary from site to site. To reduce misinterpretations by shadow effects reduce the dipole length of the four electrode measurements and supplement data from other well pairs and/or other methods.

Electrical resistivity imaging of conductive plume dilution in fractured rock

Electrical resistance tomography (ERT) was used to monitor a conductive plume dilution experiment that was conducted in fractured basalt in order to assess its applications in this type of fractured-rock environment. Tap water was injected into an injection well for 34 days to dilute a pre-existing potassium chloride (KCl) plume at a site in Idaho, USA. No further fluids were introduced artificially during a 62-day monitoring period. Both surface ERT and cross-borehole ERT were used to monitor dilution and displacement of the plume. A square grid of land-surface electrodes was used with the surface ERT. Three-dimensional images of surface ERT delineated areas of increased and decreased resistivities. Increasing resistivities are attributed to dilution/displacement of the KCl solution by tap-water invasion or the influx of seasonal recharge. Decreasing resistivities resulted from redistribution of residual KCl solution. Cross-borehole ERT was conducted between the injection well and each of seven surrounding monitoring wells. Polar plots of the injection-well resistivity data in the direction of each monitoring well delineate specific locations where tap water seeped from the injection well via preferential flow paths determined by time-dependent resistivity increases. Monitoring-well data indicate locations of clustered and isolated regions of resistivity changes.