S U M M A R YWe present a new numerical scheme for 2.5-D/3-D direct current resistivity modelling in heterogeneous, anisotropic media. This method, named the 'Gaussian quadrature grid' (GQG) method, cooperatively combines the solution of the Variational Principle of the partial differential equation, Gaussian quadrature abscissae and local cardinal functions so that it has the main advantages of the spectral element method. The formulation shows that the GQG method is a modification of the spectral element method but does not employ the constant elements or require the mesh generator to match the Earth's surface. This makes it much easier to deal with geological models having a 2-D/3-D complex topography than using traditional numerical methods. The GQG technique can achieve a similar convergence rate to the spectral element method. We show it transforms the 2.5-D/3-D resistivity modelling problem into a sparse and symmetric linear equation system that can be solved by an iterative or matrix inversion method.Comparison with analytic solutions for homogeneous isotropic and anisotropic models shows that the error depends on the Gaussian quadrature order (abscissa number) and the subdomain size. The higher the order or the smaller the subdomain size that is employed, the more accurate are the results obtained. Several other synthetic examples, both homogeneous and inhomogeneous, incorporating sloping, undulating and severe topography, are presented and found to yield results comparable to finite element solutions involving a dense mesh.
We have developed explicit expressions for the Fréchet derivatives or sensitivity functions in resistivity imaging of a heterogeneous and fully anisotropic earth. The formulation involves the Green’s functions and their gradients, and it is developed from a formal perturbation analysis and by means of a numerical (finite-element) method. A critical factor in the equations is the derivative of the electrical conductivity tensor with respect to the principal conductivity values and the angles defining the axes of symmetry. The Fréchet derivative expressions were derived for the 2.5D and 3D problems using constant-point and constant-block model parameterizations. Special cases such as an isotropic earth and tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media emerge from the general solutions. Numerical examples were investigated for various sensitivities as functions of dip angle and strike of the plane of stratification in uniform TTI media.
In this paper we develop analytic solutions for the electric potential, current density and Fréchet derivatives at any interior point within a 3-D transversely isotropic medium having a tilted axis of symmetry. The current electrode is assumed to be on the surface of the Earth and the plane of stratification given arbitrary strike and dip. Profiles can be computed for any azimuth. The equipotentials exhibit an elliptical pattern and are not orthogonal to the current density vectors, which are strongly angle dependent. Current density reaches its maximum value in a direction parallel to the longitudinal conductivity direction. Illustrative examples of the Fréchet derivatives are given for the 2.5-D problem, in which the profile is taken perpendicular to strike. All three derivatives of the Green's function with respect to longitudinal conductivity, transverse resistivity and dip angle of the symmetry axis (dG/dr l , dG/dr t , dG/dh 0 ) show a strongly asymmetric pattern compared to the isotropic case. The patterns are aligned in the direction of the tilt angle. Such sensitivity patterns are useful in real-time experimental design as well as in the fast inversion of resistivity data collected over an anisotropic earth.
Many rocks and layered/fractured sequences have a clearly expressed electrical anisotropy although it is rare in practice to incorporate anisotropy into resistivity inversion. In this contribution, we present a series of 2.5-D synthetic inversion experiments for various electrode configurations and 2-D anisotropic models. We examine and compare the image reconstructions obtained using the correct anisotropic inversion code with those obtained using the false but widely used isotropic assumption. Superior reconstruction in terms of reduced data misfit, true anomaly shape and position, and anisotropic background parameters were obtained when the correct anisotropic assumption was employed for medium to high coefficients of anisotropy. However, for low coefficient values the isotropic assumption produced better-quality results. When an erroneous isotropic inversion is performed on medium to high level anisotropic data, the images are dominated by patterns of banded artefacts and high data misfits. Various polepole, pole-dipole and dipole-dipole data sets were investigated and evaluated for the accuracy of the inversion result. The eigenvalue spectra of the pseudo-Hessian matrix and the formal resolution matrix were also computed to determine the information content and goodness of the results. We also present a data selection strategy based on high sensitivity measurements which drastically reduces the number of data to be inverted but still produces comparable results to that of the comprehensive data set. Inversion was carried out using transversely isotropic model parameters described in two different co-ordinate frames for the conductivity tensor, namely Cartesian versus natural or eigenframe. The Cartesian frame provided a more stable inversion product. This can be simply explained from inspection of the eigenspectra of the pseudo-Hessian matrix for the two model descriptions.
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