How to adapt numerical simulation of wave propagation and ultrasonic laboratory experiments to be comparable — A case study for a complex topographic model

Abstract

How to adapt numerical simulation of wave propagation and ultrasonic laboratory experiments to be comparable? A case study for a complex topographic model Running head: Comparison of synthetic and lab data

Real-Time Immersion of Physical Experiments in Virtual Wave-Physics Domains

“…[3][4][5]). The role of physical laboratories is therefore mainly to explore novel or less well-understood physics or to investigate wave propagation in highly complex media that cannot easily be simulated [6][7][8][9][10]. However, such laboratories often suffer from unwanted back-scattering of waves from the physical boundary of the laboratory, which can mask waveforms of interest and hamper their interpretation [1].…”

Seismic surveying and imaging at the laboratory scale: A framework to cross-validate experiments and simulations for a salt-body environment

“…In this context, after having experienced a drop in laboratory experimentation related papers for two decades, laboratory experiments are now re-considered as a tool to understand real field data and purely numerical datasets as well, to facilitate the testing of new ideas (Becker et al, 2018), to investigate the physics underlying wave propagation that is not sufficiently understood (Cooper et al, 2010, Stewart et al, 2012, Ekanem et al, 2013, Xu et al, 2016, Chang et al, 2017, as well as to test numerical algorithms used for data processing and imaging (Campman et al, 2005, Chai et al, 2015. Recently, small-scale modeling approaches have been developed as tools to test numerical modeling and seismic-imaging methods in the context of onshore and offshore seismics (Bretaudeau et al, 2011, 2013, Favretto-Cristini et al, 2014, Tantsereva et al, 2014a,b, Solymosi et al, 2018. In particular, Tantsereva et al (2014a) have evaluated the ability of a 3D discretized Kirchhoff integral method (DKIM) to accurately simulate complex diffractions using a zero-offset laboratory data set, measured for a reduced-scale model with strong topography and immersed in a water tank.…”

“…Nonetheless, scaling experiments in certain geological environments are still challenging. Indeed, as the real-life dimensions are often scaled down to the laboratory scale by a factor of 10 000 -20 000 (Bretaudeau et al, 2011, Solymosi et al, 2018, it may be technically difficult to reproduce at a reduced scale some of the heterogeneities found in real geological environments. As a consequence, it is not straightforward to study, for instance, the impact of the non-linear behavior of materials due to micro-damage or cracks on wave propagation.…”

“…But for more complex configurations, for instance, setups with strongly curved interfaces generating wave focusing/defocusing, or setups prone to multiple diffractions, a further investigation is necessary. Therefore, the framework must be adapted accordingly, preferentially by following a crossvalidation approach between numerical tools and the laboratory setup (Pageot et al, 2017, Solymosi et al, 2018. Indeed, the comparison between the experimental and numerical results usually emphasizes the improvements of the experimental setup that must be made to increase the accuracy (and decrease the uncertainties) of the experiments, and at the same time, it points out the limitations of the numerical tools that must be tackled.…”

“…Far from being exhaustive, this list may, however, be a useful starting point for similar studies combining laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. For the sake of illustration we rely on a much more complex case study that is also much more realistic from a geological viewpoint than the configurations considered in our previous works (Tantsereva et al, 2014a, Solymosi et al, 2018 or configurations considered in other works (e.g. Cooper et al, 2010, Stewart et al, 2012, Chang et al, 2017, Pageot et al, 2017, namely a complex-shaped salt body buried in sedimentary layers with curved surfaces.…”