Rights statement: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Perri, M.T., Barone, I., Cassiani, G., Deiana, R. and Binley, A. (2020), Borehole effect causing artefacts in cross‐borehole electrical resistivity tomography: A hydraulic fracturing case study. Near Surface Geophysics, 18: 445-462. doi:10.1002/nsg.12111 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/nsg.12111 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Borehole effect causing artefacts in cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography
T2 - A hydraulic fracturing case study
AU - Perri, M.T.
AU - Barone, I.
AU - Cassiani, G.
AU - Deiana, R.
AU - Binley, Andrew
N1 - This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Perri, M.T., Barone, I., Cassiani, G., Deiana, R. and Binley, A. (2020), Borehole effect causing artefacts in cross‐borehole electrical resistivity tomography: A hydraulic fracturing case study. Near Surface Geophysics, 18: 445-462. doi:10.1002/nsg.12111 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/nsg.12111 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
PY - 2020/8/1
Y1 - 2020/8/1
N2 - Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is a technique widely used for the investigation of the structure and fluid-dynamics of the shallow subsurface, particularly for hydro-geophysical purposes, sometimes using cross-borehole configurations. The results of ERT inversion and their usefulness in solving hydrogeophysical problems, even though invariably limited by resolution issues, depend strongly on the accuracy of inversion, which in turns depends on a proper estimation and handling of data and model errors. Among model errors, one approximation often applied in cross-hole ERT is that of neglecting the effects of boreholes and the fluids therein. Such effects inevitably impact the current and potential patterns as measured by electrodes in the boreholes themselves. In presence of very saline fluids, in particular, this model approximation may prove inadequate and the tomographic inversion may yield images strongly contaminated by artefacts. In this paper we present a case study where highly saline water was used for hydraulic fracturing to improve permeability of a shallow formation impacted by hydrocarbon contamination, with the final aim of improving the effectiveness of in situ contaminant oxidation. The hydraulic fracturing was monitored via time-lapse cross-hole ERT. Arrival of the saline water in the monitoring borehole likely caused a strong borehole effect that significantly affected the quality and usefulness of ERT inversions. In this paper we analyse the experimental dataset and produce, via 3D ERT forward modelling, a viable explanation for the observed, paradoxical field results.
AB - Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is a technique widely used for the investigation of the structure and fluid-dynamics of the shallow subsurface, particularly for hydro-geophysical purposes, sometimes using cross-borehole configurations. The results of ERT inversion and their usefulness in solving hydrogeophysical problems, even though invariably limited by resolution issues, depend strongly on the accuracy of inversion, which in turns depends on a proper estimation and handling of data and model errors. Among model errors, one approximation often applied in cross-hole ERT is that of neglecting the effects of boreholes and the fluids therein. Such effects inevitably impact the current and potential patterns as measured by electrodes in the boreholes themselves. In presence of very saline fluids, in particular, this model approximation may prove inadequate and the tomographic inversion may yield images strongly contaminated by artefacts. In this paper we present a case study where highly saline water was used for hydraulic fracturing to improve permeability of a shallow formation impacted by hydrocarbon contamination, with the final aim of improving the effectiveness of in situ contaminant oxidation. The hydraulic fracturing was monitored via time-lapse cross-hole ERT. Arrival of the saline water in the monitoring borehole likely caused a strong borehole effect that significantly affected the quality and usefulness of ERT inversions. In this paper we analyse the experimental dataset and produce, via 3D ERT forward modelling, a viable explanation for the observed, paradoxical field results.
KW - ERT
KW - electrical resistivity tomography
KW - cross-hole methods
KW - borehole 52 effect
KW - tracer test
U2 - 10.1002/nsg.12111
DO - 10.1002/nsg.12111
M3 - Journal article
VL - 18
SP - 445
EP - 462
JO - Near Surface Geophysics
JF - Near Surface Geophysics
SN - 1569-4445
IS - 4
ER -