Remote charaterization of geological and geotechnical materials and structures

描述岩土和地质结构的主要困难之一是不确定结构的尺寸、形状和材料特性。这种不确定性是由于使用钻孔、浅开挖等对结构进行有限的地下取样造成的。由于经济和实用的原因，其是稀疏的，并且不能与结构的每个区域相交。这种不确定性也影响了这些结构的工程设计，例如地基、矿井开口/隧道、油气钻探规划和储层设计。本提案中描述的研究是一项广泛研究计划的核心组成部分，该计划调查地球物理成像技术，以协助远程成像和评估地下采样位置或钻孔交叉点之间的地质结构和原位条件。正在进行的研究任务的目标是：i）使用表面瑞利波对近地表地质结构进行成像，用于岩土工程地下调查（SSI），并定位和绘制浅层异常，如废弃的矿井开口，ii）开发用于岩土工程离心建模的实验室成像方法，iii）对与提高石油采收率（EOR）操作相关的储层孔隙流体位移进行成像，iv）通过分析由钻头产生的地震波来实时监测钻井性能，以及v）对块状硫化物矿体成像以用于矿物勘探。研究任务的组成部分，如基本的实验建模，实验数据库的开发有关地球物理属性在原位条件下，数值和缩放模型，实验和现场测量，现场或原位测量。

One of the major difficulties with characterizing geotechnical and geological structures is the uncertainty of knowing the size, shape and material characteristics of the structure. This uncertainty results from the limited subsurface sampling of the structures using boreholes, shallow excavations, etc... which is sparse for economic and practical reasons and cannot intersect every region of the structure. This uncertainty also impacts on engineering designs for these structures such as foundations, mine openings/tunnels, hydrocarbon drill planning and reservoir design. The research described in this proposal is the core component of a broad research program investigating geophysical imaging technology to assist with remotely imaging and evaluating geological structures and in situ conditions in between subsurface sampling locations or drill intersections. Ongoing research tasks are targeted at i) imaging near surface geological structures using surface Rayleigh waves for geotechnical subsurface investigations (SSIs) and locating and mapping shallow anomalies such as abandoned mine openings, ii) developing laboratory imaging methods for geotechnical centrifuge modeling, iii) imaging reservoir pore fluid displacement associated with Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) operations, iv) real-time monitoring of drilling performance from analysis of seismic waves generated by the drill bit, and v) imaging massive sulfide mineral bodies for mineral exploration. The research tasks have components such as fundamental experimental modeling, development of experimental databases relating geophysical attributes to in situ conditions, numerical and scaling models to relate experimental and field measurements, and field or in situ measurements.