Method

Method of Statement Electrical Resistivity

Tomography (ERT)

Application

Detection of Leakage through

Embankments

Location

Uch Power Plant, Pakistan

Geophysical Contractors

GEOVECTORS
 Table of Contents

1. Use of Electrical Resistivity Tomography ........................................................................ 3

2. Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ASTM D6431-99(2010) and BS: 5930:1999) ..... 6
2.1 Theory ............................................................................................................................... 6
2.2 Site Location and Profile layout ..................................................................................... 7
2.3 Field Acquisition and Parameters Setup ...................................................................... 7
Field Equipment ........................................................................................................................... 7
Creation of the sequence ........................................................................................................... 8
2.4 Field Survey including QC .............................................................................................. 9
2.5 Data reduction and QA/QC Procedure ....................................................................... 11
2.6 Processing and Inversion including QA and QC ...................................................... 13
2.7 Interpretation .................................................................................................................. 17
2.8 Correlation with other geophysical methods ............................................................. 19
2.9 Limitations ....................................................................................................................... 20

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 1. Use of Electrical Resistivity Tomography

Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is indeed used for detecting and monitoring various
geological and engineering phenomena, including surface collapse features. Here are a few
examples where ERT has been employed for this purpose:

1. Mining Areas:
o Application: ERT is used to detect potential subsurface voids or cavities that
can lead to surface collapse in mining regions.
o Example Scenario: In a coal mining area prone to subsidence, ERT surveys
can map the voids left behind after coal extraction. By identifying these voids,
mining companies can take preventive measures to avoid sudden collapses
that could endanger infrastructure or personnel.
2. Karstic Terrain:
o Application: Karst landscapes are characterized by soluble bedrock (e.g.,
limestone) prone to forming cavities and sinkholes.
o Example Scenario: ERT surveys are conducted to map the subsurface
structure and detect potential voids. For instance, in regions like Riyadh or
any similar areas with limestones where sinkholes are common, ERT helps
identify areas susceptible to collapse, allowing for targeted mitigation efforts
such as filling voids or reinforcing structures.
3. Urban Environments:
o Application: ERT can be used in urban settings to assess the stability of
underground infrastructure, such as tunnels and foundations.
o Example Scenario: In cities with historical mining activities or regions where
urban expansion encroaches on karst landscapes, ERT surveys provide critical
information about the integrity of underground structures. This helps city
planners and engineers make informed decisions regarding construction and
infrastructure maintenance to prevent surface collapses.
4. Infrastructure Monitoring:
o Application: ERT is utilized for monitoring the condition of dams, bridges,
and other critical infrastructure vulnerable to subsidence or sinkhole
formation.
o Example Scenario: In dam rehabilitation projects, ERT surveys are
conducted to detect potential weaknesses or cavities beneath the dam
foundation. This proactive approach helps in identifying areas at risk of
collapse and implementing necessary reinforcement measures to ensure long-
term stability.

Example Section:

An example ERT section typically shows a vertical profile of resistivity values plotted
against depth or distance. Here’s how an ERT section might look in a scenario involving
surface collapse detection:

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 • Depth/Distance Axis: Represents the vertical depth or horizontal distance along the
survey line.
• Resistivity Axis: Shows the electrical resistivity values obtained from the ERT
measurements.
• Interpretation: Anomalies in resistivity values are interpreted to indicate potential
subsurface features such as voids or areas of contrasting geological materials (e.g.,
from limestone to clay which may provide slip surface).
• Key Features: Highlighted anomalies or changes in resistivity that correspond to
zones susceptible to surface collapse.
• What a typical slip surface is: A typical slip surface is a low resistivity surface
where the rocks are highly to completely weathered and soil cohesion is lost – the
phenomena is triggered mainly by abrupt variation in the surface hydrology where the
proper surface run-off is not established and the water acts an agent for soil erosion
and flow.

Example 1:

Below is an example which shows the activity of the groundwater which resulted in the
saturation of the shaly sediments – with increase in the water content the subsurface became
less cohesive resulting in the collapse of the weak zone near TP2 – note the thick high
resistivity strata which is now fallen into deeper levels.

Figure 1: An example of mapping the zone responsible for the creation for the slip surface - this zone must be blocked-off
for additional water intakes, and the soil improvements should be made before any further development of the site.

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Figure 2: Another example of a massive weak zones which required ground improvement to avoid a collapse - note the
large size of the saturated body which could easily turn into a large size sinkhole with slight increase in the water content.

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 2. Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ASTM D6431-99(2010) and
BS: 5930:1999)

2.1 Theory
Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) has proven to be an effective geotechnical and
environmental engineering tool. It is widely applied in determining the depth to bedrock,
cavities, locating of contaminated plumes, acquiring information on elevation of groundwater
table, etc. When electrical resistivity tomography is used in combination with MASW the cost
and time required for project execution and completion can be significantly reduced.

In electric resistivity, electrodes are connected via multi-core cables to the resistivity meter
which automatically select and apply a DC or very low-frequency AC (I) between a pair of
electrodes and measuring the resulting potential difference (∆V) with a second pair of
electrodes. The data collected by means of resultant potential difference is then used to
create a vertical section of apparent resistivity values for the subsurface beneath the
electrode array.

In tomography operations, hundreds of measurements are taken using multimode resistivity

profile system. The location of current electrodes (A and B) and Potential Electrode (M and
N) are controlled by predetermined protocol in which the system engages 10 channels at the
same time, for a cycle time and then repeats the measurements to stack which increases
the reliability of the measured apparent resistivity. The figure below shows the schematic of
data acquisition (Protocol) and movement along the line.

Figure 3: Arrangement of electrodes and sequence of measurements for a 2-D electrical resistivity tomography
survey utilizing a Wenner Alpha array, adapted from Loke, 2000.

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 2.2 Site Location and Profile layout
A site visit shall be conducted prior to commencement of work to establish access points to
all parts of the ERT profiles by using hand GPS and provide an access report and profile
layout.

2.3 Field Acquisition and Parameters Setup

The field operations are carried out in a specific way. Prior to going on site, the coordinates
of the area to be investigated are extracted based on the drawings, and the survey profiles
are accurately defined.

The coordinates within site depending upon the profile spacing and orientation are then
marked on the site by the survey crew with reference to some standard benchmark located
within or close to the area of investigation. Once the site is marked an equipped geophysical
crew accompanied by an experienced geophysicist is mobilized to carry out data acquisition.

Prior to start of the resistivity measurements, the agreed acquisition parameters i.e. depth of
investigation, number of stacks for one measurement, electrode spacing, type of array and
protocol are specified in the recording device which automatically selects successive pairs of
electrodes to inject current and measure the resultant potential difference. Several protocols
may be used, defined by the selected positions of the current and potential electrodes,
which may be one of the metallic sticks of the array, or another one installed very far from
this array:

The apparent resistivity may be computed for each measure with the formula:

The resulting 2D section is a pseudo-section of the apparent resistivity values below the
electrode array, expressed in Ohm-m and with first order estimated depths.

Field Equipment
• 48 or 96 channel Resistivity Meter (SYSCAL Pro)

• ERT Spread cables

• Power Source: 12 Volts batter

• Stainless Steel electrodes

• Accessories: Hammers, drilling machines etc.

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The figure below shows the image of resistivity system.

Figure 4: ERT Equipment

Figure 5: ERT Site Work

Creation of the sequence

of readings with various multi-spacing levels, such as ‘a’, ‘2a’, ‘3’a ‘5a’, to increase the signal
strength at a given depth. Visualization of the points.

The figure below shows the creation of sequence Electre Pro software.

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Figure 6: ERT Sequence from Electre Pro.

The Figure below shows the Roll-along sequence in for a long profile length.

Figure 7: ERT Sequence and roll along

2.4 Field Survey including QC

After preparation of the required tools, the field measurements are typically performed
according to the following procedure:

• The area will be inspected, and the profile lines will be defined accordingly

• The electrodes will be deployed and if the surface sediment is dry and loose, salty
water or mud will be used to connect the electrodes to the ground.
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 • All the electrodes will be connected to the central unit via the cable and power supply
also will be attached to the central unit as well

• A test stage will be performed to check the electrodes contact resistance – this
resistance value should be a) less than 20 K-Ohm in all cases and all electrodes
should you a similar range of contract resistance, for example if most of electrodes
are showing contact resistance (CR) around 5 K-Ohm and any electrodes with CR
above 10 K-Ohm can result in noisy data and these electrodes should be fixed by
using one of CR reduction methods.

• CR can be reduced by pouring salt water, removing surface sand and loose soil and
reaching to dense and hard ground, drilling into rock or stiff soil, filling them with
water before installing electrodes, using longer electrodes where needed, using
bentonite, creating a small pond around the electrode position to allow percolation of
water at the position of electrodes.

• The electrodes should be installed and watered as early as possible when starting a
new survey profile – this allow water to percolate down and reduce the contract
resistance.

• A calibration stage also will be performed automatically.

• The proper array will be chosen and the central unit will start the measurements
according to the chosen array and configurations.

• Data quality control will be performed by an expert on the site and a measurement
sheet will be filled which will be included all measurement parameters and site
condition etc.

• Raw record with field notes and sheet or measurement form will be sent to
Consultant and Processing Engineer. The field survey forms (see Table 12) will be
filled for each measurement.

Following points will be taken into account during the test:

• It is important to avoid measurements in rainy days.

• If there are some warnings about high resistivity in electrodes, the reason is that the
electrode is not connected to the ground properly and must be fixed.

Following items will be delivered from field:

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 • Raw test data in digital format

• GPS Coordinates in digital format (e.g. xlsx file format)

• Field notes and sheets in digital format and printed

• Field Report including data acquisition parameter, test depths

Geophone Spacing
Project Title: (m): Remarks
Measurement
Client: Direction:

Field Engineer: Folder Name:

Date: Ground Condition:

Profile No: Resistivitymeter:

Roll-along Spread
Number: X
GPS Coordinates
Array Type: Y

Survey Length (m):: Elev.

Line Number of
Name File Name First Electrode Last Electrode Electrode Remarks

Table 1: Field log

2.5 Data reduction and QA/QC Procedure

The resistivity field data are processed through the resistivity data management software
‘Prosys II’ (ver 02.36.00, IRIS instruments). Initial quality control and processing tasks like
filtering out high resistivity values from the dataset, topography correction etc. were
performed and the file is exported to ASCII format.

PROSYS II software for data downloading and Pre-processing steps

- data transfer from SYSCAL to PC

- data plotting in profile & section

- elimination of noisy data

- introduction of topography

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- export to interpretation software

The following figures shows how to download data by Prosys II or Prosys III software:

Figure 7: Downloading Data by Prosys II.

The acquired dataset will be initially checked for errors that may have been caused by
instrument noise; low batteries, positional discrepancies etc. and any field notes will be
either written up or incorporated in the initial data processing stage. The dataset will be
processed using the standard processing routines and once completed, the resulting plots
will subject to peer review in order to ensure the integrity of the interpretation

The Pesudo section of ERT Data

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Figure 9: Pseudo Section.

Figure 10: apparent resistivity profiles, PROSYS II

2.6 Processing and Inversion including QA and QC

The ASCII files were then imported into the inversion software ‘RES2DINV’ (ver 3.58,
Geotomo software). GCGC also used ERTLab for 3D data acquisition and processing –
however, this survey does not require any 3D measurements.

The measured apparent resistivity values are inverted using the RES2DINV inversion
software, which uses a smoothness constrained least-squares method for the inversion
process. After several iterations, a best-fit model of the resistivity distribution of the
subsurface is obtained. The observed values are compared with Schlumberger Master
curves to define the type of the subsurface, the inversion routine looks for best match with
one of master curve, identifies the RMS error and then looks for the next best fit. Typically a
reasonable model is obtained from 3 to 5 iteration. The best iteration for model is where two

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subsequent iterations have least change in the RMS error. The figure below shows the
Schlumberger master curves

Filtering:

1- Contoured plots of apparent resistivity allow to identify the quality of apparent

resistivity section

2- Subsequent automatic filtering with the values as shown in the table below used in
ProsysII or ProsysIII.

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 Item Description

VMin=-15001 minimum reception voltage value allowed

VMax=15001 maximum reception voltage value allowed

Imin=0.5 minimum injection current value allowed

IMax=99998 maximum injection current value allowed

Rhomin=0.100000001490116 minimum resistivity value value allowed

RhoMax=20000 maximum resistivity value value allowed

DevMax=20 maximum deviation factor value allowed

Mmin=0 minimum chargeability value allowed

MMax=120 maximum chargeability value allowed

[Median] median average

NbSpacing=1

[Slide] sliding average

NbSpacing=0.5

[RejectOverload]

Execute=1 1=overload data rejected

Table 2: Subsequent automatic filtering values

3- Graphically checking the data allows to identify the abnormal points in the data sets

4- Bad Data points Scatter Analysis and export to Res2DInv

5- Exterminate bad data points in Res2D Inv

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Figure 11: Exterminate bad data points in Res2DINV software.

6- Setting Up Inversion parameters (Standard Gaussian Inversion with width half of the
unit space)

7- Inversion and checking high RMS Points

Figure 12: An Example of ERT Inversion Result with all Measured, Calculated and Inverted models without
Topography

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Figure 13: An Example of Final ERT Result with Topography

8- Scaled 2D Resistivity Output by using Golden surfer software.

Figure 14: An Example of scaled of 2D Resistivity section with Topography

2.7 Interpretation

It must be noted that this process is none-unique; a given apparent resistivity data set might
be accounted for by many different models. Therefore, inversion process is constrained
using available intrusive site investigation data, so as to produce the most realistic
geological model.

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Table 3: Resistivities of Various Rock Type (Palacky, G.V. (1987), Resistivity characteristics of geologic targets,
in Electromagnetic Methods in Applied Geophysics, Vol 1, Theory, 1351)

The figure below shows an example of an interpreted geological model after final inversion.

Figure 15: Interpreted 2D ERT Section

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Figure 16: Interpreted 3D Perspective View of ERT Results

Figure 17: Interpreted 3D Slice View of ERT Results

2.8 Correlation with other geophysical methods

The cross sections below show the correlations between ERT and MASW data.

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Figure 18: Correlation between ERT and MASW data

2.9 Limitations

As all the geophysical techniques have some limitations because these methods are indirect
studies, therefore, these limitations could be minimized by means of appropriate courses
according to their ease of use.

One of the constraints of the electrical resistivity imaging technique is the placing of the
electrodes into the ground. If any areas of hard rank are present within the anticipated
survey area it may be necessary to drill holes for each location. Additionally, if the ground is
resistive then in order to increase the amount of electric current injected into the ground it is
necessary to water the electrodes with saline water, which can make a better connection
between the electrodes and ground permitting a better sum of current to go into the
subsurface.

NOTE: The MOS is the property of Geovectors and should not be re-produced without prior
permission.

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