Inverse modeling of unsaturated flow parameters using dynamic geological structure conditioned by GPR tomography
2008
Farmani, M Bagher | Kitterod, Nils-Otto | Keers, Henk
A method is presented to estimate flow parameters and geological structure in the vadose zone by combining time-lapse Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) traveltime tomography and inverse flow modeling. The traveltime tomography is used to determine the spatial electromagnetic velocity distribution in the vadose zone. These time-lapse velocity images are converted to time-lapse volumetric soil water content images using petrophysical relationships. Subsequently, the water content images are used as constraints in the flow inversion. The influence of the tomographic artifacts on the flow inversion is minimized by assigning weights that are proportional to the ray coverage. Our flow inversion algorithm estimates the flow parameters and calibrates the geological structure. The geological structure is defined using a set of control points, the positions of which can be modified during the inversion. After the inversion, the final geological and flow model are used to compute GPR traveltimes to check the consistency between these computed traveltimes and the observed traveltimes.The method is first tested on two synthetic models (a steady state and a transient flow models). Subsequently, the method is applied to characterize a real vadose zone at Oslo Airport Gardermoen, Norway, during the snowmelt in 2005. The flow inversion method is applied to locate and quantify the main geological layers at the site. In particular the inversion method identifies and estimates the location and properties of thin dipping layers with relatively low-permeability. The flow model is cross validated using an independent infiltration event.
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