• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.138-142
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• 2003

Crosswell seismic data were acquired in three sections crossing a tunnel of 3 different types; one was empty, another was ailed by sand, and the other was filled by rock debris. Both the P- and S-wave first arrivals were picked and the traveltime tomography was conducted to generate the P- and S- wave velocity tomograms on the all three sections. Among six tomograms, only one tomogram shows a low velocity zone that can be interpreted as a tunnel image. The tomogram is the P wave velocity image of a section that crosses an empty tunnel. The result of numerical analysis for the spatial resolution of the traveltime tomography was consistent to this finding.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.147-154
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• 2009

Physical properties of rocks, such as velocity, are strongly dependant on detailed pore structures, and recently, pore micro-structures by X-ray tomography techniques have been used to simulate and understand the physical properties. However, the smoothing effect during the tomographic reconstruction procedure often causes an artifact - overestimating the contact areas between grains. The pore nodes near a grain contact are affected by neighboring grain nodes, and are classified into grain nodes. By this artifact, the pore structure has higher contact areas between grains and thus higher velocity estimation than the true one. To reduce this artifact, we tried two image processing techniques - sharpening filter and neural network classification. Both methods gave noticeable improvement on contact areas between grains visually; however, the estimated velocities showed only incremental improvement. We then tried to change the resolutions of tomogram and quantify its impact on velocity estimation. The estimated velocity from the tomogram with higher spatial resolution was improved significantly, and with around 2 micron spatial resolution, the calculated velocity was very close to the lab measurement. In conclusion, the resolution of pore micro-structure is the most important parameter for accurate estimation of velocity using pore-scale simulation techniques. Also the estimation can be incrementally improved if combined with image processing techniques during the pore-grain classification.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.255-260
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• 2006

Measurements in two adjacent (about 1.5 m separation) boreholes reveal that there is a significant degree of variations in the width and property (permeability) of shear zones in the granitic rock. A high frequency (>10 kHz) cross-well seismic tomography was conducted to characterize the features of permeability distribution at the shear zones in the inter-well region. At the shear zones, the correlation between the permeability at the well location and the velocity pattern shown in the cross-well velocity tomogram suggests that a high resolution velocity tomogram may provide useful information for the shear zone characteristics, such as permeability, fracture density, width, and length.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.25-30
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• 1998

Time-lapse crosswell seismic data, recorded before and after the cavity filling, showed that the filling increased the velocity at a known cavity zone in an old mine site in Inchon area. The seismic response depicted on the tomogram and in conjunction with the geologic data from drillings imply that the size of the cavity may be either small or filled by debris. In this study, I attempted to evaluate the filling effect by analyzing velocity measured from the time-lapse tomograms. The data acquired by a downhole airgun and 24-channel hydrophone system revealed that there exists measurable amounts of source statics. I presented a methodology to estimate the source statics. The procedure for this method is: 1) examine the source firing-time for each source, and remove the effect of irregular firing time, and 2) estimate the residual statics caused by inaccurate source positioning. This proposed multi-step inversion may reduce high frequency numerical noise and enhance the resolution at the zone of interest. The multi-step inversion with different starting models successfully shows the subtle velocity changes at the small cavity zone. The inversion procedure is: 1) conduct an inversion using regular sized cells, and generate an image of gross velocity structure by applying a 2-D median filter on the resulting tomogram, and 2) construct the starting velocity model by modifying the final velocity model from the first phase. The model was modified so that the zone of interest consists of small-sized grids. The final velocity model developed from the baseline survey was as a starting velocity model on the monitor inversion. Since we expected a velocity change only in the cavity zone, in the monitor inversion, we can significantly reduce the number of model parameters by fixing the model out-side the cavity zone equal to the baseline model.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.347-354
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• 2009

Physical properties of rocks are strongly dependant on details of pore micro-structures, which can be used for quantifying relations between physical properties of rocks through pore-scale simulation techniques. Recently, high-resolution scan techniques, such as X-ray microtomography and high performance computers make it possible to calculate permeability from pore micro-structures of rocks. We try to extend this simulation methodology to velocity and electrical conductivity. However, the smoothing effect during tomographic inversion creates artifacts in pore micro-structures and causes inaccurate property estimation. To mitigate this artifact, we tried to use sharpening filter and neural network classification techniques. Both methods gave noticeable improvement in pore structure imaging and accurate estimation of permeability and electrical conductivity, which implies that our method effectively removes the smoothing effect in pore structures. However, the calculated velocities showed only incremental improvement. By comparison between thin section images and tomogram, we found that our resolution is not high enough, and it is mainly responsible for the inaccuracy in velocity despite the successful removal of the smoothing effect. In conclusion, our methods can be very useful for pore-scale modeling, since it can create accurate pore structure without the smoothing effect. For accurate velocity estimation, the resolution of pore structure should be at least three times higher than that for permeability simulation.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.71-76
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• 2003

Accurate estimation of the first arrival travel time is an essential task to obtain a high resolution velocity tomogram. Accuracy of the travel time estimation may be influenced by two factors; geological and mechanical. A serious mechanical factor is the source firing control problems. We found the control problems in the records generated by tome impulsive borehole sources. The problems are; irregular firing control and uncertainty in estimation of the absolute firing-times shown in records. Definitely, the time difference will introduce an error to the first arrival times, and accordingly; it will cause some distortion in the resulting velocity tomogram. A method to determine the firing time is suggested here. The method determines the optimum onset time by comparing the horizontal and the NMO velocity with various amount of delay time adjustment.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.120-121
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to investigate concrete flaw using seismic first arrival and various inversion method. Seismic wave propagation was calculated using finite element method in theoretical modelling and tomogram was made using various inversion methods in theoretical and experimental modelling. Five steps of seismic first arrival were selected from FEM results and these data were used to calculate seismic velocity section. According to the results, exact seismic first arrival picking method was proposed and experimental modelling was conducted.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.93-116
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• 2005

SPT-Uphole tomography method was introducedand verified in this paper. In SPT-Uphole method, SPT (Standard Penetration Test) which is common in site investigation, was used as a source and several surface geophones in line were used as receivers. Shear wave velocity (Vs) distribution map which has triangular shape around the boring point can be obtained by tomography inversion. The factors for obtaining reliable result of SPT-Uphole tomography are exact travel time information and accurate inversion method. To establish of the SPT-Uphole tomography procedure, the most reliable method for obtaining exact travel time information and verification of tomography inversion method were studied by using theoretical travel time information and finite element method (FEM) analysis. finally, SPT-Uphole tomography method was performed at the weathered soil site in Kimje. By comparing with several boring data including SPT-N value, feasibility of this method was verified in the field.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.125-130
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• 2006

Both surface seismic and far-offset VSP data were recorded alongtwo mutually perpendicular profiles in the Pungam basin. The first-arrival times were simultaneously inverted using the tomography method. For the surface data, seismic energy was generated by a 5-kg sledgehammer at 48 stations and detected by 21 surface geophones at 3 m intervals and one 3-component geophone in test borehole for the purpose of static corrections. For the VSP data, seismic waves generated by the sledgehammer on the ground were detected by a 3-component borehole geophone in a depth range of $9{\sim}99\;m$. Delay times of the hammer data were corrected using the seisgun data before the inversion to yield velocity tomograms. The tomograms indicates that the soil layer with velocities less than 750 m/s averages 1.8 m thick. The velocity varies from 5353 m/s at the depth range of $31{\sim}40\;m$ to 4262 m/s at the depth range of $65{\sim}73\;m$. Compared with core samples, the relatively large variation in velocity may due to lithology changes and fracture effects with depth.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.101-107
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• 2003

3D seismic travel-time tomography algorithm baled on Fresnel volume was developed and its feasibility was investigated by the numerical experiments. To testify the field applicability of the developed algorithm, frequency characteristics and way coverage of the crossholel seismic raw data were investigated and 3D velocity tomogram cube with about 8m spatial resolution was obtained. When compared this 3D velocity cube with the conventional 2D ray tomogram, two results were matched well. We concluded that 3D seismic tomography algorithm developed in this study has enough potential to the field application.