• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.85-98
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• 2009

The tau-p inversion algorithm is widely employed to generate starting models with most computer programs, which implement refraction tomography. This algorithm emphasises the vertical resolution of many layers, and as a result, it frequently fails to detect even large lateral variations in seismic velocities, such as the decreases which are indicative of shear zones. This study demonstrates the failure of the tau-p inversion algorithm to detect or define a major shear zone which is 50m or 10 stations wide. Furthermore, the majority of refraction tomography programs parameterise the seismic velocities within each layer with vertical velocity gradients. By contrast, the Generalized Reciprocal Method (GRM) inversion algorithms emphasise the lateral resolution of individual layers. This study demonstrates the successful detection and definition of the 50m wide shear zone with the GRM inversion algorithms. The existence of the shear zone is confirmed by a 2D analysis of the head wave amplitudes and by numerous closely spaced orthogonal seismic profiles carried out as part of a later 3D refraction investigation. Furthermore, an analysis of the shot record amplitudes indicates that a reversal in the seismic velocities, rather than vertical velocity gradients, occurs in the weathered layers. The major conclusion reached in this study is that while all seismic refraction operations should aim to provide as accurate depth estimates as is practical, those which emphasise the lateral resolution of individual layers generate more useful results for geotechnical and environmental applications. The advantages of the improved lateral resolution are obtained with 2D traverses in which the structural features can be recognised from the magnitudes of the variations in the seismic velocities. Furthermore, the spatial patterns obtained with 3D investigations facilitate the recognition of structural features such as faults which do not display any intrinsic variation or 'signature' in seismic velocities.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.16 no.3 s.49
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• pp.255-263
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• 2006

In an electrical tomographic survey using an inclined borehole with a pole-dipole array, we must consider several factors: a singular point associated with zero potential difference, a spatial discrepancy between electrode and nodal point in a model due to a inclined borehole, and a variation of geometric factors in connection with a irregular topography. Singular points which are represented by the normal distance from current source to the ground surface can be represented by serveral regions due to a irregular topography of ground surface. The method of element division can be applied to the region in which the borehole is curved, inclined or the distance between the electrodes is shorter than that of nodal points, because the coordinate of each electrode cannot be assigned directly to the nodal point if several electrodes are in an element. Test on a three-dimensional (3-D) synthetic model produces good images of conductive target and shoves stable convergence.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.24 no.B
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• pp.163-170
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• 2004

In this study, First, the results of travel-time inversion (first arrival inversion using the travel-time of the first arrival) were compared with those of full-wave inversion for numerical data. Numerical experiments to find key parameters other than initial velocity model showed that the frequency of source has a great effect on the result of full-wave inversion. Finally, this research presented the corrected full-wave inversion applying the correction term to the final result of full-wave inversion. The corrected full-wave inversion depicted cavities inside concretes even when the inversion started with 20% error in an initial velocity model for cavities. However, full-wave inversion did not reveal cavities.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.86-92
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• 2006

The full-waveform inversion algorithm using normalised seismic wavefields can avoid potential inversion errors due to source estimation required in conventional full-waveform inversion methods. In this paper, we have modified the inversion scheme to install a weighted smoothness constraint for better resolution, and to implement a staged approach using normalised wavefields in order of increasing frequency instead of inverting all frequency components simultaneously. The newly developed scheme is verified by using a simple two-dimensional fault model. One of the most significant improvements is based on introducing weights in model parameters, which can be derived from integrated sensitivities. The model-parameter weighting matrix is effective in selectively relaxing the smoothness constraint and in reducing artefacts in the reconstructed image. Simultaneous multiple-frequency inversion can almost be replicated by multiple single-frequency inversions. In particular, consecutively ordered single-frequency inversion, in which lower frequencies are used first, is useful for computation efficiency.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.322-331
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• 2007

In this study, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) were conducted to find the mineralized zone at the Geumpung mine in Dojeon-ri, Susan-myeon, Jecheon-si, Chungcheongbuk-do. The deviation of the inclined borehole was measured to obtain the exact positions of the electrodes for correcting apparent resistivity values from ERT. Geophysical loggings such as resistivity and natural gamma were conducted to obtain the properties of the material near the borehole. Measurements of the physical properties of the cores, such as porosity, water content, density, susceptibility, resistivity were performed to analyze the correlation between physical properties and resistivity. Grade analysis for core sample was also conducted to identify relationship between grade and resistivity. Rock property analysis shows that the resistivity is more dominated by susceptibility and grade than by porosity and water content in the mineralized zone. The results of ERT are well consistent with geophysical logging data and geologic column. So ERT is powerful method to identify conductive mineralized zone.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.140-145
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• 2011

In order to analyze the influence of the noise on a cross-well traveltime tomography to detect a small scale low velocity body in a homogeneous medium, the first arrival travel times were computed one a tunnel model by a finite-difference ray tracing scheme. Three different types and four different intensity levels of white noises were added to the computed first arrival travel times, and velocity tomograms were constructed using an iterative inversion method (SIRT). Tomograms with the noise intensity up to 10% of the maximum traveltime delay in the tunnel model, showed the exact location of the tunnel. However, the velocity shown at the tunnel location was not close to air velocity but only slightly less than the velocity of the background medium. The additive random noise showed significantly less degree of influence on the resulting tomogram than the source- and receiver consistent noise.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.231-239
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• 1993

This paper presents a result on the determination of velocity distribution by a tomographic inversion of crosshole seismic traveltimes in transversely isotropic(aniso tropic) media. The crosshole traveltimes used in this study are synthetic ones computed by ray tracing for some models having isotropic and transversely isotropic velocity distributions. The traveltimes are inverted by a general ART and ansotropic ART which considers the transversely isotropic effect during inver sion. The aniotropic ART gives accurate velodty distributions of transversely isotropic and isotropic models, while the isotropic ART determines accurate velocities only for the isotropic model but inaccurate for the transversely isotropic one. Therefore, the anisotropic ART may be used in case where no information is known on the isotropy or transverse isotropy of a survey area.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.153-161
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• 2002

In order t determine blasting sites for the crustal refraction studies in the korean peninsula, seismic refraction profiling was conducted at two sites in the reclaimed land of Seosan. At a quarry for construction material and another site on a rice field 2km east of the quarry, 24 channel refraction profiling of 46m was conducted at a geophone spacing of 2m. Seismic velocity profiles obtained through tomographic invesion reveal that the quarry is regarded as an ideal place for blasting based on the observation that fresh basements with seismic velocities of 3,900 m/s or greater locate approximately 6m deep. On the contrary, under the reclaimed rice field, the basements are weathered more, of slower velocities, and buried deeper than quarry, indicating not an ideal location for detonating seismic explosives of large amounts.

• 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.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.61-70
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• 2006

3-D S-wave velocity model in the southern Korean Peninsula is investigated by using the joint inversion of receiver functions and surface-wave dispersion. A peninsula average Rayleigh-wave phase velocity in the 10-150 seconds range and tomographic estimates of the Rayleigh and Love wave group velocities in the 0.5-20 seconds period range determined using a $12.5{\times}12.5\;km$ grid for the southern part of the peninsula are used for the inversion. Receiver functions were determined from broadband (STS-2), short-period (SS-1) and acceleration (Episensor) channels of 95 stations. The dense distribution of the stations in the Peninsula permits us to examine the 3-D crustal structure in detail. The inversion result shows the variation and characteristics of S-wave velocity in the crust and upper mantle of the southern Korean Peninsula very well.