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Bulk-density (ρ) of soil is an important indicator of soil compaction and type. A knowledge of the spatial variability of in situ soil density is important in geotechnical engineering, hydrology and agriculture. Surface geophysical methods have so far shown limited success in providing an accurate and high-resolution image of 3-D soil-density distribution. In this pursuit, 3-D seismic full-waveform inversion (FWI) is promising, provided the robustness and accuracy of density inversion via this approach can be established in the near-surface scale. However, simultaneous reconstruction of ρ and seismic wave velocities through multiparameter FWI remains a challenging task. Near-surface seismic data are commonly dominated by dispersive surface waves whose velocities are controlled by the value and distribution of shear-wave velocity (VS). One major difficulty in estimating reliably ρ from near-surface seismic data is due to the relatively low sensitivity of the seismic wavefield to ρ compared to seismic velocities. Additionally, the accuracy of the estimated ρ decreases due to error in VS —an issue known as parameter coupling. Parameter coupling makes it difficult to estimate accurately ρ within the framework of conventional gradient-based FWI. More sophisticated optimization approaches (e.g. truncated Newton) can reduce the effect of parameter coupling, but these approaches are commonly not affordable in near-surface applications due to heavy computational burden. In this research, we have investigated how choosing correctly the force direction of the seismic source can contribute to a higher accuracy of ρ estimates through 3-D FWI. Using scattered wavefields, the Hessian, and inversion tests, an in-depth and systematic investigation of data sets corresponding to different force directions has been carried out. A comparison of the scattered wavefields due to a point-localized ρ perturbation for different force directions shows the robustness of the horizontal-force data set to noise compared to the vertical-force data set. Furthermore, for a point-scatterer model, an analysis of the gradients of the misfit function using the Hessian shows that utilizing a horizontal-force source enables one to reconstruct the high-resolution gradient with relatively small parameter coupling. Finally, inversion tests for two different subsoil models demonstrate that 3-D FWI on a horizontal-force-source seismic data set is capable of providing a more accurate 3-D ρ distribution in soil compared to a vertical-force-source data set. Our results show that the use of a horizontal-force source might allow avoiding computationally demanding, costly optimization approaches in 3-D FWI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-frequency, axially-symmetric guided waves which propagate along a fluid-filled borehole (tube waves) are studied in order to characterize the hydraulic fractures intersecting the borehole. We formulate a new equation for the total tube wavefield, which includes simultaneous effects of (1) tube-wave scattering (reflection and transmission) due to wave propagation across hydraulic fractures, and (2) tube-wave generation due to incident plane P waves. The fracture is represented by the nonwelded interface boundary conditions. We use an appropriate form of the representation theorem in order to correctly handle the multiple scattering due to nonwelded interfaces. Our approach can implement any model that has so far been developed. We consider a recent model which includes simultaneous effects of fluid viscosity, dynamic fluid flow, and fracture compliance. The derived equation offers a number of important insights. We recognize that the effective generation amplitude contains the simultaneous effect of both tube-wave generation and scattering. This leads to a new physical understanding indicating that the tube waves are scattered immediately after generation. We show that this scattering is nonlinear with respect to interface compliance. This physical mechanism can be implicitly accounted for by considering more realistic boundary conditions. We also illustrate the application of the new equation in order to predict the complex signature of the total tube wavefield, including generation and scattering at multiple hydraulic fractures. A new formulation for focusing analyses is also derived in order to image and characterize the hydraulic fractures. The obtained results and discussions are important for interpretation, modeling, and imaging using low-frequency guided waves, in the presence of multiple fractures along a cylindrical inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydraulic and mechanical characterization of fractures is crucial for a wide range of pertinent applications, such as, for example, geothermal energy production, hydrocarbon exploration, CO2-sequestration, and nuclear waste disposal. Direct hydraulic and mechanical testing of individual fractures along boreholes does, however, tend to be slow and cumbersome. To alleviate this problem, we propose to estimate the effective hydraulic aperture and the mechanical compliance of isolated fractures intersecting a borehole through a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) inversion of full-waveform tube-wave data recorded in a vertical seismic profiling (VSP) setting. The solution of the corresponding forward problem is based on a recently developed semi-analytical solution. This inversion approach has been tested for and verified on a wide range of synthetic scenarios. Here, we present the results of its application to observed hydrophone VSP data acquired along a borehole in the underground Grimsel Test Site in the Central Swiss Alps. While the results are consistent with the corresponding evidence from televiewer data and exemplarily illustrate the advantages of using a computationally expensive stochastic, instead of a deterministic, inversion approach, they also reveal the inherent limitation of the underlying semi-analytical forward solver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]