Seismoelectric Beamforming Imaging: A Sensitivity Analysis

chiang c alpha;

The electrical current density generated by the propagation of a seismic wave at the interface characterized by a drop in electrical, hydraulic or mechanical properties produces an electrical field of electrokinetic nature. This field can be measured remotely with a signal-to-noise ratio depending on the background noise and signal attenuation. The seismo electric beam forming approach is an emerging imaging technique based on scanning a porous material using appropriately delayed seismic sources. The idea is to focus the hydromechanical energy on a regular spatial grid and measure the converted electric field remotely at each focus time. This method can be used to image heterogeneities with a high definition and to provide structural information to classical geophysical methods. A numerical experiment is performed to investigate the resolution of the seismoelectric beamforming approach with respect to the main
wavelength of the seismic waves. The 2-D model consists of a fictitious water-filled bucket in which a cylindrical sandstone core sample is set up vertically. The hydrophones/seismic sources are located on a 50-cm diameter circle in the bucket and the seismic energy is focused
on the grid points in order to scan the medium and determine the geometry of the porous plug using the output electric potential image.We observe that the resolution of the method is given
by a density of eight scanning points per wavelength. Additional numerical tests were also performed to see the impact of a wrong velocity model upon the seismoelectric map displaying the heterogeneities of the material.