Assessing the Effects of Receiver Configuration on Sinkhole Characterization Using Full Waveform Inversion: A Comparative Numerical Study

Publication Date

1-1-2025

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Title

Geotechnical Special Publication

Volume

2025-March

Issue

GSP 368

DOI

10.1061/9780784486016.012

First Page

113

Last Page

122

Abstract

Full Waveform Inversion (FWI) of seismic waves is a complex and computationally expensive technique that requires careful consideration of various factors, including the distribution of receivers, the parameterization of the domain, and the inversion algorithm itself. Choosing appropriate settings for these factors is crucial for the accuracy of anomaly detection. However, there is a lack of sufficient information on near-surface applications of FWI in the literature, particularly for characterizing sinkholes where the resulting wavefields are quite complex. Consequently, it is unclear the extent to which typical FWI workflows as implemented in the oil and gas exploration industry would accurately detect subsurface void features in the near surface. This is particularly the case when considering the densely spaced receiver configurations often used at the surface in large seismic surveys that are implemented for oil and gas exploration. To address the gap, this study numerically examines the necessity of a dense arrangement of receivers for effective sinkhole detection using FWI. Determining whether such a dense layout is essential will help optimize field data collection strategies. The study numerically investigated the efficacy of different receiver configurations—specifically, 48, 24, 12, and 6 receivers—while maintaining consistent source locations to detect anomalous features representing different karst formation conditions. Inversion accuracy was compared against true models in terms of velocity misfit and predicted anomaly area using different statistical metrics. Findings indicate that while all configurations effectively locate anomalies, their accuracy in matching inverted velocities to actual anomalies varies. Overly dense receiver layouts may complicate waveform comparison and diminish FWI effectiveness, while excessively sparse receiver configurations may restrict available data and compromise the accuracy of the resulting subsurface profile. Specifically, the use of 48 receivers for the domains in this study was deemed overutilization since it did not improve inversion results relative to receiver arrays with fewer channels. The use of 12 or 6 receivers was considered underutilization. This study contributes insights to optimize near-surface field data collection strategies for enhanced sinkhole characterization with FWI.

Keywords

Full Waveform Inversion, Near-Surface Applications, Numerical Modeling, Receiver Configuration, Sinkhole

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

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