11/3/2021

Detection of Cracks in Clay Soil Using Quasi-3D Electrical Resistivity

Tomography Method: Numerical and Experimental Study
Full Name : Dr Asem Ahmed Hassan
Paper/Title: Detection of Cracks in Clay Soil Using Quasi-3D Electrical Resistivity Tomography Method:
Numerical and Experimental Study
Affiliation : College of Science, University of Diyala, Iraq
E-Mail : asem.ahmed@uodiyala.edu.iq
Paper ID: 51

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Background: Electrical Resistivity Method

Electrical resistivity is a physical property of a material that describes its ability to resist the flow of
electricity.

In traditional four electrodes resistivity method , a DC or low frequency current is injected through current electrodes
C1 & C2 and the resulted voltage difference is measured using voltage electrodes P1 & P2 from which soil resistivity is
calculated:

ρ : Electrical Resistivity (Ohm.m)

∆V : Voltage difference (Volts)

I : Current (Amps)

K: Geometric Factor (m)

C1, C2 Current Electrodes

P1, P2 Voltage Electrodes

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Electrical Resistivity Tomography Method

ERT is a technique of construction subsurface electrical resistivity image. A number of current (C1 and C2) and voltage (P1 and
P2) electrodes are attached to a computer controlled resistivity system to collect the subsurface resistivity data from which 2D/3D
resistivity sections are produced. In practice, 3D ERT models can be generated by combining parallel 2D sections (i.e. Quasi-3D
ERT)

2D 3D

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Aim of Study
In the current study, ERT method was adopted to detect cracks in compacted clay soil. 3D numerical resistivity model and quasi-
3D ERT experiments were conducted to map cracking geometry in the soil.
Methods
Numerical Simulation
Numerical simulation using ERT technique is a useful tool to simulate actual laboratory and field resistivity measurements.
A 3D resistivity model of 4cm depth, 2.5cm width, 15 cm length, air- filled crack introduced in dry clay soil is simulated. A100
Ohm.m resistivity value was used for dry clay soil, and 100000 Ohm.m value was chosen for air-filled crack.
RES3DMOD and RES3DINV software were used for forward and inverse modelling, respectively.

Experimental Setup
ERT experiment was conducted to identify cracks in clay soil sample collected from the campus site of College of Science,
University of Diyala

Stage one

Stage two

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Results and Discussion

Numerical Simulation

XY layers of the simulated crack model at different Z depth intervals

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Numerical Simulation

XZ planes of the simulated crack model at different Y distance intervals

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Numerical Simulation

YZ planes of the simulated crack model at different X distance intervals

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Numerical Simulation

3D visualization of 4cm depth crack model

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Laboratory results

Quasi-3D resistivity section of stage one

Quasi-3D resistivity section of stage two

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Conclusions

Numerical and laboratory experiments using ERT method are used to detect cracks in clay soil.

The numerical simulation showed that crack is reflected in the simulated model as an isolated object of high
resistivity due to the high resistivity contrast between air and the intact soil. Geometry and cracking dimensions are
fairly resolved.

The experimental results confirmed the numerical simulation findings. Quasi-3D section is produced for air-filled
crack introduced in compacted clay soil. The high resistivity signature of the air filled crack is clearly evident and can
be distinguished from the background.

Both numerical and laboratory results demonstrated that ERT method can effectively be adopted to detect high
resistivity changes introduced by small scale cracks in clay soil. The current findings of this work are being examined
through scheduled field resistivity surveys.

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Thank You Thank You

Thank You

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