PFLOTRAN-SIP: A PFLOTRAN Module for Simulating Spectral-Induced Polarization of Electrical Impedance Data

Bulbul Ahmmed, Maruti Kumar Mudunuru, Satish Karra, Scott C. James, Hari Viswanathan and John A. Dunbar
Additional contact information
Bulbul Ahmmed: Department of Geosciences, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76706, USA
Maruti Kumar Mudunuru: Watershed & Ecosystem Science, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352, USA
Satish Karra: Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
Scott C. James: Department of Geosciences, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76706, USA
Hari Viswanathan: Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
John A. Dunbar: Department of Geosciences, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76706, USA

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-19

Abstract: Spectral induced polarization (SIP) is a non-intrusive geophysical method that collects chargeability information (the ability of a material to retain charge) in the time domain or its phase shift in the frequency domain. Although SIP is a temporal method, it cannot measure the dynamics of flow and solute/species transport in the subsurface over long times (i.e., 10–100 s of years). Data collected with the SIP technique need to be coupled with fluid flow and reactive-transport models in order to capture long-term dynamics. To address this challenge, PFLOTRAN-SIP was built to couple SIP data to fluid flow and solute transport processes. Specifically, this framework couples the subsurface flow and transport simulator PFLOTRAN and geoelectrical simulator E4D without sacrificing computational performance. PFLOTRAN solves the coupled flow and solute-transport process models in order to estimate solute concentrations, which were used in Archie’s model to compute bulk electrical conductivities at near-zero frequency. These bulk electrical conductivities were modified while using the Cole–Cole model to account for frequency dependence. Using the estimated frequency-dependent bulk conductivities, E4D simulated the real and complex electrical potential signals for selected frequencies for SIP. These frequency-dependent bulk conductivities contain information that is relevant to geochemical changes in the system. This study demonstrated that the PFLOTRAN-SIP framework is able to detect the presence of a tracer in the subsurface. SIP offers a significant benefit over ERT in the form of greater information content. It provided multiple datasets at different frequencies that better constrained the tracer distribution in the subsurface. Consequently, this framework allows for practitioners of environmental hydrogeophysics and biogeophysics to monitor the subsurface with improved resolution.

Keywords: parameter estimation; uncertainty analysis; forecasting; numerical modeling; Monte Carlo simulation; observation worth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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