Computers & Geosciences Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 75-78, 1992 0098-3004/92 $5.00 + 0.

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Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved Copyright 1992 Pergamon Press Ltd
FORWARD MODELI NG OF ELECTRICAL SOUNDI NG
EXPERI MENTS USI NG CONVOLUTI ON AND A
SPREADSHEET
STEVEN D. SHERIFF
Department of Geology, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, U.S.A.
(Received 23 July 1991; accepted 12 November 1991)
Abstract--For many geologic applications, programming a graphics interface or display takes much more
code than the actual calculations. Usually, one can bypass this bottleneck by using the high-level language,
and built in graphics, provided by commercial spreadsheets. As an example, calculating expected apparent
resistivities, using linear filtering and convolution, is rapid and convenient with a commercial spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet's immediate access to screen graphics facilitates an intuitive grasp of electrical sounding
and saves much programming time.
Key Words: Electrical sounding, Spreadsheet, Geophysics, Convolution.
INTRODUCTION
Basokur (1990) presents a program for the direct, or
inverse, interpretation of electrical sounding exper-
iments. Basokur uses an iterative method to arrive at
a subsurface model directly from surface measure-
ments of apparent resistivity. Other direct approaches
involve least-squares or linear filtering ( Ghosh,
1971a; Zhody, 1989). These all work well for many
situations.
Basokur (1990) for space reasons does not provide
subroutines for a graphics interface or display of the
results; the program alone includes more than 600
lines of code. My experience with commercial pro-
grams is that the graphics interface takes more code
than the geophysical calculations. Generally, there is
an easier and faster way to program that is valuable
particularly for rapidly solving many geologic prob-
lems.
Commercial spreadsheets offer a high-level pro-
gramming language with quick and convenient access
to a professional graphical display of the results. This
paper shows how to program a spreadsheet to
calculate the expected apparent resistivity, using con-
volution, over any horizontally layered model of the
subsurface. The method is applicable widely to
geologic programming situations.
FORWARD MODELI NG OF APPARENT
RESISTIVITY
Inverse methods, such as Basokur' s (1990), may be
a good start if one obtains electrical soundings from
a geologically unknown area. However inverse ap-
proaches do not include yet an i mport ant but fuzzy
parameter; subsurface models must be geologically
reasonable. The other approach to interpreting resis-
tivity dat a is the modeling, or forward, method.
Forward modeling allows inf ormation of variable
(and maybe questionable) value from the local
area and from one' s experience. Accordingly, in
experimental design and interpretation, modeling
is a valuable approach to understanding electrical
sounding.
The f orward approach to resistivity sounding in-
volves drawing a cross section or model and calculat-
ing the expected apparent resistivities. For example,
use your available well control to sketch a model,
then calculate the expected results, and finally design
an efficient field program to test the hypothesis.
Alternatively, one could adj ust a model until the
theoretical results fit existing field measurements.
For those unfamiliar with electrical prospecting the
application of spreadsheet programming to convolu-
tion may be interesting. Spreadsheet programming is
efficient, convolution is a widespread mathematical
method. In fact, given a symmetrical filter, convolu-
tion and the geologic operation of cross-correlation
are identical. The resistivity method itself takes
minimal introduction, then you are ready to program
your spreadsheet.
Electrical resistivity soundings introduce a direct
current onto the ground via two electrodes. A second
pair of electrodes between the current electrodes
measures the electrical potential. The apparent resis-
tivity, calculated from these measurements at the
surface, is a function of subsurface layering. In
sounding, one moves the current electrodes farther
and farther apart because wider spacings allow
deeper layers to affect the surface measurement.
Three arrangements of electrodes are in use. First, the
Wenner array uses equally spaced electrodes, it is
75
76 S . D. Sr-mRI~
conveni ent for profiling. Second, the di pol e-di pol e
array uses widely separated pairs of closely spaced
current and potential electrodes. The di pol e-
dipole setup is conveni ent for deep soundings. The
Schlumberger array, with closely spaced potential
electrodes and widely spaced current electrodes is the
most used arrangement for soundi ng experiments in
groundwat er studies.
COMPUTING THE APPARENT RESISTIVITY
The met hod for solving the one-di mensi onal vari-
at i on of resistivity with depth ( sounding) starts with
the potential on the surface:
pl 2 f f
V(r) = ~ r + K( L) Jo( Lr) dL (1)
where V(r) is the potential at distance r f rom a source
to a measurement , p is the surface resistivity, I is
current, L is a du mmy variable of integration, 3"0 is a
Bessel f unct i on ( order 0), and K( L) is a characteristic
f unct i on of the thickness and resistivity of the subsur-
face layers. Rewriting Equat i on (1) to give the appar-
ent resistivity for a Schlumberger array (O' Neill,
1975) yields:
f o x
p~(s) = s 2 T( L) J~( Ls) L dL. (2)
T( L) =p[ 1 + 2K( L) ] and is calculated easily for an
arbi t rary nu mb er of layers as shown next; s is one-
half the separat i on of the current electrodes. This
integral is time c onsumi ng to evaluate because the
Bessel f unct i on in the i nt egrand oscillates and con-
verges slowly for many geologically reasonable
models. The f orward probl em used to be solved by
eval uat i ng these integrals numerically, the only
met hod in use today involves a subst i t ut i on [x = ln( s)
and z = I n( I / L) ] to convert them to convol ut i on
integrals such as:
Pa (X) = T(Z)Jl ( ex :) e2tx - z) dz. (3)
This is a st andard f orm for linear filtering. The
apparent resistivities are the out put , the resistivity
t ransf orm f rom the model is the input, the remai ni ng
term in the i nt egrand is the filter f unction. O' Neill
(1975) provides 20 accurate coefficients ( Table 1) for
the filter f unct i on f rom a Schlumberger array. Writ-
ing the last equat i on in a digital f orm suitable for
programmi ng or spreadsheet use yields:
14
pa( m) = ~ b~Tm_~. (4)
i =- 5
Here, the bis are the filter coefficients. For each
calculated value m, the resistivity t ransf orm Tm
must be calculated for enough samples to provide
room for f ourteen leading and five trailing filter
coefficients.
The resistivity t ransf orm for a model can be calcu-
lated a nu mb er of different ways; a conveni ent f orm
( Das and Ghosh, 1974) is:
T~ + p~_ ~ tanh( Ldi_ ~ )
T,_I - (5)
1 + tanh( Ldi t)/P~- 1
One starts with the bot t om layer in this recursive
relation and proceeds to the top. L has units of
inverse distance, Pi and d~ are the resistivity and
thickness of the layer, respectively. For a three layer
situation start with i = 3 t hen Ti = P3, the resistivity
of the bot t om layer. Next calculate the t ransf orm for
the second layer (7"2) and the top layer (T~):
P3 + P2 tanh(Ld2)
/' 2
1 +P3 tanh(Ld2)/p2
T2 + PI tanh( Ldl )
T~ - (6)
1 + T2 tanh(Ldt)/p~ "
To use O' Nei l l ' s (1975) Schlumberger filter co-
efficients, calculate the resistivity t ransf orm for six
evenly spaced samples per integer power of ten. Thus
T~ is calculated six times (six values of L) for each
order of magni t ude of electrode spacing.
PROGRAMMI NG THE SPREADSHEET
Figure 1 illustrates one setup for doi ng the convo-
lution on a spreadsheet. This example is f rom Bor-
l and' s Quat t ro Pro TM spreadsheet r unni ng on an
I BM/ MS- DOS TM compatible computer. The tech-
nique applies to any comput er with a spreadsheet.
The necessary f ormulae for calculating the apparent
resistivity are shown at the bot t om of Figure 1. The
following paragraphs explain those formulae.
Most spreadsheet features are intuitive and rapidly
learned. One concept that is different f rom other
programmi ng languages is relative and absolute cell
addresses in spreadsheet formulae. When cell rows
Table 1. O' Neill' s (1975)
filter coefficients; their sum
should be 1
b 5 0.003042
b 4 -0.001198
b_ 3 0.01284
b_ 2 0.0235
b t 0.08688
b 0 0.2374
b I 0.6194
b 2 1.1817
b 3 0.4248
b 4 - 3.4507
b 5 2.7044
b 6 - 1.1324
b 7 0.3930
b 8 -0.1436
b 9 0.05812
bl0 -0.02521
bll 0.01125
bl2 - 0.004978
b13 0.002072
bl4 -- 0.000318
Forward modeling of electrical sounding experiments
Three layer resistivity example. Depth and distance are
in meters, resistivity is in ohm-meters. Apparent
resistivity is for the Schlumberger electrode arrangement.
from top to bottom :
Rhol = 100 dl = 10.0 (thickness of layer 1)
Rho2 = 10 d2 = 20.0 (thickness of layer 2)
Rho3 = 1000 ohm-meters
seed: 2. 556757
Xinc: -0. 166667
includes phase shift for O'Neill's coefficients
to get 6 samples per integer power of ten
n L L d 2 > 2 3 0 ? tanh(Ld2)
15 1.1E+00 2.28E+01 1.00E+00
16 7.8E-O1 1. 6E+01 1.00E+00
17 5. 3E- 01 1. 1E+01 1.00E+00
18 3. 6E-01 7. 2E+00 1.00E+00
T2 Ld1>230tanh(Ld1) T1 b O'Neill convolve x
1.0E+01 1.1E+01 1.00E+00 100 14 -0.000318 100. 0 1
1.0E+01 7.8E+00 1.00E+00 100 13 0.002072 99.9 1
1.0E+01 5.3E+00 1.00E+00 100 12 -0.004978 99.8 2
1.0E+01 3.6E+00 1.00E+00 100 11 0.011250 99.4 3
example formulas from the columns above:
L 10^($C$10+(A43"$C$11 ))
Ld2>230? @IF(B43*$F$7>230,230,B43*$F$7)
tanh(Ld2) (@EXP(C43)-@EXP(-C43))/(@EXP(C43)+@EXP(-C43))
T2 ($D$8+$D$7*D43)/(1+($D$8*D43)/$D$7)
T1 (E43+$D$6*G43)/ (1 +(E43*G43)f$D$6)
Convolve +H14*$J$43+H15*$J$44+H16*$J$45+H17*$J$46+ ... +H34*$J$63
x 1/ (10^(2. 5+A43"$C$11))
Figure 1. Partial spreadsheet set up to calculate apparent resistivity over 3-layer model. Formulae at
bottom are extracted from columns with similar labels. See text for discussion of symbols and equations.
77
and/ or columns are referred to with an associated $
the $s specify that these are absolute references. I f
you copy an absolute cell reference to another cell in
the spreadsheet the row and column will not change.
Wi t hout the $s, the addresses are relative to position.
For example, if we referred to G5 from H5 (no Ss)
them we would be referring to one cell left of H5.
Copy the f ormula in H5 (which refers to G5) to the
cell K9 and what was G5 now would be designated
J9 because J9 is one cell to the left of K9. Always refer
to constants in a f ormula with absolute addresses.
To calculate the expected apparent resistivity from
a three-layer mode, place the layer parameters in a
convenient spot near the top of the spreadsheet.
These model parameters are the imput to the calcu-
lation, you change these values to try a new model.
The model parameters, the filter coefficients, the seed,
and the increment are used with absolute addresses.
Beneath the model parameters (Fig. 1) are two
constants. The seed accommodates the phase shift of
O' Neill' s (1975) filter coefficients; input values (Ls) at
some position x are associated with output values
( apparent resistivity) at x + 6x. Using 2.556757 for
the seed will put the first apparent resistivity value at
a Schlumberger electrode one-half-spacing of 1 m.
Xinc ( -0. 166666) gives the requisite six samples per
integer power of ten.
The labeled columns in Figure 1 step through the
calculation for the apparent resistivity, they progress
from left to right. Figure 1 includes some example
formulae for these columns. The first column is j ust
the row number, 38 rows provide apparent resistivi-
ties for electrode one-half-spacings from 1 to 1000 m.
The second column, L, uses the seed, row, and Xinc
(use absolute references) to calculate Ls for the
resistivity transform. The third column (cryptically
labeled: L d 2 > 230?) tests the product of L and the
thickness of layer 2 so it does not get out of range for
the exponentiation operat or (@EXP). The next two
columns calculate a hyperbolic tangent and the first
step (T2) in the resistivity transf orm [Eq. (6)], respect-
ively. Next, two familiar columns yield the resistivity
transf orm (T1) at the surface. You only have to type
in the formulae ( bottom of Fig. 1) once; the COPY
command will map them to the other 37 rows.
The convolution f ormula (Fig. 1) assumes the 38
values of the resistivity transf orm are in a column
next to the filter coefficients (Table 1). However, the
filter coefficients must have absolute addresses so they
can be in any convenient spot. Envision the filter
coefficients as a one-dimensional array (or column)
next to the column of values containing the resistivity
transform. The convolution is the sum of products
for each filter coefficient with the adj acent value of
the resistitvity transform. The output value ( apparent
resistivity) is fixed next to O' Neill' s coefficient b0. For
each output value, the array of filter coefficients
advances one step ahead of its previous position. The
78 S . D. SHERIFF
Rhol =
Rho2 =
Rho3 =
100 dl = 10.0 (thickness of layer 1)
I 0 d2 = 20.0 (thickness of layer 2)
1000 ohm-meters
Schlumber.qer soundinfl
10( 3( . . . . . . . . . . . . . . t ' " " . . . . . . . . . . ! . . . . . . . " . . . . . . .
! ' ! ! :.! ! ::. ! ' ! ' ! i : .: .! ! : .! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! : .[ :.:.:. :.! ! ! ' ! ! ' ! !:.:.
~ o . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1 0 , . t . " " ; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i . . . . . . . . . " ' : . ~ "
: !
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1 . . . . . : . . . . . . . . . .
10 100 1000
El ec t r ode s p a c i n g ( AI 3' 2; m e t e r s )
Figure 2. Completed spreadsheet setup for interactive mod-
eling. Rho' s are resistivities assigned to layers, dl, d2 are
their thicknesses.
(Fig. 2). Every time you alter one of the model
parameters you get i nst ant graphics-gratification. On
a 20 MHz 386-387 personal comput er, the recalcula-
t i on and graphi ng takes less t han 1 s. This setup is an
excellent tool for designing soundi ng experiments.
You also can play " what i f " to see if soundi ng will
help in a part i cul ar situation, interpret your field
results, or verify anot her interpretation.
The real appeal of programmi ng the probl em on a
spreadsheet is its simplicity. The f orward calculation,
with graphics, can be set up on the spreadsheet in
about 20 min. By using absolute and relative ad-
dresses, the built-in mat h f unctions, and the logic
operators, a commercial spreadsheet is a conveni ent
and rapid high-level programmi ng language for a
wide variety of scientific problems. The immediate
availability of a well designed graphics screen re-
moves a tedious and t i me-consumi ng step f rom many
geologic programmi ng problems.
first apparent resistivity, for a Schlumberger one-half-
spacing of 1 m, is calculated for the fifteenth row of
t ransf orm values (L = 1.1396). The last value, for a
Schlumberger one-half -spacing of 1000 m, is at row
33 (L = 1.1396 * 10- 3) .
The final f ormul a in the example calculates the
electrode spacing against which to plot the apparent
resistivities. This last f ormul a is similar to the f ormul a
for L except that part of the seed resulting f rom the
phase shift (0.056758) is omitted. Position your
measured apparent resistivities, f rom experiments in
the field, in a c ol umn and plot them with the model ' s
apparent resistivities (Fig. 2). I f you want to extend
the capabilities of the spreadsheet, filter coefficients
for the Wenner electrode array are available in Ghosh
(1971b); for di pol e-di pol e soundi ng coefficients see
Das and Ghosh (1974).
Once the spreadsheet is operat i ng properly, set up
a graph of electrode spacing versus apparent resis-
tivity and include a c ol umn for data. When satisfied
with the graph, i mbed or insert it in the spreadsheet
REFERENCES
Basokur, A. T., 1990, Microcomputer program for the
direct interpretation of resistivity sounding data: Com-
puters & Geosciences, v. 16, no. 4, p. 587-601.
Das, U. C., and Ghosh, D. P., 1974, The determination of
filter coefficients for the computation of standard curves
for dipole resistivity sounding over layered earth by
linear digital filtering: Geophysical Prospecting, v. 22,
no. 4, p. 765-780.
Ghosh, D. P., 1971a, The application of linear filter theory
to the direct interpretation of geoelectrical resistivity
sounding measurements: Geophysical Prospecting, v. 19,
no. I, p. 192-217.
Ghosh, D. P., 1971b, Inverse filter coefficients for the
computation of apparent resistivity standard curves for
a horizontally stratified earth: Geophysical Prospecting,
v. 19, no. 4, p. 769-775.
O'Neill, D. J., 1975, Improved linear coefficients for
application in apparent resistivity computations: Bull.
Australian Soc. Exploration Geophysics, v. 6, no. 4, p.
104-109.
Zhody, A. A. R., 1989, A new method for the automatic
interpretation of Schlumberger and Wenner sounding
curves: Geophysics, v. 54, no. 2, p. 245-253.