Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale
Doi
Abstract
The aim of this work is to present a 2-D Matlab code based on the finite element method
for providing numerical modelling of both groundwater flow and self-potential signals.
The distribution of the self-potential is obtained by starting with the solution of the
groundwater flow, then computing the source current density, and finally calculating
the electrical potential. The reliability of the algorithm is tested with synthetic case
studies in order to simulate both the electric field resulting from the existence of a leak
in the dam and SP signals associated with a pumping test in an unconfined aquifer. In
addition, the algorithm was applied to field data for the localization of piping sinkholes.
The results show that the outputs of the algorithm yielded satisfactory solutions, which
are in good agreement with those of previous studies and field investigations. In details,
the synthetic data and SP anomalies calculated by using the code are very close in
terms of sign and magnitude, while real data tests clearly indicated that the computed
SP signals were found to be consistent with the measured values