Identifying the changes of geo-engineering properties of dunites due to weathering utilizing electrical resistivity tomography (ERT)

Ömer Ündül, Atiye Tuʇrul, Şenol Özyalin, I. Halil Zarif

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Weathering phenomena have an important role in many construction facilities with varying depths and grades. Due to the anisotropic and heterogeneous nature of weathering profiles of some rocks, uncertainities exist in determining the geo-engineering properties. Geo-electrical studies have been utilized to overcome such uncertainities for various subsurface conditions including the determination of boundaries between weathered and unweathered parts of different rock types. In this study, the electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) results were correlated with conventional methods in determining the effects of weathering on the geo-engineering properties of dunites. During the research, weathering grades were determined by field studies including discontinuity spacings, aperture and properties of fill materials. The detailed petrographical studies, determination of petrophysical properties (e.g. water absorption and effective porosity) and mechanical properties (e.g. unconfined compressive strength (UCS)) constitute the laboratory studies. ERT studies were carried out in a row of sixty electrodes with electrode spacings of 0.5 m utilizing a Wenner-Schlumberger configuration. According to the comparison of the inversion model sections with the weathering profiles obtained by field and laboratory studies it is concluded that the use of ERT with a Wenner-Schlumberger configuration supplies comparable data for wider subsurface areas from the view of weathering and its effect on geo-engineering properties of dunites. In addition, ERT techniques are very useful where conventional techniques are inadequate in determining the full weathering profile.

Original languageEnglish
Article number273
Pages (from-to)273-281
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Geophysics and Engineering
Volume12
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2015
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Sinopec Geophysical Research Institute.

Funding

FundersFunder number
Istanbul ÜniversitesiT-394/08032004

    Keywords

    • electrical resistivity tomography (ERT)
    • geo-engineering properties
    • ultramafic rocks
    • weathering

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