ERTdesign - FullWaver module

The FullWaver module of ERTdesign is a survey design tool for deep resistivity and induced polarization measurements, to be performed with IRIS-Instruments FullWaver devices.

Planning a survey with this tool requires a few simple steps.

  1. Define the survey area by importing a polyline or a polygon from a Google Earth TM KMZ/KML file or by using interface commands to specify a layout.
  2. Set the requested maximum depth of investigation.
  3. Define in a flexible way the geometry of the receiving electrodes for the V-FullWaver boxes.
  4. If needed, use the advanced options to configure any additional parameters, such as constraints on the location or on the maximum length of the transmitting dipoles, or other.

On the basis of the defined configuration, the software automatically detects the layout for receivers and the combination of transmitters needed to achieve the coverage and the required depth of investigation and allows to easily monitor, with the support of advanced plots, the main survey parameters:

  • depth of investigation and maximum sensitivity for all combinations of RX/TX.
  • Expected Vmn signal at the receivers, given the background resistivity (ohm m) of the site and the input current intensity (mA) at transmitters.
  • Geometric factors for quadrupoles.
  • Automatic alerts in case of low Vmn potentials or risk of overload at receivers.

The combination of transmitting dipoles is optimized to reduce the electrode movings and to speed up fieldwork. The set of transmitters and receivers can be exported to KML file, displayed on Google Earth TM, modified to take into account of any restrictions on the arrangement of the sensors, imported back into ERTdesign to allow for re-evaluation. Generated placeholders, divided by type (V-Fullwaver box, RX electrodes, TX electrodes, survey area) can be transferred to data-loggers of the most common GPS devices and used for stakeout activities on site. ERTdesign is compatible with the ViewLab3D and ERTLab64 softwares for modeling, inversion and visualization of 3D ERT measurements: the project can be exported to DATA file and used on advanced modeling tasks for complex topography and three-dimensional distributions of subsoil resistivity and chargeability.

The transmitting sequence is exportable on spreadsheet to HTML editable file, to be used on site to keep track of injections and control every single step of the survey.