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Application of digital filtering techniques for reducing and analyzing in-situ seismic time series

University of British Columbia

The introduction of digital filtering is a new and exciting approach in analyzing in-situ seismic data. Digital filters are also in the same spirit as the electric cone which replaced the mechanical cone in CPT* testing. That is, it is desirable to automate CPT testing in order to make it less operator dependent and increase the reliability and accuracy. In CPT seismic cone testing seismic waves are generated at the surface and recorded downhole with velocity or acceleration transducers. The seismic receivers record the different seismic wavelets (e.g., SV-waves, P-waves) allowing one to determine shear and compression wave velocities. In order to distinguish the different seismic events, an instrument with fast response time is desired (i.e., high natural frequency and low damping). This type of instrument is characteristic of an accelerometer. The fast response time (small time constant) of an accelerometer results in a very sensitive instrument with corresponding noisy time domain characteristics. One way to separate events is to characterize the signal frequencies and remove unwanted frequencies. Digital filtering is ideal for this application. The techniques of digital filtering introduced in this research are based on frequency domain filtering, where Fast Fourier, Butterworth Filter, and crosscorrelation algorithms are implemented. One based on time domain techniques, where a Kalman Filter is designed to model'the instrument and the physical environment. The crosscorrelation method allows one to focus on a specific wavelet and use all the information of the wavelets present averaging out any noises or irregularities and relying upon dominant responses. The Kalman Filter was applied in a manner in which it modelled the sensors used and the physical environment of the body waves and noise generation. The KF was investigated for its possible application to obtaining accurate estimates on the P-wave and S-wave amplitudes and arrival times. The KF is a very flexible tool which allows one to model the problem considered accurately. In addition, the KF works in the time domain which removes many of the limitations of the frequency domain techniques. The crosscorrelation filter concepts are applied by a program referred to as CROSSCOR. CROSSCOR is a graphics interactive program which displays the frequency spectrums, unfiltered and filtered time series and crosscorrelations on a mainframe graphics terminal which has been adapted to run on the IBM P.C. CROSSCOR was tested for performance by analyzing synthetic and real data. The results from the analysis on both synthetic and real data indicate that CROSSCOR is an accurate and user friendly tool which greatly assists one in obtaining seismic velocities. The performance of the Kalman Filter was analyzed by generating a source wavelet and passing it through the second order instrumentation. The second order response is then fed into the KF with the arrival time and maximum amplitude being determined. The filter was found to perform well and it has much promise in respect that if it is finely turned, it would be possible to obtain arrival times and amplitudes on line resulting in velocities and damping characteristics, respectively. * Cone Penetration Test

Text

2010-09-09

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28364

Civil Engineering

University of British Columbia

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