Journal of the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers ISSN:2288-0291(Print) 2288-2790(Online) 한국자원공학회지

A robust three-dimensional (3-D) inversion method has been developed for imaging resistivity distribution of a rock sample. Resistivity inversion has recently become important in non-invasive evaluation and nondestructive testing of materials and structures. However, the majority of existing procedures for reconstructing resistivity distribution proved by electrical fields have been primarily based on linearized inversion techniques such as those used in diffraction or diffusion tomography. To overcome the limitations of linear reconstruction approaches we employ an iterative scheme, which requires the repeated solution of the forward problem. Our inversion algorithm uses the finite element method to generate forward solutions for complex 3-D models and the reciprocity principle for the efficient evaluation of the Jacobian matrix. To stabilize the inversion process a regularization parameter is selected to achieve the minimum misfit between observed and modeled data at each iteration. The inversion scheme has been tested on its stability and efficiency using synthetic data and shows a sufficient ability to give a clear image of the resistivity distribution of a rock sample.