Stochastic inversion of permeability and dispersivities from time lapse self-potential measurements: A controlled sandbox study

Abstract

We test the ability of the self-potential method to provide information that can be used to invert the permeability and the dispersivities of a porous material. We first formulate the semi-coupled system of equations describing the occurrence of self-potential signals associated with the transport of salt in a porous material like sand. Two contributions in the source current density arise from the electrokinetic coupling associated with the flow of the pore water and the diffusion potential due to the gradient in the activity of the salt. A controlled laboratory sandbox experiment is performed to show that time-lapse self-potential measurements can be used to invert, in a Bayesian framework, the permeability and dispersivities. Copyright © 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.