The application of transient electromagnetic method in tunnel exploration
Zhenguang Zhang*, Zhaofa Zeng, Xiaodong Sun, Xuegang Wang, Rongqin He
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College of Geo-Exploration Science and Technology, Jilin University, Changchun 130026, China
0 Summary
Along with economic development, large tunnels need to be
built in many high mountains or complex structure areas. S
o the tunnel survey and design of construction become mor
e and more important. As a kind of line source launching a
pulse magnetic field, receiving secondary field of an electro
magnetic prospecting method, transient electromagnetic me
thod (TEM) is widely applied in mineral prospecting, engin
eering geology, etc. This paper studies the application of tra
nsient electromagnetic method in tunnel construction. It pro
vides a reliable geophysical basis for dividing strata, geolog
ical structure and the pavement design of the tunnel. Under
the TEM of work, cooperating with drilling, high density m
ethod, the construction of the Kaiyuan tunnel achieved very
satisfactory results.
1 Introduction
In recent years, with the development of national economy,
the construction of high-speed railway, highway, urban rail
transit projects, large-scale tunnels need more and more. Th
e schedule and safety of tunnel construction are the bottlen
eck of the whole project progress, and karst fissure water is
often encountered in the tunnel construction, which can easi
ly lead to water burst, deformation of supporting and collap
se and so on. It seriously affects the construction progress a
nd safety. Currently, people use geological and geophysical
exploration methods and combinate auxiliary drilling to im
plement tunnel exploration at home and abroad. Because of
the complexity of geological problems, the geology method
exist error, though drilling can get accurate data, it costs to
o much and affects the construction progress. Currently geo
physical methods what we use mainly include: geological g
round penetrating radar method and seismic negative appar
ent velocity method, land sonar method, etc. As a kind of si
mple, high efficiency of exploration methods, TEM has a g
ood applicability in the tunnel survey and design. The appli
cation of transient electromagnetic in tunnel survey become
s more and more since 2003. In 2003, LI Xiu and ZHONG
Shihang began with using the transient electromagnetic sou
nding tunnel adverse geological water body. 2003 to 2005,
"Use transient electromagnetic method to forecast of the tun
nel construction constraints in front of the bad geological b
ody" became a traffic scientific research project in shaanxi
province. In 2010, Li Shucai detected the low resistance san
dwich in front of tunnel face. Based on the collection of pre
decessors' research information, this paper analysis study of
transient electromagnetic at home and abroad, applied trans
ient electromagnetic method to Kaiyuan tunnel, combined
with geological data, high-density electrical method, drillin
g and actual excavation, to contrast analysis with TEM inve
rsion results, and carry on the summary of the results, achie
ved good application effect. Appling Transient electromagn
©The Society of Exploration Geophysicists and the Chinese Geophysical Society
2017 CGS/SEG International Geophysical Conference
Qingdao, China, 17-20 April 2017
*Author introduction:Zhang Zhenguang, Male, Graduate. E-mail:239291354@qq.com
etic method to tunnel survey, regardless of the target body o
ccurrence, we can receive the useful signals, and get the tar
get image. We can find out the engineering geological cond
itions, to provide reliable theory of the division formation, f
ramed structure, the design of tunnel construction.
2 The basic principle of transient electromagnetic metho
d
Transient electromagnetic method (TEM) is a time domain
electromagnetic method, which is a geophysical method de
veloped in recent years. It observes secondary electromagne
tic field, which can greatly simplify the study of abnormal f
ields produced by geological object and improve the detecti
on ability or effectiveness. The secondary field of good con
ductive medium decays faster more than bad conductive me
dium. With processing and analysis of secondary field, we c
an obtain the relevant physical parameters of underground
medium.
The main features of methods are: (1) It can’t get abnormal
interferences in high resistance area. (2) The abnormal resp
onse is strong, which has a simple form and good layered a
bility. (3) It’s a simple measurement with high efficiency.
(4) It has the ability of through cover layer with low resista
nce. (5) It provides more useful information, which profiles
measurement and sounding work done at the same time. It c
an reduce the multiple solutions. The transmission of electr
omagnetic field in underground media is often used the "sm
oke ring effect" to describe (figure 1). During early time, T
EM field is produced by the near surface induced current, w
hich reflects the shallow medium electrical distribution. Du
ring late time, mainly TEM field is produced by the induced
current of deep medium, which reflects the deep medium el
ectrical distribution. Therefore, through observation and stu
dy the TEM field over time, we can detect the electrical ver
tical changes. This is the principle of transient electromagne
tic sounding.
Fig.1 Equivalent vortex ring in a half space
3 Transient electromagnetic exploration of Kaiyuan tun
nel
3.1 Regional geological background
489
 The application of transient electromagnetic method in tunnel exploration
The exploration area islocated in the low hilly land and den
udation accumulation tilt piedmont plain transition zone. O
n the tectonic units it belongs to Luxi anteclise Jinan-Mings
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hui monoclinic, which main lithology is the ordovician mid
dle (O2) dark gray thick layer of pure limestone diorite. Ov
erall dip direction is east to east south, dip gently, crack dev
elopment direction is same with the main structure line dire
ction which is major of north of the north east and north of t
he north west.
Due to the geological structure, topography, geomorpholog
y, meteorological, hydrological and other factors, there are
significant differences in the intensity of karstification. The
main rule for of karst development in this area:
(1) Limestone of the ordovician thick layers, a mountain o
f oolitic limestone fissure Cambrian Zhangxia group get a d
evelopment.
(2) Karst development in the contact area of limestone and l
ava layer.
(3) Karst development has close relationship with structure,
fracture side, fold the crankshaft surface is the good place
of karst development.
(4) Shallow karst developed more than deep karst, it develo
ped in depth of 50 ~ 150 m (elevation - 25 ~ - 165 meters)in
Jinan.
(5) Large water-eroded cave development to a certain level,
such as measuring district Long cave, dark valley cave whi
ch elevation are 300 m.
The new tectonic movement is given priority to with rose in
this area. The new structure according to the China earthqu
ake catalogue records, The new structure is affected by th
e peripheral earthquake. From 1375 to 1979, there are 28 ea
rthquake records in Jinan city, which had destructive earthq
uake two times. According to the seismic intensity zoning
map of China, the basic seismic intensity of this area is Ⅵ d
egree.
The groundwater type is the water in carbonate fissure. Acc
ording to the buried conditions, the thickness of covering so
il generally less than 10 m. It has weak karst development a
nd poor connectivity, which causes the leakge of atmospher
ic precipitation and surface runoff, and the buried of deep u
nderground water level is generally 50 ~ 100 m.
3.2 Detecting job design
We add detection work because of relocating of Kaiyuan tu
nnel. Considering the difficult and complex terrain, other ge
ophysical method is hard to construction, therefore the TE
M is used to detect in the earth's surface, which is to detect
and underground rock classification and provide guidance f
or tunnel design and construction. The transient electromag
netic field detection work, completed 23 points. We adopte
d the central loop method to detect which the length of wire
frame is 25 meters and the length of center of the coil is 1
m. In order to improve the ectromagnetic radiation and effic
iency reception, transmitter coil and receive coil using coars
er cable. We measured by the launch of 8 hz frequency, po
wer supply current of 7 A, accept time window of 54.07 to
24.29 milliseconds.
©The Society of Exploration Geophysicists and the Chinese Geophysical Society
2017 CGS/SEG International Geophysical Conference
Qingdao, China, 17-20 April 2017
4 The inversion results and interpretation
According to drilling data, it is concluded that formation of
rock classification, The upper high resistance is ordovician l
imestone, the lower low resistance is weathered diorite and
argillaceous limestone.
According to the high density resistivity method data, it is c
oncluded that formation boundary, fault fracture zone and c
ave position.
Fig. 2 Transient electromagnetic measurement attenuati
on curve
According to the measurement of transient electromagnetic
decay curve, it can be seen that the measurement point most
belong to the type D curve (fig. 2). Through inversion we o
btained apparent resistivity and depth, fig. 3 and fig. 4 are a
pparent resistivity profiles of Kaiyuan tunnel left and right
of transient electromagnetic inversion result respectively. B
y the figure we can see resistivity distribution: the upper ch
aracterized by high resistance characteristics, according to d
rilling data analysis, high resistance of the resistivity anoma
ly reflects the ordovician limestone which water content is
very small. The lower for low resistance characteristics, refl
ecting the weathered diorite and argillaceous limestone, Th
e two types of the resistivity of the rock relative to the uppe
r limestone have low resistivity, and the moisture content in
creased. But the lower rock types have a difference and resi
stivity difference is not big, but with the increase of depth, t
he resolution of the probe is reduced and it is difficult to dis
tinguish the boundaries of the rocks.
LK3+750-LK4+220 section: Look from the horizontal, it sh
ows the step up. Namely in the vicinity of LK3+750, the up
per limestone bottom interface elevation is 100 meters, and
after LK4 + 000, the upper limestone elevation is about 170
-180 m with the larger extent.
RK3+750-RK4+230 section: From the horizontal point of v
iew, it also shows the step up with smaller extent. In the vic
inity of RK3+750, the upper limestone bottom interface ele
vation is 120 meters, and after the RK4+000, the upper lime
stone elevation is 160 meters.
Comparing two hole line of tunnel, we can see the step up o
f parts are roughly same. Looking from the plane, the botto
490
 The application of transient electromagnetic method in tunnel exploration

m of the upper high resistance limestone diorite inclines to

wards the south, which caused diorite founded near the drill
ing ZK-6 (located in the north 25 meters of left tunnel) elev
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ation is 174 meters, and the position on the left picture proj
ection, diorite interface elevation is 154 meters, and positio
n on the right picture projection, elevation is 110 meters. G
enerally, it shows the tendency of lower from north to south.
According to the result of the above analysis, we can see th
e geological profile that we concluded in figure5, figure 6. I
t's visible to see that fault dip angle is bigger generally, the r
ole of the fault caused the ladder step up of the region. Loca
l position exists in the high resistance limestone has low res
istance body which are inferred of limestone dissolution or
broken parts.
Based on the detection results of transient electromagnetic, Fig.4 Right picture of apparent resistivity profile of Kai
we can get that in the region of Kaiyuan tunnel, formation r yuan tunnel
esistivity on the longitudinal characterized is upper abnorm
al high resistance, and lower performance is low resistivity
anomalies. The upper is the ordovician knee high resistance
(O2) dark gray thick layer of pure limestone of high resista
nce ordovician and the lower is weathered diorite and argill
aceous limestone.
According to the distribution of upper high resistance in the
cross section of the limestone, there are three fault we infer
red. The fault is characterized by high dip angle and it's nort
h west direction in plane.
We use transient electromagnetic method and high density
method combined with drilling data and get the tunnel const
ruction height and route. It provides the reliable theory basi
s for the construction of the Kaiyuan tunnel.

Fig.5 Left interpretation result image of transient electr

omagnetic of Kaiyuan tunnel.

Fig.3 Left picture of apparent resistivity profile of Kaiy

uan tunnel

Fig.6 Right interpretation result image of transient elec

tromagnetic of Kaiyuan tunnel.

5 Conclusion
Through prospecting of the transient electromagnetic metho
d, this paper combined the inversion results with high densi
ty, drilling data and comparative analysis of geological char

©The Society of Exploration Geophysicists and the Chinese Geophysical Society

2017 CGS/SEG International Geophysical Conference
Qingdao, China, 17-20 April 2017
491
 The application of transient electromagnetic method in tunnel exploration

acteristics of the tunnel engineering, then the tunnel was de

signed and constructed. From the comprehensive compariso
n and analysis of the survey results and the actual tunnel co
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nstruction situation, we obtained satisfying application effe

ct. The results showed that the result of transient electroma
gnetic method in tunnel design and construction are very co
nsistant with the actual situation, which mains that transient
electromagnetic has a broad application prospect in the des
ign of the tunnel. But in the actual application process, the t
ransient electromagnetic method also exists many problems,
such as steel arch, metal anchor supporting structure's influ
ence on the measurement results. So it should be noted that
due to the uncertainty of geophysical prospecting, complete
ly dependent on the single geophysical exploration method
is not enough to solve the problem of tunnel design and con
struction, we need more method to proceed comprehensive
analysis and judgment, then we can get more scientific and
accurate results.

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©The Society of Exploration Geophysicists and the Chinese Geophysical Society

2017 CGS/SEG International Geophysical Conference
Qingdao, China, 17-20 April 2017
492