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The Coles Hill uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County, VA, is the largest un-mined uranium deposit in the United States. The deposit is located in the Virginia Piedmont in a geologic unit located immediately west of the Chatham Fault, which separates the granitic rocks of the Virginia Piedmont to the west from the metasediments of the Danville Triassic basin to the east. Groundwater at the site flows through a complex interconnected network of fractures controlled by the geology and structural history of the site. In this study groundwater is characterized in a small study area just south of the main deposit. Methods used in this investigation include electrical resistivity profiling, bore hole logging, a pumping test, and age dating and water chemistry. In this thesis groundwater flow is confirmed to occur from the Piedmont crystalline rocks across the Chatham Fault and into the Triassic basin at the study area as evidenced by pumping test data and static water-level data from observation wells. Well logs have identified fractures capable of transmitting water in the granitic rocks of the Piedmont, the Triassic basin metasediments and the Chatham Fault but the largest quantities of flow appear to occur in the Triassic basin. A definable recharge area for the groundwater present at Coles Hill can not yet be determined due to the complexity of the fracture system, but age dating confirms that groundwater is composed of both young and old (>60 years) components, indicating that at least a portion of groundwater at Coles Hill originates from a more distant area. / Master of Science

<p>&nbsp / Characterisation of fractured rock aquifers is important when dealing with groundwater protection and management. Fractures are often good conduits for water and contaminants, leading to high flow velocities and the fast spread of contaminants in these aquifers. A cost effective methodology is required for the characterisation of the role of individual fractures contributing to flow to boreholes in fractured rock aquifers. Literature shows that some of the conventional methods used to characterise hydraulic properties in fractured rock aquifers are expensive, complicated, time consuming and are associated with some disadvantages such as over-or under- estimations of flow rates. iii This thesis evaluates the use of Fluid Electrical Conductivity (FEC) logging in fractured rock aquifers. This FEC data are compared to various traditional methods used to determine aquifer hydraulic properties applied at the Franschhoek and Rawsonville research sites. Both these sites were drilled into the fractured rock Table Mountain Group (TMG) Aquifer, forming one of the major aquifers in South Africa.</p>

<p>&nbsp / Characterisation of fractured rock aquifers is important when dealing with groundwater protection and management. Fractures are often good conduits for water and contaminants, leading to high flow velocities and the fast spread of contaminants in these aquifers. A cost effective methodology is required for the characterisation of the role of individual fractures contributing to flow to boreholes in fractured rock aquifers. Literature shows that some of the conventional methods used to characterise hydraulic properties in fractured rock aquifers are expensive, complicated, time consuming and are associated with some disadvantages such as over-or under- estimations of flow rates. iii This thesis evaluates the use of Fluid Electrical Conductivity (FEC) logging in fractured rock aquifers. This FEC data are compared to various traditional methods used to determine aquifer hydraulic properties applied at the Franschhoek and Rawsonville research sites. Both these sites were drilled into the fractured rock Table Mountain Group (TMG) Aquifer, forming one of the major aquifers in South Africa.</p>

Geophysical methods are frequently applied in conjunction with exploration efforts to increase the understanding of the surveyed area. Their purpose is to determine the nature of the geophysical response of the subsurface, which can reveal the lithological and structural character. By combining geophysical measurements with the drill core data, greater clarity can be achieved about the structures and lithology of the borehole. The purpose of the project was to give the student an opportunity to discover borehole logging operations and to have a greater understanding of the local geology, in particular the iron mineralizations in the apatite iron ore intersected by the boreholes. In order to do this, the student participated in performing a geophysical borehole survey and analyzing the results. These were combined with a drill core log in order to cross plot the results and increase understanding. / Geofysiska metoder används ofta i samband med prospektering för att öka förståelsen av området. Utförda från ytan ger de en relativt god tolkning av vad som kan finnas på djupet och är även kostnadseffektiva jämfört med provborrning. Borrhålsloggning sker däremot efter att själva hålet borrats och ändamålet är ofta att utöka förståelsen om området omedelbart kring det loggade hålet. Genom att kombinera geofysisk fältdata med tolkning av borrkärnan kan man erhålla en ökad förståelse för borrhålets strukturer och litologi. Syftet med det här projektet var att utöka studentens förståelse inom borrhålsloggning, samt att avgöra hur relevant metoden är för att identifiera järnmineraliseringar i apatitjärnmalmen som kännetecknar norra Bergslagen

Magister Scientiae - MSc / Characterisation of fractured rock aquifers is important when dealing with groundwater protection and management. Fractures are often good conduits for water and contaminants, leading to high flow velocities and the fast spread of contaminants in these aquifers. A cost effective methodology is required for the characterisation of the role of individual fractures contributing to flow to boreholes in fractured rock aquifers. Literature shows that some of the conventional methods used to characterise hydraulic properties in fractured rock aquifers are expensive, complicated, time consuming and are associated with some disadvantages such as over-or under- estimations of flow rates. This thesis evaluates the use of Fluid Electrical Conductivity (FEC) logging in fractured rock aquifers. This FEC data are compared to various traditional methods used to determine aquifer hydraulic properties applied at the Franschhoek and Rawsonville research sites. Both these sites were drilled into the fractured rock Table Mountain Group (TMG) Aquifer, forming one of the major aquifers in South Africa. / South Africa

Gas hydrate investigations are converging on a suite of common techniques for hydrate observation and quantification. Samples retrieved and analyzed at full in situ pressures are the ”gold standard” with which the physical and chemical analysis of conventional cores, as well as the interpretation of geophysical data, are calibrated and groundtruthed. Methane mass balance calculations from depressurization of pressure cores provide the benchmark for gas hydrate concentration assessment. Nondestructive measurements of pressure cores have removed errors in the estimation of pore volume, making this methane mass balance technique accurate and robust. Data from methane mass balance used to confirm chlorinity baselines makes porewater freshening analysis more accurate. High-resolution nondestructive analysis of gas-hydratebearing cores at in situ pressures and temperatures also provides detailed information on the in situ nature and morphology of gas hydrate in sediments, allowing better interpretation of conventional core thermal images as well as downhole electrical resistivity logs. The detailed profiles of density and Vp, together with spot measurements of Vs, electrical resistivity, and hardness, provide background data essential for modeling the behavior of the formation on a larger scale. X-ray images show the detailed hydrate morphology, which provides clues to the mechanism of deposit formation and data for modeling the kinetics of deposit dissociation. Gashydrate- bearing pressure cores subjected to X-ray tomographic reconstruction provide evidence that gas hydrate morphology in many natural sedimentary environments is particularly complex and impossible to replicate in the laboratory. Even when only a small percentage of the sediment column is sampled with pressure cores, these detailed measurements greatly enhance the understanding and interpretation of the more continuous data sets collected by conventional coring and downhole logging. Pressure core analysis has become the keystone that links these data sets together and is an essential component of modern gas hydrate investigations.

[pt] Ondas ultrassônicas guiadas são usadas em larga escala em ensaios não destrutivos (END) e Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), permitindo a inspeção de estruturas e equipamentos de forma não invasiva. A partir da transmissão de um sinal acústico sobre uma estrutura e a captação dos sinais de onda propagados por meio de sensores posicionados estrategicamente, é possível obter informações materiais do objeto inspecionado. Na área de óleo e gás, o uso desse tipo de ondas acústicas é de grande importância no levantamento do perfil da camada de cimento que reveste poços, que tem função de conferir integridade estrutural e isolar a estrutura interna de produção do poço das regiões freáticas do entorno. No processo de desativação e abandono do poço, é fundamental avaliar a qualidade do isolamento hidráulico do cimento, assim como identificar possíveis defeitos. A propagação de ondas guiadas em uma estrutura se dá, em geral, por meio de múltiplos modos e apresenta característica dispersiva, que se traduz numa dependência da velocidade de fase das ondas com a frequência, e uma relação não linear entre número de onda e frequência. A relação de dispersão carrega informações do meio de propagação, tal como constantes elásticas e dimensões, e pode ser visualizada a partir de curvas no plano frequência-número de onda (f-k). Diferentes técnicas vêm sendo exploradas para a obtenção das relações de dispersão a partir de sinais no domínio do tempo captados por sensores ultrassônicos em posições espaciais distintas. Este trabalho explora três métodos distintos para a extração das curvas de dispersão, ou seja, obter os pontos f-k associados aos modos de propagação, a partir de um conjunto de sinais dependentes do espaço-tempo. O primeiro algoritmo se baseia em uma técnica pré-existente que usa uma Transformada de Fourier bidimensional (2-D FT) sobre a matriz de dados de sinais de sensores ultrassônicos no espaço-tempo, gerando uma matriz de amplitudes no plano f-k onde os máximos locais representam pontos pertencentes a curvas de dispersão. A representação da matriz como uma imagem f-k permite a visualização das curvas de dispersão como conjuntos contíguos de pixels de maior claridade. Propõe-se um novo algoritmo baseado em operações morfológicas de processamento de imagem para a identificação de pixels relativos aos pontos das curvas de dispersão na imagem f-k, após um préprocessamento da mesma. A segunda técnica consiste no pré-processamento dessa mesma imagem f-k, obtida pela 2-D FT, e uso de um algoritmo préexistente de detecção de estruturas curvilíneas em imagens para identificar os pontos correspondentes às curvas f-k. O terceiro método é uma adaptação, proposta aqui, de um algoritmo pré-existente para estimar os números de onda das curvas de dispersão relativos a cada frequência através de uma matriz Pencil. Propõe-se também um algoritmo original para a separação dos pontos f-k encontrados pelas três técnicas de extração em curvas distintas. Os algoritmos utilizados para a obtenção das curvas de dispersão têm seu desempenho avaliado em três conjuntos de dados distintos de simulações por elementos finitos, a saber, uma de placa de alumínio fina sob distintos valores de tração axial aplicada paralelamente à direção de propagação das ondas; um poço multicamada sem tubing possuindo diferentes tipos de defeito de cimentação-channeling, qualidade de cimento baixa, descolamento interno e externo -, assim como sem defeito; e um pouco multicamada com tubing sob os mesmos defeitos de cimentação e também sem defeito. Compara-se a capacidade dos algoritmos de extração das curvas de dispersão de oferecer informações sobre mudanças materiais entre os casos simulados. Avalia-se também a precisão e custo computacional dos mesmos. / [en] Ultrasonic guided waves are widely used in the fields of Non-Destructive Evaluation (END) and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), allowing the inspection of structures and pieces of equipment in a non-invasive manner. Through the transmission of an acoustic signal over a given object and the acquisition of the signal from the propagated waves using a group of sensors in predefined positions, it is possible to obtain material information regarding the investigated structure. In the Oil & Gas industry, the use of this type of wave is integral to the logging of the cement layer that outlines the walls of wellbores, which has the purpose of guaranteeing structural support and protecting the well’s internal production structure and the surrounding groundwater from each other. During the deactivation and abandonment of a production well, it is necessary to evaluate the hydraulic isolation of the cement layer, as well as identify possible defects. The propagation of guided waves in a structure is usually multi-modal and of dispersive characteristic. The latter means that the propagating waves phase velocity is dependent on the frequency, translating into a non-linear relationship between wavenumber and frequency. This dispersion relation contains information about the propagating medium, such as elastic constants and dimensions, and can be represented as curves in the frequency-wavenumber (f-k) plane. Different methods are currently being explored for obtaining the dispersion relation from time-domain signals acquired by ultrasonic sensors in different spatial positions. This work explored three different methods for the extraction of the dispersion curves, that is, obtaining the f-k points associated with the modes of propagation, from a dataset composed of space-time signals. The first algorithm is based on a pre-existing technique that uses the bidimensional Fourier Transform (2-D FT) over the matrix containing the space-time signals from the ultrasonic sensors, generating an f-k matrix whose local maximas correspond to points belonging to dispersions curves. The representation of the matrix as an f-k image shows the dispersion curves as contiguous groups of pixels with elevated brightness. A new algorithm is proposed, based on morphological operations from image-processing, to identify the pixels relative to the f-k points of the dispersion curves in the image, after pre-processing is performed. The second technique consists of pre-processing the same fk image, obtained from the 2-D FT, and the use of an existing algorithm for the detection of curvilinear structures in images to identify the points corresponding to the f-k curves. The third method proposes the adaptation of an existing method of estimation of the wavenumbers associated with the dispersion curves for different frequencies, using a matrix Pencil. This work also proposes an original algorithm to separate the f-k points, retrieved by the three techniques, in different curves associated with each mode of propagation. The algorithms used here for the estimation of the dispersion curves are evaluated over three distinct datasets of finite elements simulation: a thin aluminum plate under different values of axial traction parallel to the direction of propagation of the waves; a multilayer wellbore without tubing, with different types of cement defects-channeling, low cement quality, internal and external decoupling-, and without defect; a multilayer wellbore with tubing with the same cement defects and with no defect. Finally, a comparison is drawn over the capacity of the extraction algorithms of providing information regarding changes in the material qualities of the simulated objects. The work also evaluates the precision and computational performance of the aforementioned algorithms.