Increasing the effectiveness of electrical resistivity tomography using γ11n configurations

A new array type, i.e., the γ_11n arrays, is introduced in this paper, in which the sequence of the current (C) and potential (P) electrodes is CPCP, and the distance between the last two electrodes is n times the distance between the first two ones and that of the second one and the third one. These arrays are called quasinull arrays because they are—according to their array and behaviour—between the traditional and null arrays. It is shown by numerical modelling that, in detecting small‐effect inhomogeneity, these configurations may be more effective than the traditional ones, including the optimized Stummer configuration. Certain γ_11n configurations—especially the γ₁₁₂, γ_113, and γ₁₁₄—produced better results both in horizontal and vertical resolution investigations. Based on the numerical studies, the γ_11n configurations seem to be very promising in problems where the anomalies are similar to the numerically investigated ones, i.e., they can detect and characterize, e.g., tunnels, caves, cables, tubes, abandoned riverbeds, or discontinuity, in a clay layer with greater efficacy than those of the traditional configurations. γ_11n measurements need less data than traditional configurations; therefore, the time demand of electrical resistivity tomography measurements can be shortened by their use.