PDE-Based Two-Dimensional Radiomagnetotelluric forward Modelling Using Vertex-Centered Finite-Volume Scheme

Abstract

An efficient finite-volume algorithm, based on the vertex-centered technique, is proposed for solving two-dimensional radiomagnetotelluric forward modeling. Firstly, we derive the discrete expressions of the radiomagnetotelluric Helmholtz-type equation and the corresponding mixed boundary conditions using the vertex-centered finite-volume technique. Then, the corresponding approximate solutions of the radiomagnetotelluric forward problem can be calculated by applying the finite-volume scheme to treat the boundary conditions. Secondly, we apply the finite-volume algorithm to solve two-dimensional Helmholtz equations and the resistivity half-space model. Numerical experiments demonstrate the high accuracy of the proposed approach. Finally, we summarize the radiomagnetotelluric responses through a numerical simulation of a two-dimensional model, which enables qualitative interpretation of field data. Furthermore, our numerical method can be extended and implemented for three-dimensional radiomagnetotelluric forward modeling to achieve more accurate computation.

Keywords

• radiomagnetotelluric
• forward modelling
• finite-volume algorithm
• vertex-centered technique
• two-dimensional