Simulating the Detection of Tunnels Using the Electrical Resistance Method

Today, the use of tunnels is one of the favorite strategies of armies as well as guerilla forces, and in many cases it is considered one of the important factors of victory. Due to the high contrast of the specific electrical resistance of tunnels with the host environment, the specific electrical resistance method can be called as the most powerful near-surface method for detecting such structures. In this study, conventional electrical tomography arrays have been simulated in order to detect tunnels using the forward modeling method. Based on the obtained results, the dipole-dipole, polar-dipole and Wenner-Schlumberger arrays have the best response in their sections to the presence of the tunnel, and the Wenner array has a weaker sensitivity than all of them. Also, in this study, based on the principle of changing the geometrical  parameters (depth and size) of the tunnel as well as the conductive overburden, solutions have been proposed to hide the tunnels from the field of view of the arrays.