INTRAVAL project phase 2: Analysis of stripa 3D data by a deconvolution technique

The data analysed in this report were obtained in tracer experiments performed from a specially excavated drift in good granite rock at the level of 360 m below the ground in the Stripa mine. Tracer transport paths from the injection points to the collecting sheets at the tunnel walls were tens of meters long. Data for six tracers that arrived in measurable concentrations were elaborated by different means of data analysis to reveal the transport behaviour of solutes in the rock fractures. Techniques like direct inversion of the data, Fourier analysis, Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) and non-negative least squares fitting (NNLS) were employed. A newly developed code based on a general-purpose approach for solving deconvolution-type or integral equation problems, Extreme Value Estimation (EVE), proved to be a very helpful tool in deconvolving impulse responses from the injection flow rates and break-through curves of tracers and assessing the physical confidence of the results.