Low frequency vibrator transformation

Abstract

Summary A seismic vibrator has been transformed into a powerful low frequency source by taking advantage of an underutilized asset: the carrier vehicle’s mass. At very low frequencies, a portion of vehicle mass is compliantly coupled to the reaction mass by hydraulic dampers. This increased its output force at very low frequencies by a factor of about 4 and improved its ground force waveforms as well. A revised method of estimating ground force has been implemented and verified with load cells. A small investment has made a smaller obsolete vibrator outperform the newest and best vibrators at 2 Hertz and below