Introduction To Geophone, Its Working Principle And Various Applications

A geophone can be defined as a ground motion transducer which is used by seismologists and geophysicists to convert ground movement into voltage. Any deflection in this measured voltage from the base line is known as seismic response, which is used for examining the earth’s structure. Resonance frequency is the primary factor in a geophone, and it needs to be low for measuring low-frequency signals more accurately. On the contrary, geophone must also exhibit high bandwidth to measure high-frequency signals. However, most of the latest high sensitivity and high temperature geophones include mechanical springs that reduces performance of the device significantly. Feeding back the geophone output can alter geophone’s sensitivity with respect to its frequency, and this can result in amplification of low frequency signals. Resolution of a geophone can be extended further by controlling position of proof mass.

Working Principal

Typically geophone consists of a mass suspended with the help of mechanical springs. The geophone housing as well as the suspended mass starts moving at the application of velocity at frequencies lower than the resonance frequency. The mass is held stationary for frequencies higher than the resonance frequency. The movement of mass depends on either coils or magnets. The response of a coil or magnet geophone interestingly is proportional to the ground velocity.

Applications Of Geophone

Geophones are utilized for several industrial applications for vibration isolation requirements and to sense absolute velocity to achieve a higher accuracy and precision level. Geophone technology is used to measure absolute velocity for high-level inspection and lithographic applications to determine payload disturbances caused due to moving parts and other external factors.
Geophones also find use in positioning and controlling complex lens systems. Leakage detection in oil and gas fields, and earthquake prediction are some of its major applications.

Available Products

The geophones provided by the high sensitivity geophones suppliers in Texas and other states are highly sophisticated, and they function based on the magnetic field generated by a coil suspended in a magnetic field. The seismic industry market demands robust specifications to meet with the standards of a seismic survey.
 
The SM-24 Rotating Coil Geophone, in particular, is an industrial standard and is designed by ION’s sensor. It provides high performance in seismic exploration and provides 2D and 3D high-fidelity data.

Hope this article was useful for you, and you were able to learn something new today about geophones. An interesting fact that we forgot to mention before is that a network of geophones has been used on the moon surface as well.

Author: The author is a blogger and the article is about geophones.