Speaker
Description
The Einstein Telescope (ET) research infrastructure is envisioned as Europe’s first next-generation underground observatory for gravitational-wave detection. Its engineering design requires a multi-criteria approach capable of identifying and addressing geological, geotechnical, environmental, and landscape challenges. To manage this complexity, a Design Digital Twin (DDT) framework is being developed to integrate Building Information Modelling (BIM), GIS datasets, and multidisciplinary simulations within a unified, data-driven platform.
As part of the ETIC PNRR project, the ET-3G Lab at Sapienza University of Rome has developed an advanced digital multi-scale 3D model for the Sardinia site, identified as the Italian candidate area for the ET installation.
The model is constrained by surface surveys, calibration boreholes, geological and petrophysical data, laboratory tests on undisturbed samples, fracture analyses, and geophysical investigations. It integrates surface and subsurface data at both regional and local scales, combining geological, geophysical, and geotechnical datasets into a coherent reconstruction of the main subsurface features, including lithotypes, faults, fault-related damage zones, and background fracture networks.
The resulting 3D model represents a first effort toward a complete and detailed image of the subsurface, which can be further refined in the future to incorporate new data and the results of ongoing studies.
Made available to the ET scientific community, this model provides an advanced digital tool for subsurface geological management, supporting the minimization of geotechnical risks, the definition of construction strategies, and the implementation of scenario-based design analyses. It also enables robust prediction of key rock properties in three-dimensional space, including lithology, fracture intensity, permeability, P- and S-wave velocities, and density.
In this context, the model is already supporting physics-based studies of Newtonian noise, as well as assessments of the propagation of noise generated by potential wind farm installations in the vicinity of the ET site.