Multi‐mode non‐linear inversion of Rayleigh wave dispersion curves with grey wolf optimization and cuckoo search algorithm

Abstract Dispersion curve inversion is one of the core contents of Rayleigh wave data processing. However, the dispersion curve inversion has the characteristics of multi‐parameter, multi‐extremum as well as nonlinearity. In the face of Rayleigh wave data processing under complex seismic‐geological conditions, it is difficult to reconstruct an underground structure quickly and accurately apply a single global‐searching non‐linear inversion algorithm. For this reason, we proposed a strategy to invert multi‐order mode Rayleigh wave dispersion curves by combining with grey wolf optimization (GWO) and cuckoo search (CS) algorithms. On the basis of introducing the mechanism of iterative chaotic map with infinite collapses (ICMIC) and the strategy of dimension learning–based hunting (DLH), an improved GWO was developed that was called IDGWO (ICMIC and DLH GWO). After searching the near‐optimal region through IDGWO, the CS with a variable step‐size Lévy flight search mechanism was switched adaptively to complete the final inversion. The correctness of our method was verified by the multi‐order mode dispersion curve inversion of a six‐layer high‐velocity interlayer model. Then it was further applied to the processing of real seismic datasets. The research results show that our method fully utilizes the advantages of each of the two global‐searching non‐linear algorithms after integrating IDGWO and CS, while effectively balancing the ability between global search and local exploitation, further improving the convergence speed and inversion accuracy and having good anti‐noise performance.