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Seismic dispersion and attenuation in layered porous rocks with fractures of varying orientations
Author(s) -
Xu Denghui,
Han Tongcheng,
Fu LiYun
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
geophysical prospecting
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.735
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1365-2478
pISSN - 0016-8025
DOI - 10.1111/1365-2478.13038
Subject(s) - attenuation , geology , poromechanics , seismic anisotropy , anelastic attenuation factor , seismic wave , anisotropy , dispersion (optics) , fluid dynamics , porous medium , porosity , fracture (geology) , hydrogeology , flow (mathematics) , geophysics , mineralogy , geotechnical engineering , mechanics , optics , physics , mantle (geology)
Wave‐induced fluid flow plays an important role in affecting the seismic dispersion and attenuation of fractured porous rocks. While numerous theoretical models have been proposed for the seismic dispersion and attenuation in fractured porous rocks, most of them neglect the wave‐induced fluid flow resulting from the background anisotropy (e.g. the interlayer fluid flow between different layers) that can be normal in real reservoirs. Here, according to the theories of poroelasticity, we present an approach to study the frequency‐dependent seismic properties of more realistic and complicated rocks, i.e. horizontally and periodically layered porous rock with horizontal and randomly orienting fractures, respectively, distributed in one of the two periodical layers. The approach accounts for the dual effects of the wave‐induced fluid flow between the fractures and the background pores and between different layers (the interlayer fluid flow). Because C 33 (i.e., the modulus of the normally incident P‐wave) is directly related to the P‐wave velocity widely measured in the seismic exploration, and its comprehensive dispersion and attenuation are found to be most significant, we study mainly the effects of fracture properties and the stiffness contrast between the different layers on the seismic dispersion and attenuation of C 33 . The results show that the increasing stiffness contrast enhances the interlayer fluid flow of the layered porous rocks with both horizontal and randomly orienting fractures and weakens the wave‐induced fluid flow between the fractures and the background pores, especially for the layered porous rock with horizontal fractures. The modelling results also demonstrate that for the considered rock construction, the increasing fracture density reduces the interlayer fluid flow while improves the dispersion and attenuation in the fracture‐relevant frequency band. Increasing fracture aspect ratio is found to reduce the dispersion and attenuation in the fracture‐relevant frequency band only, especially for the layered porous rock with horizontal fractures.