Fluid Effects on Shear for Seismic Waves in Finely Layered Porous Media
Although there are five effective shear moduli for any layered VTI medium, one and only one effective shear modulus of the layered system (namely the uniaxial shear) contains all the dependence of pore fluids on the elastic or poroelastic constants that can be observed in vertically polarized shear waves. Pore fluids can increase the magnitude the shear energy stored in this modulus by an amount that ranges from the smallest to the largest effective shear moduli of the VTI system. But, since there are five shear moduli in play, the overall increase in shear energy due to fluids is reduced by a factor of about 5 in general. We can therefore give definite bounds on the maximum increase of overall shear modulus, being about 20% of the allowed range as liquid is fully substituted for gas. An attendant increase of density (depending on porosity and fluid density) by approximately 5 to 10% decreases the shear wave speed and, thereby, partially offsets the effect of this shear modulus increase. The final result is an increase of shear wave speed on the order of 5 to 10%. This increase is shown to be possible under most favorable circumstances - i.e. when the shear modulus fluctuations are large (resulting in strong anisotropy) and the medium behaves in an undrained fashion due to fluid trapping. At frequencies higher than seismic (such as sonic and ultrasonic waves for well-logging or laboratory experiments), resulting short response times also produce the requisite undrained behavior and, therefore, fluids also affect shear waves at high frequencies by increasing rigidity.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 15014478
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JRNL-205498; GPYSA7; TRN: US200802%%1245
- Journal Information:
- Geophysics, Journal Name: Geophysics; ISSN 0016-8033
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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