S-wave attenuation in fluid-saturated rocks containing connected and unconnected fractures
Journal article, 2014

Biot’s equations of poroelasticity were solved to study the effects of fracture connectivity on S-wave attenuation caused by wave-induced fluid flow at the mesoscopic scale. The methodology was based on numerical quasistatic pure-shear experiments performed on models of water-saturated rocks containing pairs of either connected or unconnected fractures of variable inclination. Each model corresponded to a representative elementary volume of a periodic medium. Inertial terms were neglected, and hence, the observed attenuation was entirely due to wave-induced fluid flow at the mesoscopic scale. We found that when fractures are not connected, fluid flow in the embedding matrix governs S-wave attenuation, whereas fluid flow through highly permeable fractures, from one fracture into the other one, may dominate when fractures are connected. Each of these energy-dissipation phenomena has a distinct characteristic frequency, with the S-wave attenuation peak associated with flow through connected fractures occurring at higher frequencies than that associated with flow in the embedding matrix. Exploring a range of geometric arrangements of either connected or unconnected fractures at different inclinations, we also observed that the magnitude of S-wave attenuation at both characteristic frequencies shows a strong dependence on fracture inclination. For comparison, we performed quasistatic uniaxial compressibility tests to compute P-wave attenuation in the same models. We found that the attenuation patterns of S-waves tend to differ fundamentally from those of P-waves with respect to fracture inclination. The attenuation characteristics of P- and S-waves in fractured media are thus, largely complementary. With respect to fracture connectivity, we observed that S-wave attenuation tends to follow a specific pattern, indeed, more consistently than that of the P-waves. Our results point to the promising perspective of combining estimates of attenuation of P- and S-waves to infer information on fracture connectivity as well as on the effective permeability of fractured media.

rock physics

shear wave attenuation

fractures

Author

Beatriz Quintal

University of Lausanne

Ralf Jänicke

Ruhr-Universität Bochum

J. German Rubino

University of Lausanne

Holger Steeb

Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Klaus Holliger

University of Lausanne

Geophysics

0016-8033 (ISSN) 19422156 (eISSN)

Vol. 79 WB15-WB24

Subject Categories

Applied Mechanics

Civil Engineering

Geophysics

DOI

10.1190/geo2013-0409.1

More information

Latest update

11/26/2019