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Effect of
Spherical
Pore Shapes on Acoustic Properties in Carbonates*
By
Gregor T. Baechle1, Layaan Al-Kharusi1, Gregor P. Eberli1, Austin Boyd2,
and Alan Byrnes3
Search and Discovery Article #50047 (2007)
Posted July 30, 2007
*Adapted from oral presentation at AAPG Annual Convention, Long Beach, April 1-4, 2007
1University of Miami, Miami, FL ([email protected])
2Schlumberger, Ridgefield, CT
3Kansas Geological Survey, Lawrence, KS
Twenty-eight
mono-mineral oomoldic carbonate samples with near-
spherical
pores show a large
scatter in a velocities – porosity plot that is caused by inter-crystalline
porosity in the re-crystallized rock frame. This finding questions the
assumption that
spherical
pores have a dominant effect on the p-
wave
velocity.
Vp and Vs is simultaneously measured at a frequency of 1MHz and under increasing
effective stress from 3 MPa to 30 MPa. We observe large variations in velocities
between 3200 m/s and 6500 m/s and a large scatter in the p-
wave
velocity –
porosity relationship. The p-
wave
velocity shows up to 2500m/s difference at a
given porosity. The velocity increases between 250 and 750m/s with pressures
from 3 to 30MPa. The bulk of the samples show increasing Vp/Vs ratios with
pressurization, up to values between 1.7 and 1.84. The ratio of normalized bulk
versus shear modulus is ranging from 0.7 to 0.9. Several samples have been
chosen for fluid substitution and saturated “in-situ” with 7 different pore
fluids. Significant effect of fluid changes on velocity is observed. A linear
correlation exists between bulk modulus and fluid modulus (r2 > 0.97). In
contrast, shear modulus changes correlated with the viscosity of the fluids: the
lower the fluid viscosity, the lower the shear modulus. Our results question
common hypothesizes for modeling pore structure effects on acoustic properties
in carbonates; (a) P-
wave
velocity is controlled by the amount of
spherical
pores, and (b) the velocity in oomoldic rocks is insensitive to fluid and
pressure changes because of high aspect ratio pores.
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Not dominant pore type, but minor inter-crystalline pore type in rock frame causes slow velocity at given porosity.
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