The role of surface tension in elastic wave scattering in an inhomogeneous poroelastic medium

It is well known that many porous media such as rocks have heterogeneities at nearly all scales. We applied Biot's poroelastic theory to study the propagation of elastic waves in isotropic porous matrix with spherical inclusions. It is assumed that the heterogeneity dimension exceeds significantly the pore size. Modified boundary conditions on poroelastic interface are used to take into account the surface tension effects. The effective wavenumber is calculated using the Waterman and Truell multiple scattering theory, which relates the effective wave number to the amplitude of the wave field scattered by a single inclusion. The calculations were performed for a medium containing fluid-filled cavities or porous inclusions contrasting in saturating fluid elastic properties. The results obtained show that when we consider elastic wave propagation in poroelastic medium containing soft inclusions, it is necessary to take into account the capillary pressure. The influence of the surface tension depends on the diffraction parameter and it is a maximum in the low frequency range.     

The role of surface tension in elastic wave scattering in an inhomogeneous poroelastic medium

It is well known that many porous media such as rocks have heterogeneities at nearly all scales. We applied Biot's poroelastic theory to study the propagation of elastic waves in isotropic porous matrix with spherical inclusions. It is assumed that the heterogeneity dimension exceeds significantly the pore size. Modified boundary conditions on poroelastic interface are used to take into account the surface tension effects. The effective wavenumber is calculated using the Waterman and Truell multiple scattering theory, which relates the effective wave number to the amplitude of the wave field scattered by a single inclusion. The calculations were performed for a medium containing fluid-filled cavities or porous inclusions contrasting in saturating fluid elastic properties. The results obtained show that when we consider elastic wave propagation in poroelastic medium containing soft inclusions, it is necessary to take into account the capillary pressure. The influence of the surface tension depends on the diffraction parameter and it is a maximum in the low frequency range.     

Fast compressional wave attenuation and dispersion due to conversion scattering into slow shear waves in randomly heterogeneous porous media

Within the viscosity-extended Biot framework of wave propagation in porous media, the existence of a slow shear wave mode with non-vanishing velocity is predicted. It is a highly diffusive shear mode wherein the two constituent phases essentially undergo out-of-phase shear motions (slow shear wave). In order to elucidate the interaction of this wave mode with propagating wave fields in an inhomogeneous medium the process of conversion scattering from fast compressional waves into slow shear waves is analyzed using the method of statistical smoothing in randomly heterogeneous poroelastic media. The result is a complex wave number of a coherent plane compressional wave propagating in a dynamic-equivalent homogeneous medium. Analysis of the results shows that the conversion scattering process draws energy from the propagating wave and therefore leads to attenuation and phase velocity dispersion. Attenuation and dispersion characteristics are typical for a relaxation process, in this case shear stress relaxation. The mechanism of conversion scattering into the slow shear wave is associated with the development of viscous boundary layers in the transition from the viscosity-dominated to inertial regime in a macroscopically homogeneous poroelastic solid.     

Wave-induced fluid flow in random porous media: attenuation and dispersion of elastic waves

A detailed analysis of the relationship between elastic waves in inhomogeneous, porous media and the effect of wave-induced fluid flow is presented. Based on the results of the poroelastic first-order statistical smoothing approximation applied to Biot's equations of poroelasticity, a model for elastic wave attenuation and dispersion due to wave-induced fluid flow in 3-D randomly inhomogeneous poroelastic media is developed. Attenuation and dispersion depend on linear combinations of the spatial correlations of the fluctuating poroelastic parameters. The observed frequency dependence is typical for a relaxation phenomenon. Further, the analytic properties of attenuation and dispersion are analyzed. It is shown that the low-frequency asymptote of the attenuation coefficient of a plane compressional wave is proportional to the square of frequency. At high frequencies the attenuation coefficient becomes proportional to the square root of frequency. A comparison with the 1-D theory shows that attenuation is of the same order but slightly larger in 3-D random media. Several modeling choices of the approach including the effect of cross correlations between fluid and solid phase properties are demonstrated. The potential application of the results to real porous materials is discussed.     

各向异性渗流条件下弹性波的传播特征

研究了弹性波在非均匀裂纹孔隙介质中的传播特性,建立了各向异性喷射流模型.当弹性波通过裂纹孔隙介质时,由于波的扰动及裂纹和孔隙几何结构的不一致,导致在裂纹内部及裂纹与周边孔隙之间同时存在着流体压力梯度.此时的弹性波波动响应中包含着裂纹内连通性特征和背景孔隙渗透率信息.流体的动态流动过程使得介质的等效弹性参数为复数(非完全弹性),并且具有频率依赖性.当弹性波为低频和高频极限时,介质为完全弹性;当处于中间频段时,波有衰减和频率依赖.裂纹孔隙介质的各向异性连通性(渗透率)对应着各向异性特征频率(当渗流长度等于非均匀尺度时的弹性波频率),波的传播受到裂纹内连通性的影响.在一定频段内,随着裂纹厚度的增加,将出现第二峰值,峰值大小同时受到裂纹厚度和半径的影响.     

Resonance scattering of canonical elastic shells in absorbing fluid medium

Resonance scattering of elastic spherical shell and cylindrical shell while the surrounding fluid medium has absorption is studied. The normal mode solution derived using exact elastic theory and the separation of variables is still applicable. However, the scattering form function has to be modified for the absorbing medium, otherwise the unreasonable result would be obtained. The backscattering form function in the absorbing medium is redefined, and the form function of elastic spherical and cylindrical shell with vacuum or solid matter filled is calculated in various absorption conditions. The results show that the absorption of surrounding fluid leads to notable attenuation of the coincidence resonances in the mid-frequency, but it has a little influence on the low-frequency resonance scattering induced by the filler inside the shell.     

A finite difference method for a coupled model of wave propagation in poroelastic materials

A computational method for time-domain multi-physics simulation of wave propagation in a poroelastic medium is presented. The medium is composed of an elastic matrix saturated with a Newtonian fluid, and the method operates on a digital representation of the medium where a distinct material phase and properties are specified at each volume cell. The dynamic response to an acoustic excitation is modeled mathematically with a coupled system of equations: elastic wave equation in the solid matrix and linearized Navier-Stokes equation in the fluid. Implementation of the solution is simplified by introducing a common numerical form for both solid and fluid cells and using a rotated-staggered-grid which allows stable solutions without explicitly handling the fluid-solid boundary conditions. A stability analysis is presented which can be used to select gridding and time step size as a function of material properties. The numerical results are shown to agree with the analytical solution for an idealized porous medium of periodically alternating solid and fluid layers.     

Semi-analytical analysis of the isolation to moving-load induced ground vibrations by trenches on a poroelastic half-space

A semi-analytical model is proposed to investigate the screening efficiency of trenches to moving-load induced ground vibrations. The ground is modeled as a fully saturated poroelastic half-space governed by Biot's dynamic poroelastic theory. The trenches are obtained by placing three rectangular elastic layers with appropriate width upon the poroelastic half-space. By Helmholtz decomposition, the displacement fields of the elastic layers are decomposed into three scalar potentials. Analytical solutions are obtained based on Fourier transform and Fourier series in the transformed domain. The time-domain results are obtained by the fast Fourier transform (FFT). The different performances of trenches on a saturated poroelastic half-space and a single-phase elastic half-space to the moving load-induced ground vibration are identified. It is found that the discrepancy of the screening efficiencies between the two models becomes significant when the load speed approaches the Rayleigh wave speed of the ground surface. Also, some parametric studies for the screening efficiency of the trench on the poroelastic half-space are presented.     

Scattering of monochromatic longitudinal waves on a planar crack of arbitrary shape in a fluid-saturated poroelastic medium

Scattering of monochromatic longitudinal waves on a planar crack of arbitrary shape in a saturated poroelastic medium is considered. The medium is described by Biot’s constitutive equations, the crack sides are fluid permeable. The problem is reduced to a two-dimensional integral equation for the crack opening vector. Gaussian approximating functions are used for discretization of this equation. For such functions, the elements of the matrix of discretized problem are combinations of four standard one-dimensional integrals that can be tabulated. As a result, numerical integration is not needed. For regular grids of approximating nodes, this matrix has Toeplitz’s structure, and matrix-vector products can be calculated by the fast Fourier transform technique. The latter accelerates substantially the process of iterative solution of the discretized problem. Calculation of crack opening vectors, differential, and total cross-sections of circular and elliptic cracks are performed for longitudinal incident waves orthogonal to the crack surfaces. Dependencies of these characteristics on the medium permeability and wavefrequency are studied. Comparison of a crack in the poroelastic medium and in a dry elastic medium with the same porosity and skeleton elastic properties is presented.     

孔隙介质中快纵波的衰减特性和动力协调现象

依据Biot理论并采用前人的骨架模量孔隙度关系,计算了弹性波在孔隙介质中的衰减曲线,发现快纵波存在零衰减点.为解释这种现象,分析了孔隙流体相对于骨架运动的特点.结果表明,存在快纵波动力协调介质,快纵波在这种介质中传播时,流体和骨架之间无宏观相对位移,因此无论频率多高,流体粘滞系数多大,快纵波都不衰减.一个引申的结论是,在动力协调的渗透性孔隙介质中,即使存在双电层,快纵波也不产生流动电势.     

Prediction of backscatter coefficient in trabecular bones using a numerical model of three-dimensional microstructure

A model of ultrasonic backscattering for cancellous bone saturated by water is proposed. This model assumes that scattering is caused by the solid trabeculae and describes the cancellous bone as a weak scattering medium. The backscatter coefficient is related to the spatial Fourier transform of bone microarchitecture and to the density and compressibility fluctuations between the solid trabeculae and the saturating fluid. The computations of the model make use of three-dimensional numerical images of bone microarchitecture, obtained by tomographic reconstructions with a 10 microm spatial resolution. With this model, the predictions of the frequency dependence and of the magnitude of the backscatter coefficient are reasonably accurate. The theoretical predictions are compared to experimental data obtained on 19 specimens. An accuracy error of approximately 1 dB was found (difference between the averaged experimental values and theoretical predictions). One limit of the model may come from inaccurate values of trabecular bone characteristics needed for the computations (density and longitudinal velocity), which are yet to be precisely determined for human trabecular bone. However, the model is only slightly sensitive to variations of bone material properties. It was found that an accuracy error of 2.2 dB at maximum resulted from inaccurate a priori values of bone material properties. A computation of the elastic mean free path in the medium suggests that multiple scattering plays a minor role in the working frequency bandwidth (0.4-1.2 MHz). It follows from these results that a weak scattering medium model may be appropriate to describe scattering from trabecular bone.     

Effect of porous surface layer on wave propagation in elastic cylinder immersed in fluid

To study the damage to an elastic cylinder immersed in fluid, a model of an elastic cylinder wrapped with a porous medium immersed in fluid is designed. This structure can both identify the properties of guided waves in a more practical model and address the relationship between the cylinder damage degree and the surface and surrounding medium. The principal motivation is to perform a detailed quantitative analysis of the longitudinal mode and flexural mode in an elastic cylinder wrapped with a porous medium immersed in fluid. The frequency equations for the propagation of waves are derived each for a pervious surface and an impervious surface by employing Biot theory. The influences of the various parameters of the porous medium wrapping layer on the phase velocity and attenuation are discussed. The results show that the influences of porosity on the dispersion curves of guided waves are much more significant than those of thickness, whereas the phase velocity is independent of the static permeability. There is an apparent "mode switching" between the two low-order modes. The characteristics of attenuation are in good agreement with the results from the dispersion curves. This work can support future studies for optimizing the theory on detecting the damage to cylinder or pipeline.     

Attenuation and scattering of axisymmetrical modes in a fluid-filled round pipe with internally rough walls

The attenuation of axisymmetric eigenmodes in a cylindrical, elastic, fluid-filled waveguide with a statistically rough elastic wall is studied. It is shown that small perturbation theory can be used to relate explicitly the statistical characteristics of the internal wall surface roughness of an elastic pipe to the attenuation and scattering coefficients of the acoustic modes in the filling fluid. Analytical expressions for modal attenuation coefficients are obtained. The analysis of the frequency dependent attenuation coefficients and the ratio between the roughness correlation length and the inner radius of the pipe is made for different correlation functions of the roughness. It is shown that two scale parameters control the overall behavior of the modal attenuation coefficients. These are the ratios of the roughness correlation length and the inner pipe radius to the acoustic wavelength. The numerical results for sound propagation in a pipe and in a borehole with statistically rough, elastic walls are obtained and discussed.     

Poroelastic modeling of seismic boundary conditions across a fracture

Permeability of a fracture can affect how the fracture interacts with seismic waves. To examine this effect, a simple mathematical model that describes the poroelastic nature of wave-fracture interaction is useful. In this paper, a set of boundary conditions is presented which relate wave-induced particle velocity (or displacement) and stress including fluid pressure across a compliant, fluid-bearing fracture. These conditions are derived by modeling a fracture as a thin porous layer with increased compliance and finite permeability. Assuming a small layer thickness, the boundary conditions can be derived by integrating the governing equations of poroelastic wave propagation. A finite jump in the stress and velocity across a fracture is expressed as a function of the stress and velocity at the boundaries. Further simplification for a thin fracture yields a set of characteristic parameters that control the seismic response of single fractures with a wide range of mechanical and hydraulic properties. These boundary conditions have potential applications in simplifying numerical models such as finite-difference and finite-element methods to compute seismic wave scattering off nonplanar (e.g., curved and intersecting) fractures.     

基于低场核磁共振的抚顺油页岩孔隙连通性演化研究

油页岩原位注热开采过程中，储层内部孔隙结构的连通性直接影响载热介质的流动行为和传热效率，同时对油气产物的扩散和流动行为起控制作用.本文利用低场核磁共振（LF NMR）技术，考察了不同热解终温（23~650℃）处理时，饱和水及束缚水状态下抚顺油页岩的T₂谱，分析了可动流体T₂截止值、束缚流体孔隙度、饱和流体孔隙度、渗透率等NMR孔隙参数，定量研究了随热解终温升高，抚顺油页岩孔隙结构的连通性演化规律.研究结果表明热解终温对抚顺油页岩孔隙连通性及渗透率的变化起控制作用，且可动流体孔隙度对总孔隙度的增加起主要促进作用，这说明热解终温升高加大了渗透率及油气产物的输运能力.本文为深入认识油页岩原位热解过程中孔隙结构的演化提供了依据.     

An analysis of seismic attenuation in random porous media

The attenuation of seismic wave in rocks has been one of the interesting research topics, but till now no poroelasticity models can thoroughly explain the strong attenuation of wave in rocks. In this paper, a random porous medium model is designed to study the law of wave propagation in complex rocks based on the theory of Biot poroelasticity and the general theory of stochastic process. This model sets the density of grain, porosity, permeability and modulus of frame as random parameters in space, and only one fluid infiltrates in rocks for the sake of better simulation effect in line with real rocks in earth strata. Numerical simulations are implemented. Two different inverse quality factors of fast P-wave are obtained by different methods to assess attenuation through records of virtual detectors in wave field (One is amplitude decay method in time domain and the other is spectral ratio method in frequency domain). Comparing the attenuation results of random porous medium with those of homogeneous porous medium, we conclude that the attenuation of seismic wave of homogeneous porous medium is far weaker than that of random porous medium. In random porous media, the higher heterogeneous level is, the stronger the attenuation becomes, and when heterogeneity σ = 0.15 in simulation, the attenuation result is consistent with that by actual observation. Since the central frequency (50 Hz) of source in numerical simulation is in earthquake band, the numerical results prove that heterogeneous porous structure is one of the important factors causing strong attenuation in real stratum at intermediate and low frequency.     

An experimental evaluation of two effective medium theories for ultrasonic wave propagation in concrete

This study compares ultrasonic wave propagation modeling and experimental data in concrete. As a consequence of its composition and manufacturing process, this material has a high elastic scattering (sand and aggregates) and air (microcracks and porosities) content. The behavior of the "Waterman-Truell" and "Generalized Self Consistent Method" dynamic homogenization models are analyzed in the context of an application for strong heterogeneous solid materials, in which the scatterers are of various concentrations and types. The experimental validations of results predicted by the models are carried out by making use of the phase velocity and the attenuation of longitudinal waves, as measured by an immersed transmission setup. The test specimen material has a cement-like matrix containing spherical inclusions of air or glass, with radius close to the ultrasonic wavelength. The models are adapted to the case of materials presenting several types of scattering particle, and allow the propagation of longitudinal waves to be described at the scale of materials such as concrete. The validity limits for frequency and for particle volume ratio can be approached through a comparison with experimental data. The potential of these homogenization models for the prediction of phase velocity and attenuation in strongly heterogeneous solids is demonstrated.     

Direct measurement of porous media local hydrodynamical permeability using gas MRI.

The concept of hydraulic permeability is at the core of modeling single phase or multi-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media, as it is the spatial distribution of the permeability that primarily governs the behavior of fluid flow in the medium. To date, the modeling of fluid flow in porous media has been hampered by poor estimates of local permeability. Magnetic Resonance Imaging is well known for its ability to measure non-invasively the local density and flow rate of different fluids saturating porous media [1,2]. In this paper we demonstrate the first non-invasive method for the direct measurement of a single projection of the local permeability tensor of a porous medium using gas-phase MRI. The potential for three-dimensional imaging of the medium permeability is also discussed. The limitations of the method are listed and results are presented in a model porous medium as well as in a real oil reservoir rock.