Acoustic wave propagation simulation in a poroelastic medium saturated by two immiscible fluids using a staggered finite-difference with a time partition method

Based on the three-phase theory proposed by Santos, acoustic wave propagation in a poroelastic medium saturated by two immiscible fluids was simulated using a staggered high-order finite-difference algorithm with a time partition method, which is firstly applied to such a three-phase medium. The partition method was used to solve the stiffness problem of the differential equations in the three-phase theory. Considering the effects of capillary pressure, reference pressure and coupling drag of two fluids in pores, three compressional waves and one shear wave predicted by Santos have been correctly simulated. Influences of the parameters, porosity, permeability and gas saturation on the velocities and amplitude of three compressional waves were discussed in detail. Also, a perfectly matched layer (PML) absorbing boundary condition was firstly implemented in the three-phase equations with a staggered-grid high-order finite-difference. Comparisons between the proposed PML method and a commonly used damping method were made to validate the efficiency of the proposed boundary absorption scheme. It was shown that the PML works more efficiently than the damping method in this complex medium. Additionally, the three-phase theory is reduced to the Biot’s theory when there is only one fluid left in the pores, which is shown in Appendix. This reduction makes clear that three-phase equation systems are identical to the typical Biot’s equations if the fluid saturation for either of the two fluids in the pores approaches to zero. Supported by the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10534040) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10674148)