Frequency-dependent anisotropy of porous rocks with aligned fractures

G. Lambert, B. Gurevich & M. Brajanovski

Curtin University of Technology, Department of Exploration Geophysics, Perth, Western Australia

ABSTRACT: Presence of open fractures in a fluid-saturated porous rock causes significant attenuation and
dispersion of seismic waves due to wave-induced fluid flow between pores and fractures. We describe a possible
theoretical model for attenuation and dispersion of compressional waves in a porous rock with a periodic system
of aligned planar fractures. This model is based on the representation of fractures as layers of small thickness
and high porosity, and is limited to the propagation direction perpendicular to the fracture plane.
In order to verify this theoretical model, numerical experiments are performed using reflectivity matrix
propagator algorithm extended to layers described by Biots theory of poroelasticity. The numerical simulations
are found to be in very good agreement with theoretical results for the periodic system of fractures. Furthermore,
there is a good agreement even for random fracture distribution. The expansion of the theoretical model for
propagation direction oblique to the fracture plane is also proposed by computing the anisotropic stiffness tensor
cij as a function of frequency . This is done by using the theoretical expression for uniaxial stiffness, denoted
c11 , along with the known high- and low-frequency limits for the two other stiffnesses c33 and c13 . Assuming that
the shape of the frequency dependency is the same for all elements of the stiffness tensor, we use the shape of
c11 () to derive the frequency dependencies of c33 and c13 . Using these frequency dependencies of the stiffness
tensor, attenuation and dispersion curves are calculated for varying incidence angle. This model is qualitatively
confirmed through further numerical simulations.

1 INTRODUCTION poroelasticity. Such an approach was recently devel-

Naturally fractured reservoirs have attracted an
increased interest of exploration and production geo-
physics in recent years. In many instances, natural
fractures control the permeability of the reservoir, and
hence the ability to find and characterize fractured
areas of the reservoir represents a major challenge for
seismic investigations.
One of the main issues in the characterization of any
reservoirs is the ability to predict the effect of fluid
properties on seismic characteristics. For isotropic
porous reservoirs this effect is expressed through the
Gassmann equations, which provide explicit analyti-
cal expressions for the effective elastic moduli of a
fluid-saturated rock as functions of the porosity, elastic
moduli of the dry skeleton, bulk modulus of the solid
grain material, and bulk modulus of the pore fluid.
However, such explicit yet general expressions are
not known for reservoirs with aligned fractures. In
these fractured and porous reservoirs the fluid affects
elastic anisotropy of the rock and also causes sig-
nificant frequency-dependent attenuation and disper-
sion (Chapman, 2003; Hudson et al., 1996; 2001;
Maultzsch, 2003; Thomsen, 1995; Tod, 2001).
A more general approach to model fractures in
porous media can be based on Biots theory of
oped by Brajanovski et al. (2003) who modeled frac-
tures as thin and highly compliant layers in a porous
background. Specifically, by assuming that the porous
medium is permeated by a periodic sequence of such
fractures (layers), and using the results of Norris
(1993) for frequency-dependent effective moduli of a
periodically layered poroelastic medium, Brajanovski
et al. (2003) derived the dispersion equation for
compressional waves propagating in the direction
perpendicular to the fracture plane.
The model of Brajanovski et al. (2003) is lim-
ited to normal incidence and by the assumptions of
infinitely small fracture thickness and the spatial peri-
odicity of fractures. In this paper we firstly investigate
the impact of these assumptions by modelling frac-
tures as layers of small but finite thickness and high
but finite porosity, and numerically simulating the
propagation of seismic waves using poroelastic exten-
sion (Stern et al., 1985) of the OASES reflectivity
algorithm (Schmidt and Tango, 1986). Secondly, we
heuristically extend the theoretical expression for nor-
mal incidence to other components of the anisotropic
stiffness tensor cij as a function of frequency
using limiting low- and high-frequency moduli. From
these frequency dependencies of the stiffness ten-
sor, attenuation and dispersion curves are calculated

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Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
as a function of incidence angle and compared to dispersion equation for the plane compressional wave
sat
numerical simulations. modulus c11 of a fluid-saturated porous medium with
a periodic system of fractures:

2 THEORETICAL MODEL NORMAL

INCIDENCE

Consider a set of periodically alternating layers of two

different porous materials, with subscript b represent-
ing layers of the background porous rock, and subscript
c representing thin layers of a soft porous material
(which in the limit of a vanishing volume fraction will
become the fracture or cracks). Both background and
fractures are modeled by Biots poroelasticity theory.
Relevant material properties of the modeled media are
the porosity , permeability , dry (drained) bulk mod-
ulus K, and shear modulus . The spatial period of the
system is H and volume fractions are hb and hc , where
hc
hb and hc + hb = 1. Background and fractures are
assumed to consist of the same isotropic grain material
of bulk modulus Kg , shear modulus g and density g ,
and are saturated with the same fluid of bulk modulus
Kf , density f and dynamic viscosity .
White et al. (1975) and Norris (1993) showed that
for frequencies much smaller than Biots character-
istic frequency B = /f , and also much smaller
than the resonant frequency of the layering, the com-
sat
pressional wave modulus c11 of P-waves propagating
normal to a periodically layered fluid-saturated porous
medium composed of two constituents, b and c, can be
written as:
Here Lj = Kj + 4j /3 and Cj = Lj + j2 Mj are plane
deformation dry and saturated moduli respectively
with
where indices j = b, c refer to the background and
fractures, respectively.
In the dry case (Kf = 0), the fractured medium is
assumed to obey the linear slip model of Schoenberg
and Douma (1988) with normal and tangential excess
fracture compliances ZN and ZT , so that its uniaxial
stiffness (or P-wave modulus for normal incidence)
is c11 = Lb (1 N ). Parameter N is normal frac-
ture weakness of the dry material and is given by
N = Lb ZN /(1 + Lb ZN ).
Taking in equation (1) the limit of hc 0 and
Kc 0 Brajanovski et al. (2003) derived the following
Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
where the parameter  = H 2 Mb /4b Cb Lb can be
thought of as a normalized frequency. Equation (2)
can be used to evaluate the frequency dependence of
the P-wave velocity Vp = (Rec11 sat
/b )1/2 , and attenua-
tion (reciprocal quality factor) QP1 = Im c11 sat sat
/Re c11 ,
where b = g (1 b ) + f b is the density of the
fluid-saturated background material. In the low-
frequency limit equation (2) yields
which is consistent with anisotropic Gassmann equa-
tions (Gassmann, 1951; Brown and Korringa, 1975;
Gurevich, 2003). In the high-frequency limit the frac-
tures can be treated as isolated, and the velocity in
this direction is not affected by the fractures, i.e.,
VP = (Cb /b )1/2 .
Figure 1 shows velocity normalized by Vp and
dimensionless attenuation Q1 as a function of nor-
malized frequency for porous rock with porosity of
20% and fracture weakness N ranging from 0.05
up to 0.2. The calculations are made for water-
saturated sandstone using quartz as grain material
(Kg = 37 GPa, g = 44 GPa, g = 2.65 g cm3 ).
The dependency of the background dry bulk and
shear moduli on porosity is assumed to follow the
empirical model of Krief et al. (1990) where
As expected, the dispersion and attenuation are pro-
portional to the fracture weakness N with the peak
of the normalized frequency for attenuation decreas-
ing with increasing fracture weakness. We also note
that the dispersion and attenuation are significant over
a frequency range that spans at least two orders of
magnitude.
3 NUMERICAL MODELLING NORMAL
INCIDENCE
The theoretical model described in the previous sec-
tion is limited to compressional waves propagating in
the direction perpendicular to the fracture plane, with
310

Figure 1. Theoretical solution (equation (2)) for P-wave
velocity (a) and attenuation (b) for fixed porosity and varying
fracture weakness.
assumptions of infinitely small fracture thickness and
the spatial periodicity of fractures. In order to gauge the
influence of these limits on P-wave velocity dispersion
and attenuation, we perform numerical modelling with
fractures being defined as layers of small but finite
thickness and high but finite porosity.
Simulations of seismic wave propagation in lay-
ered media are best performed using reflectivity matrix
propagator algorithms (Aki and Richards, 1980). In
recent years such algorithms have been extended for
poroelastic media (Allard et al., 1986). For our study
we choose to employ the OASES global matrix algo-
rithm developed at MIT (Schmidt and Tango, 1986)
and adopted for poroelastic layers by Stern et al.
(1985).
OASES is a general purpose computer code for
modelling seismo-acoustic propagation in stratified
environments using wavenumber integration in com-
bination with the Direct Global Matrix solution tech-
nique. It is an advanced 1.5D elastic reflectivity code
that takes into account all the effects occurring in
layered media (reflection, refraction, conversion).
Simulations of wave propagation are performed on
a number of models representing different distribu-
tions of fractures. For a given layered system OASES
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Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
code computes plane wave complex transmission coef-
ficients T . These coefficients can then be used to
calculate effective complex velocity Vp and attenua-
tion 1/Q in an equivalent homogeneous medium. For
normal incidence the transmission coefficient T for
such an equivalent medium can be written as
where H is the overall thickness of the layered sys-
tem, k = /Vp + i is the complex wavenumber of
the transmitted wave and is the effective attenua-
tion coefficient. Taking absolute values of the left and
right hand sides of equation (3) yields
or = ln |T |/H . Attenuation coefficient is related
to inverse quality factor 1/Q by
(White, 1983). Equation (5) can be used to compute the
inverse quality factor from absolute values of the trans-
mission coefficients obtained from OASES. Phase
velocity can be obtained by unwrapping the phase of
the transmission coefficients obtained from OASES.
In order to verify the theoretical results, and to
observe the influence of fracture distribution on atten-
uation and velocity dispersion, we test two models
of fracture distribution. Both models utilized a total
of 24 thick background layers (with 20% porosity)
alternating with 24 thin high-porosity fracture layers
with normal fracture weakness N of 0.13. Model
A uses a constant background and fracture thickness
of 26.99 m and 0.01 m respectively representing peri-
odic fracturing. This model is created as the numerical
equivalent of the analytical model described in the
previous section. Model B is created with random
fracture distribution (average background thickness of
26.99 m) and constant fracture thickness of 0.01 m.
P-wave velocity and attenuation values derived for
Model A (periodic fracturing) are found to agree very
well with the theoretical results (Figure 2). Three dis-
tinct asymptotes can be identified on the attenuation
plot for periodic fracturing. At low frequencies 1/Q is
initially proportional to followed by a decrease in the
slope of the curve with 1/Q becoming proportional to
1/2 . At high frequencies the inverse quality factor is
proportional to 1/2 .
More surprisingly, the results obtained for Model B
(random fracture distribution) are also found to agree
very well with the theoretical results for periodic frac-
turing. (Figure 3). The only difference between the
results for Models A and B is observed for attenuation
(a) (a)

Numerical
1.6 Numerical
Periodic Theory 1.6
Periodic Theory
Log attenuation (1/Q)

1.8

Log attenuation (1/Q)

1.8

2 2

2.2 2.2

2.4 2.4

2.6 2.6
3 2 1 0 1 2 3 3 2 1 0 1 2 3
(b) Log frequency (normalised) (b) Log frequency (normalised)

3520 3520
3500 3500
Pwave velocity (normalised)

Pwave velocity (normalised)

3480 3480
3460 3460
3440 3440
3420 3420
3400 3400
3380 3380
3360 Numerical 3360 Numerical
3340 Periodic Theory 3340 Periodic Theory

3 2 1 0 1 2 3 3 2 1 0 1 2 3
(c) Log frequency (normalised) (c) Log frequency (normalised)

Figure 2. ModelA: periodic fracture distribution (a), attenu- Figure 3. Model B: random fracture distribution with con-
ation (b) and dispersion (c) of compressional waves at normal stant fracture thickness (a), attenuation (b) and dispersion (c)
incidence. of compressional waves at normal incidence.

at very low frequencies, where for random fracture dis- based on the following known relationships:
tribution 1/Q no longer scales with . The behaviour
at all other frequencies is unchanged, apart from band- 1. a known solution in the low-frequency limit of
sat sat
pass and band-stop peaks at higher frequencies, which c33 and c13 from anisotropic Gassmann equations
are typical features of periodic media. (Guevich, 2003)
sat
2. a known (no-flow) solution for the stiffnesses c33
high
and c13 in the high-frequency limit: c33 = Cb and
sat
high
4 FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT ANISOTROPY c13 = Cb 2b ,
sat
3. a known solution for c11 as a function of frequency,
The theoretical dispersion equation (2) for compres- equation (2).
sional waves is limited to normal incidence. In order to sat sat
determine the effect of fluid flow on the full anisotropic Assuming that the elastic constants c33 and c13
sat
stiffness tensor, we need to obtain, in addition to c11sat
, exhibit the same behaviour to that of c11 as a function
sat sat
two other elements of the stiffness tensor: c33 and c13 . of frequency, we define the following relationships:
To this end, we develop a heuristic approach which
sat sat
allows us to approximate c33 and c13 . The approach is

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Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
 0.02 0 o
o can compute the phase velocity and attenuation of the
Solid line Num model 10o P-waves as a function of both frequency and incidence
0.018 20o
30o angle.
0.016 40o
50o
60o
0.014
Attenuation (1/Q)

70o
80
0.012 5 NUMERICAL MODELLING OBLIQUE
0.01 INCIDENCE
0.008
To verify the results derived from our heuristic solu-
0.006 tion, models are created comprising of 48 layers,
0.004 of which 24 represented background layers of 20%
0.002 porosity while the remaining 24 represented thin, high-
porosity fractures with a normal fracture weakness of
0
2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0.1. The parameters of the background are taken to be
(a) Log frequency (normalised) the same as in the theoretical example given above and
assumed to be saturated with water (Kf = 2.25 GPa,
3520 f = 1.0 g cm3 ), with angle of incidence ranging
Solid line Num model from 00 to 800 .
3500 The results of the numerical simulations for P-wave
dispersion and attenuation are shown in Figure 4 (solid
3480 lines) overlain on the theoretical results. As can be
Pwave velocity

seen, good qualitative agreement is achieved between

3460
the theoretical and numerical results with variations
3440 o
becoming more pronounced as the angle of incidence
0 o
10o increases.
20o
3420 30o
40o
50o
60o
3400 70o 6 CONCLUSIONS
80

3380 We have developed a model for frequency dependent

2 1 0 1 2 3
anisotropy, attenuation and dispersion of elastic waves
(b) Log frequency (normalised)
in a porous medium with aligned planar fractures, and
Figure 4. Theoretical prediction (symbols) and numeri-
compared its predictions with numerical simulations.
cal simulations (solid line) for P-wave attenuation (a) and For normal incidence of compressional waves the
velocity dispersion (b) for varying angle of incidence. results in a periodic fracture systems matched closely
the theoretical attenuation and dispersion curves, with
three distinct asymptotes being identified. More sur-
prisingly, the numerical results for a randomly dis-
tributed system of aligned fractures also agree well
with the theoretical results for a periodic fracture sys-
tem. However, for the random fracture distribution
where f () is the function describing the behaviour only two asymptotes were identified.
of the moduli between the low- and high-frequency In order extend our results to oblique incidence
limits. Rearranging equation (6) gives: we have proposed a heuristic approach to solve for
frequency-dependent anisotropy of porous rocks with
aligned fractures. This approach uses the known stiff-
nesses in the limits of low and high frequencies, and
the theoretical frequency dependency for the uniax-
ial stiffness. Assuming that the shape of the frequency
Equation (9) contains only known quantities. Substi- dependency is the same for all stiffnesses, we derived
tuting this expression into (7) and (8) yields closed- the frequency dependences of all the elements of the
sat sat
form expressions for c33 and c13 . stiffness tensor. This has allowed us to obtain disper-
sat sat
Note that shear stiffnesses c44 and c66 are not sion and attenuation curves for P-waves as a function
affected by the fluid, and therefore are independent of frequency and incidence angle. Theoretical atten-
of frequency. Therefore, the frequency dependency uation curves show that attenuation decreases with
of all five independent components of the stiffness increasing angle of incidence. Dispersion curves indi-
tensor are now known. Using these dependencies, we cated that P-wave velocity at low frequencies increases

313
Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
 3520
3500
3480
Pwave velocity
3460
3440
3420
f = 0.005Hz
f = 350Hz
3400
3380
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Incidence angle
Figure 5. P-wave velocity as a function of incidence angle
for low and high modeled frequency.
with increasing angle of incidence.At high frequencies
velocity initially increases with incidence angle before
retracing, with the overall dispersion curve flattening.
These predictions were found to be in good qualitative
agreement with the numerical simulations.
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