Elastic moduli of dry rocks containing spheroidal pores based on differential effective medium theory

Differential effective medium (DEM) theory is applied to determine the elastic properties of dry rock with spheroidal pores. These pores are assumed to be randomly oriented. The ordinary differential equations for bulk and shear moduli are coupled and it is more difficult to obtain accurate analytical formulae about the moduli of dry porous rock. In this paper, we derive analytical solutions of the bulk and shear moduli for dry rock from the differential equations by applying an analytical approximation for dry-rock modulus ratio, in order to decouple these equations. Then, the validity of this analytical approximation is tested by integrating the full DEM equation numerically. The analytical formulae give good estimates of the numerical results over the whole porosity range. These analytical formulae can be further simplified under the assumption of small porosity. The simplified formulae for spherical pores (i.e., the pore aspect ratio is equal to 1) are the same as Mackenzie's equations. The analytical formulae are relatively easy to analyze the relationship between the elastic moduli and porosity or pore shapes, and can be used to invert some rock parameters such as porosity or pore aspect ratio. The predictions of the analytical formula for the sandstone experimental data show that the analytical formulae can accurately predict the variations of elastic moduli with porosity for dry sandstones. The effective elastic moduli of these sandstones can be reasonably well characterized by spheroidal pores, whose pore aspect ratio was determined by minimizing the error between theoretical predictions and experimental measurements. For sandstones the pore aspect ratio increases as porosity increases if the porosity is less than 0.15, whereas the pore aspect ratio remains relatively stable (about 0.14) if the porosity is more than 0.15.

► Derived analytical solution of elastic moduli for dry rock from differential equation.
► Analytical formulae are in good agreement with numerical results of full DEM equation.
► Using analytical formulae would simplify the process of inverting pore aspect ratio.
► For sandstone pore aspect ratio increases with porosity when porosity is below 0.15.
► For sandstone pore aspect ratio remains stable (about 0.14) at porosity above 0.15.