Wave propagation analysis of porous rocks with the thermal activated relaxation mechanism

Wave attenuation and phase velocity dispersion in the temperature domain are more complicated than those in the frequency domain. To describe wave propagation properties in the temperature domain, a so-called thermal activation mechanism model is built on the experimental result that increasing the temperature or decreasing frequency could obtain similar results on the attenuation. A rheological model (the Zener model) is employed to describe viscoelastic attenuation in saturated porous rocks. The Arrhenius relation is introduced to describe the thermal activation mechanism. The wave propagation model with thermal effects in porous media is then obtained, and 1-D P-wave and S-wave propagation characteristics are analyzed in numeric process, respectively.Two attenuation mechanisms are found in this model, the Biot loss and the thermal activation relaxation. The thermal relaxation attenuation peak and the Biot attenuation peak are observed in both frequency and temperature spectra. These two peaks move towards each other when the temperature increases on frequency spectra. The thermal relaxation peak shifts towards higher frequencies while the Biot peak shifts towards lower frequencies. At some temperature, these two peaks will superpose. The combination of the thermal relaxation and the Biot loss leads to the complexity of wave velocity curves. Similar phenomena could be observed on temperature spectra. The thermal relaxation features may relate to a so-called “local heat transfer” mechanism. These two peaks in the temperature domain have been observed in the experiments by other investigators. The characteristics of velocity and attenuation are more remarkable for high porosity rock samples. The model is helpful for the understanding of wave propagation in the temperature domain.

Research Highlights► Theoretical model to investigate frequency and temperature influence on wave velocity and attenuation. ► The theoretical computation in the thermal activation model could provide wider dispersion range and bigger attenuation. ► Comparison between simulation results and experimental data.