New velocity data in addition to literature data derived from sonic log, seismic, and laboratory measurements are analyzed for elastic silicate rocks. These data demonstrate simple systematic relationships between compressional and shear wave velocities. For water-saturated elastic silicate rocks, shear wave velocity is approximately linearly related to compressional wave velocity and the compressional-to-shear velocity ratio decreases with increasing compressional velocity. Laboratory data for dry sandstones indicate a nearly constant compressional-to-shear velocity ratio with rigidity approximately equal to bulk modulus. Ideal models for regular packings of spheres and cracked solids exhibit behavior similar to the observed watersaturated and dry trends. For dry rigidity equal to dry bulk modulus, Gassmann' s equations predict velocities in close agreement with data from the water-saturated rock.

Pore fluids strongly influence the seismic properties of rocks. The densities, bulk moduli, velocities, and viscosities of common pore fluids are usually oversimplified in geophysics. We use a combination of thermodynamic relationships, empirical trends, and new and published data to examine the effects of pressure, temperature, and composition on these important seismic properties of hydrocarbon gases and oils and of brines. Estimates of in-situ conditions and pore fluid composition yield more accurate values of these fluid properties than are typically assumed. Simplified expressions are developed to facilitate the use of realistic fluid properties in rock models. Pore fluids have properties that vary substantially, but systematically, with composition, pressure, and temperature. Gas and oil density and modulus, as well as oil viscosity, increase with molecular weight and pressure, and decrease with temperature. Gas viscosity has a similar behavior, except at higher temperatures and lower pressures, where the viscosity will increase slightly with increasing temperature. Large amounts of gas can go into solution in lighter oils and substantially lower the modulus and viscosity. Brine modulus, density, and viscosities increase with increasing salt content and pressure. Brine is peculiar because the modulus reaches a maximum at a temperature from 40 to 80°C. Far less gas can be absorbed by brines than by light oils. As a result, gas in solution in oils can drive their modulus so far below that of brines that seismic reflection bright spots may develop from the interface between oil saturated and brine saturated rocks.

The influence of fluid mobility on seismic velocity dispersion is directly observed in laboratory measurements from seismic to ultrasonic frequencies. A forceddeformation system is used in conjunction with pulse transmission to obtain elastic properties at seismic strain amplitude (10 −7 ) from 5 Hz to 800 kHz. Varying fluid types and saturations document the influence of pore-fluids. The ratio of rock permeability to fluid viscosity defines mobility, which largely controls pore-fluid motion and pore pressure in a porous medium. High fluid mobility permits pore-pressure equilibrium either between pores or between heterogeneous regions, resulting in a low-frequency domain where Gassmann's equations are valid. In contrast, low fluid mobility can produce strong dispersion, even within the seismic band. Here, the low-frequency assumption fails. Since most rocks in the general sedimentary section have very low permeability and fluid mobility (shales, siltstones, tight limestones, etc.), most rocks are not in the lowfrequency domain, even at seismic frequencies. Only those rocks with high permeability (porous sands and carbonates) will remain in the low-frequency domain in the seismic or sonic band.

International audienceThe induced polarization model developed recently by Revil and Florsch to understand the complex conductivity of fully saturated granular materials has been extended to partial saturation conditions. It is an improvement over previous models like the Vinegar and Waxman model, which do not account explicitly for the effect of frequency. The Vinegar and Waxman model can be considered as a limiting case of the Revil and Florsch model in the limit where the distribution of relaxation times is very broad. The extended model is applied to the case of unconsolidated sands partially saturated with oil and water. Laboratory experiments were performed to investigate the influence of oil saturation, frequency, grain size, and conductivity of the pore water upon the complex resistivity response of oil-bearing sands. The low-frequency polarization (below 100 Hz) is dominated by the polarization of the Stern layer (the inner part of the electrical double layer coating the surface of the grains in contact with water). The phase exhibits a well-defined relaxation peak with a peak frequency that is dependent on the mean grain diameter as predicted by the model. Both the resistivity and the magnitude of the phase increase with the relative saturation of the oil. The imaginary (quadrature) component of the complex conductivity is observed to decrease with the oil saturation. All these observations are reproduced by the new model

Carbonates have become important targets for rock property research in recent years because they represent many of the major oil and gas reservoirs in the world. Some are undergoing enhanced oil recovery. Most laboratory studies to understand fluid and pressure effects on reservoir rocks have been performed on sandstones, but applying relations developed for sandstones to carbonates is problematic, at best. We measured in the laboratory nine carbonate samples from the same reservoir at seismic ͑3 to 3000 Hz͒ and ultrasonic ͑0.8 MHz͒ frequencies. Samples were measured dry ͑humid-ified͒, and saturated with liquid butane and brine. Our carbonate samples showed typical changes in moduli as a function of porosity and fluid saturation. However, we explored the applicability of Gassmann's theory on limestone and dolomite rocks in the context of shear and bulk modulus dispersion, and Gassmann's theory assumptions. For our carbonate set, at high differential pressures and seismic frequencies, the bulk modulus of rocks with high aspect ratio pores and dolomite mineralogy is predicted by Gassmann's relation. We also explored in detail some of the assumptions of Gassmann's relation, especially rock-frame sensitivity to fluid saturation. Our carbonate samples showed rock shear-modulus change from dry to brine saturation conditions, and we investigated several rock-fluid mechanisms responsible for this change. To our knowledge, these are the first controlled laboratory experiments on carbonates in the seismic frequency range.

[1] The effect of pore fluids on seismic wave attenuation in carbonate rocks is important for interpreting remote sensing observations of carbonate reservoirs undergoing enhanced oil recovery. Here we measure the elastic moduli and attenuation in the laboratory for five carbonate samples with 20% to 30% porosity and permeability between 0.03 and 58.1 mdarcy. Contrary to most observations in sandstones, bulk compressibility losses dominate over shear wave losses for dry samples and samples fully saturated with either liquid butane or brine. This observation holds for four out of five samples at seismic (10-1000 Hz) and ultrasonic frequencies (0.8 MHz) and reservoir pressures. Attenuation modeled from the modulus data using Cole-Cole relations agrees in that the bulk losses are greater than the shear losses. On average, attenuation increases by 250% when brine substitutes a light hydrocarbon in these carbonate rocks. For some of our samples, attenuation is frequency-dependent, but in the typical exploration frequency range (10-100 Hz), attenuation is practically constant for the measured samples.

Gassmann's (1951) equations commonly are used to predict velocity changes resulting from different porefluid saturations. However, the input parameters are often crudely estimated, and the resulting estimates of fluid effects can be unrealistic. In rocks, parameters such as porosity, density, and velocity are not independent, and values must be kept consistent and constrained. Otherwise, estimating fluid substitution can result in substantial errors. We recast the Gassmann's relations in terms of a porosity-dependent normalized modulus K n and the fluid sensitivity in terms of a simplified gain function G. General Voigt-Reuss bounds and critical porosity limits constrain the equations and provide upper and lower bounds of the fluid-saturation effect on bulk modulus. The "D" functions are simplified modulus-porosity relations that are based on empirical porosity-velocity trends. These functions are applicable to fluid-substitution calculations and add important constraints on the results. More importantly, the simplified Gassmann's relations provide better physical insight into the significance of each parameter. The estimated moduli remain physical, the calculations are more stable, and the results are more realistic.

Heavy oils are important unconventional hydrocarbon resources with huge reserves. Seismic monitoring of thermal recovery processes makes study of their shear properties important. We measure, within the seismic band, the complex shear modulus (and thus also the attenuation) of a heavy-oil rock, and the oil extracted from it. The modulus and quality factor (Q) of the heavy-oil saturated rock shows a moderate dependence on frequency, but is strongly influenced by temperature. At room temperatures, the extracted heavy oil supports a shear wave, but with increase in temperature, its shear modulus decreases rapidly, which translates to a rapid drop in the shear modulus of the rock as well. At these low to intermediate temperatures (30 • C-100 • C), an attenuation peak corresponding to the viscous relaxation of the heavy oil is encountered.