3D Viscoelastic Finite-Difference Analysis of the Monopole Acoustic Logs in Cylindrical Coordinates

Abstract

In this paper, a model of the heterogeneous anelastic seismic wave problem is proposed in three-dimensional (3D) cylindrical coordinates. We use the velocity-stress formula to describe the realistic attenuation properties of viscoelastic materials, derived from a rheological model of the generalized standard linear solid (GSLS). The equation system is completed by additional equations for the anelastic functions including the strain history of the material. We apply the staggered grid finite-difference (FD) method in 3D cylindrical coordinates to solve the equations. Moreover, to avoid the effect of gradual expansion of the grid size as the radius increases, we use a variable grid method to achieve compensation. In real drilling operations, the mud injected in the borehole is a fluid with viscous properties. The actual formation is also not elastic. In the synthetic data of acoustic logging while drilling (LWD), we find that the drill collar wave is not affected by the viscoelastic parameters of the formation. In contrast, the Stoneley wave is more sensitive to the viscosity of the drilling fluid. The phase and amplitude of the received waveform are affected by the drilling fluid as well as the formation viscoelasticity. Therefore, the development of the cylindrical variable-grid FD method provides a flexible and efficient numerical technique to solve 3D viscoelastic wave propagation problems, including realistic attenuation and complex geometry.