Attenuation Properties of Fontainebleau Sandstone During True-Triaxial Deformation using Active and Passive Ultrasonics

Abstract

Active and passive ultrasonic methods were used to study the evolution of attenuation properties in a sample of Fontainebleau sandstone during true-triaxial deformation. A cubic sample of Fontainebleau sandstone (80 mm \(\times\) 80 mm \(\times\) 80 mm) was deformed under true-triaxial stresses until failure. From the stress state: \(\sigma _3 = 5\) MPa and \(\sigma _1 = \sigma _2 = 35\) MPa, \(\sigma _1\) was increased at a constant displacement rate until the specimen failed. Acoustic emission (AE) activity was monitored by 18 piezoelectric sensors and bandpass filtered between 100 kHz and 1 MHz. A source location analysis was performed on discrete AE data harvested from the continuous record where 48,502 events were locatable inside the sample volume. AE sensors were sequentially pulsed during periodic P-wave surveys among 135 raypaths. Analytical solutions for Biot, squirt flow, viscous shear, and scattering attenuation were used to discuss to observed attenuation at various stages of the experiment. We concluded that initial attenuation anisotropy was stress induced and resulted from friction and squirt flow. Later attenuation of the high-frequency spectrum was attributed to scattering as a result of the formation of large macroscopic vertical fractures. Passive (AE) ultrasonic data produced similar information to that from active data but with enhanced temporal and spacial resolution.