Averaging Effect on Elastic Wave Velocity in an Integrated Flow Model

Abstract

This article discusses the effect of averaging seismic attributes resulting from a petrophysical algorithm which is used in association with a traditional fluid flow simulator to form an integrated flow model (IFM). Few attempts have been made to evaluate an IFM called GEOFLO by comparison with experimental models. Arithmetic averaging was used to get a single value for a calculated parameter in each grid that is used for comparison with an experimentally measured average parameter, yet different averaging techniques have not been discussed. Therefore, in this research, four different averaging techniques were used to investigate the effect of reducing many values into a single representative value. The methods considered include arithmetic, harmonic, geometric, and root-mean-square averaging techniques. Comparisons were made for compressional and shear wave velocities as well as velocity ratios using core samples of different lithologies. Results show overlapped data from all averaging techniques used, which implies very little effect of the averaging process of the elastic wave velocities using the petrophysical algorithm. Therefore any averaging technique can be used for a one-dimensional reservoir divided into different grids, and that most likely it will yield an average calculated value that would be comparable to the measured elastic wave velocity.