Abstract
We report lab results that a fluid-filled fracture can amplify the pressure carried by an incident seismic wave. We built a fracture model and placed our newly designed pressure sensors (Xfrac-H) inside the fracture to directly measure the fluid pressure in the fracture during wave propagation. We also built a new low frequency source (Xfrac-S) to excite the sinusoidal acoustic wave in water to study the frequency effect. We observed that the pressure inside the fracture could be amplified up to 25 times larger compared with that of the incident wave. We call this phenomenon the transient pressure surge. The amplification factor depends on frequency and fracture geometry and aperture. It is also possible that the locally elevated pressure can drive fluid flow in the subsurface. Therefore, our finding may be important in both triggered/induced seismicity and fluid permeability control using waves.
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