Effect of fluid viscosity on elastic wave attenuation in porous rocks

Abstract

Attenuation and dispersion of elastic waves in fluid‐saturated rocks due to pore fluid viscosity is investigated using an idealized exactly solvable example of a system of alternating solid and viscous fluid layers. Waves in periodic layered systems at low frequencies can be studied using an asymptotic analysis of Rytov's exact dispersion equations. Since the wavelength of the shear wave in the fluid (viscous skin depth) is much smaller than the wavelength of the shear or compressional waves in the solid, the presence of viscous fluid layers requires a consideration of higher‐order terms in the low‐frequency asymptotic expansions. This expansion leads to asymptotic low‐frequency dispersion equations. For a shear wave with the directions of propagation and of particle motion in the bedding plane, the dispersion equation yields the low‐frequency attenuation (inverse quality factor) as a sum of two terms which are both proportional to frequency ω but have different dependencies on viscosity η: one term is pr...