Finite‐difference modeling in anisotropic media: An S‐wave splitting study in fractured reservoirs

Abstract

We have implemented a 3D finite-difference scheme to simulate wave propagation in arbitrary anisotropic media. The anisotropic media up to orthorhombic symmetry were modeled using a Standard Staggered Grid scheme (SSG) and beyond (monoclinic and triclinic) using a Rotated Staggered Grid scheme (RSG). The rationale of not using RSG for all types of anisotropic media is that the RSG schemes are slightly more expensive than the SSG schemes. For 1D azimuthally anistropic media, we show comparison between the seismic data generated by our finite-difference code and by the reflectivity algorithm; they are in excellent agreement.