Modelling a shock wave source for seismic well survey

Abstract

The shock wave seismic source has specific advantages for reservoir survey, particularly in the technique of vertical seismic profiling. This paper is concerned with the modelling of the characteristics of a shock wave device under conditions typical of its use as a surface seismic source. Such modelling necessitates numerical solution of the time-dependent conservation equations for axi-symmetric geometry under conditions where the fluid in the surface borehole may be air or water. A version of the piecewise parabolic method has been used to take account of the two-phase behaviour based on the formal properties of the well-known Tait equation of state for water. Results are presented which enable predictions to be made for use in the field of the pressure and velocity signatures of the shock wave source in terms of axial and radial profiles. Such information is significant in the assessment of the degrees of compressional- and shear-wave energies delivered by the source in vertical seismic profiling surveys of reservoirs.