Monitoring fluid substitution in rock samples from noise correlation

Abstract

An alternative laboratory technique to measure the elastic constants of solid samples, based on the analysis of the cross-correlation spectra of the vibratory response of randomly excited short solid cylinders, has been recently proposed. The aim of this paper is to check the ability of the technique called passive ultrasonic interferometry to monitor fluid substitution in different rock samples. Velocity variations due to fluid substitution are easily measured if the wave attenuation in the fluid-saturated rock is not too large (typically in rocks with few cracks or microfractures). The experimental results are in agreement with the predictions of Biot–Gassmann poroelastic theory. The effect of substituting water with a stiffer saturating fluid, such as ethylene glycol, is to increase the overall bulk modulus of the rock, without any substantial effect on shear modulus. Furthermore, the experimental results compare well with those obtained independently with conventional pulse-transmission technique using ultrasonic transducers. However, the measured pulse-transmission bulk moduli are slightly larger than the corresponding measured ultrasonic interferometry moduli, with the deviation increasing with increasing fluid viscosity. This can be explained by dispersion due to wave-induced flow of the viscous fluid since pulsetransmission experiments involve higher frequencies than ultrasonic interferometry experiments.