Stoneley wave generation by an external seismic point source in an infinite fluid-filled borehole embedded in a transversely isotropic formation: Basic relationships

Abstract

The method of integral transformations is used to obtain a long-wave solution to the problem of tube wave excitation by an external point source in an infinite fluid-filled borehole embedded in a transversely isotropic formation. The external field that occurs in the formation gives rise to waves in the borehole fluid. The waves generated in the borehole include the lowest mode of the Stoneley wave (tube wave), which is the borehole eigenmode, and the qP-and qSV-waves. It is shown that the Stoneley wave is determined by the contributions of two poles in the complex plane of horizontal slowness. According to the asymptotic solution, the Stoneley wave can be described by one of three different waveforms depending on the relationship between the elastic parameters of the surrounding anisotropic formation and the borehole fluid. An analysis of the results of calculations shows that the shape and polarity of the Stoneley wave strongly depend on the sign of the nonellipticity parameter of the elastic medium, which offers a possibility of estimating the anisotropy of the borehole environment from observations of the waveform of the Stoneley wave.