Effects of confining pressure and pore pressure on multipole borehole acoustic field in fluid-saturated porous media

Abstract

In-situ stress is a common stress in the exploration and development of oil reservoirs. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the propagation characteristics of borehole acoustic waves in fluid-saturated porous media under stress. Based on the acoustoelastic theory of fluid-saturated porous media, the field equation of fluid-saturated porous media under the conditions of confining pressure and pore pressure and the acoustic field formula of multipole source excitation in open hole are given. The influences of pore pressure and confining pressure on guided waves of multipole borehole acoustic field in fluid-saturated porous media are investigated. The numerical results show that the phase velocity and excitation intensity of guided wave increase significantly under the confining pressure. For a given confining pressure, the phase velocity of the guided wave decreases with pore pressure increasing. The excitation intensity of guided wave increases at low frequency and then decreases at high frequency with pore pressure increasing, except for that of Stoneley wave which decreases in the whole frequency range. These results will help us get an insight into the influences of confining pressure and pore pressure on the acoustic field of multipole source in borehole around fluid-saturated porous media.