The effect of pore pressure depletion and injection cycles on ultrasonic velocity and quality factor in a quartz sandstone

Abstract

Passing seismic waves generate transient pore-pressure changes that influence the velocity and attenuation characteristics of porous rocks. Compressional ultrasonic wave velocities [Formula: see text] and quality factors [Formula: see text] in a quartz sandstone were measured under cycled pore pressure and uniaxial strain conditions during a laboratory simulated injection and depletion process. The objectives were to study the influence of cyclical loading on the acoustic characteristics of a reservoir sandstone and to evaluate the potential to estimate pore-fluid pressure from acoustic measurements. The values of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] were confirmed to increase with effective stress increase, but it was also observed that [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] increased with increasing pore pressure at constant effective stress. The effective stress coefficient [Formula: see text] was found to be less thanone and dependent on the pore pressure, confining stress, and load. At low pore pressures, [Formula: see text] approached one and reduced nonlinearly at high pore pressures. The change in [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] with respect to pore pressure was more pronounced at low versus high pore pressures. However, the [Formula: see text] variation with pore pressure followed a three-parameter exponential rise to a maximum limit whereas [Formula: see text] had no clear limit and followed a two-parameter exponential growth. Axial strain measurements during the pore-pressure depletion and injection cycles indicated progressive viscoelastic deformation in the rock. This resulted in an increased influence on [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] with increasing pore-pressure cycling. The value [Formula: see text] was more sensitive in responding to the loading cycle and changes in pore pressures than [Formula: see text]; thus, [Formula: see text] may be a better indicator for time-lapse reservoir monitoring than [Formula: see text]. However, under the experimental conditions, [Formula: see text] was unstable and difficult to measure at low effective stress.