Prediction of Biot’s coefficient from rock-physical modeling of North Sea chalk

Abstract

We predict Biot’s coefficient for North Sea chalk based on density and P-wave velocity for water-saturated chalk. We compare three effective medium models: Berryman’s self-consistent model, the isoframe model, and the bounding-average method (BAM). The self-consistent model is used with two combinations of aspect ratios. In one combination, the aspect ratio is equal for pores and grains. In the other combination, the aspect ratio for grains is kept constant close to 1 and the aspect ratio for pores varies. All the models include one free parameter that determines the stiffness of the rock for a fixed porosity. This free parameter is compared with Biot’s coefficient to discuss whether the free parameter is related to pore-space compressibility for North Sea chalk. We also discuss how consistent the models are between P-wave modulus and shear modulus for dry and water-saturated chalk. The acoustic velocity and the density data for dry and water-saturated chalk are all laboratory data. The isoframe model and the BAM model predict Biot’s coefficient with a smaller error than the self-consistent model does. The free parameter in the isoframe model and the BAM model is related to Biot’s coefficient. The free parameter in the self-consistent model is related only to Biot’s coefficient for water-saturated chalk when the aspect ratios for pores and grains are equal. The isoframe and the BAM model are generally more consistent for chalk than the self-consistent model is.