Elastic constants of transversely isotropic media from constrained aperture traveltimes

Geophysics ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 658-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinaldo J. Michelena

The elastic constants that control P‐ and SV‐wave propagation in a transversely isotropic media can be estimated by using P‐ and SV‐wave traveltimes from either crosswell or VSP geometries. The procedure consists of two steps. First, elliptical velocity models are used to fit the traveltimes near one axis. The result is four elliptical parameters that represent direct and normal moveout velocities near the chosen axis for P‐ and SV‐waves. Second, the elliptical parameters are used to solve a system of four equations and four unknown elastic constants. The system of equations is solved analytically, yielding simple expressions for the elastic constants as a function of direct‐ and normal‐moveout velocities. For SH‐waves, the estimation of the corresponding elastic constants is easier because the phase velocity is already elliptical. The procedure, introduced for homogeneous media, is generalized to heterogeneous media by using tomographic techniques.

1996 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 524-529
Author(s):  
Hayrullah Karabulut ◽  
John F. Ferguson

Abstract An extension of the boundary integral method for SH waves is given for transversely isotropic media. The accuracy of the method is demonstrated for a simple flat interface problem by comparison to the Cagniard-de Hoop solution. The method is further demonstrated for a case with interface topography for both surface and vertical seismic profiles. The new method is found to be both accurate and effective.


Geophysics ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 1883-1894 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Y. Grechka ◽  
George A. McMechan

A two‐point ray‐tracing technique for 3-D smoothly heterogeneous, weakly transversely isotropic media is based on Fermat’s principle and takes advantage of global Chebyshev approximation of both the model and curved rays. This approximation gives explicit relations for derivatives of traveltime with respect to ray parameters and allows use of the rapidly converging conjugate gradient method to compute traveltimes. The method is fast because, for most smoothly heterogeneous media, approximation of rays by only a few polynomials and a few conjugate gradient iterations provide excellent precision in traveltime calculation.


Geophysics ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 78 (6) ◽  
pp. C53-C59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Véronique Farra ◽  
Ivan Pšenčík

We generalize the P- and SV-wave moveout formulas obtained for transversely isotropic media with vertical axes of symmetry (VTI), based on the weak-anisotropy approximation. We generalize them for 3D dip-constrained transversely isotropic (DTI) media. A DTI medium is a transversely isotropic medium whose axis of symmetry is perpendicular to a dipping reflector. The formulas are derived in the plane defined by the source-receiver line and the normal to the reflector. In this configuration, they can be easily obtained from the corresponding VTI formulas. It is only necessary to replace the expression for the normalized offset by the expression containing the apparent dip angle. The final results apply to general 3D situations, in which the plane reflector may have arbitrary orientation, and the source and the receiver may be situated arbitrarily in the DTI medium. The accuracy of the proposed formulas is tested on models with varying dip of the reflector, and for several orientations of the horizontal source-receiver line with respect to the dipping reflector.


Geophysics ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 58 (10) ◽  
pp. 1442-1453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken L. Larner

Levin modeled the moveout, within common‐midpoint (CMP) gathers, of reflections from plane‐dipping reflectors beneath homogeneous, transversely isotropic media. For some media, when the axis of symmetry for the anisotropy was vertical, he found departures in stacking velocity from predictions based upon the familiar cosine‐of‐dip correction for isotropic media. Here, I do similar tests, again with transversely isotropic models with vertical axis of symmetry, but now allowing the medium velocity to vary linearly with depth. Results for the same four anisotropic media studied by Levin show behavior of dip‐corrected stacking velocity with reflector dip that, for all velocity gradients considered, differs little from that for the counterpart homogeneous media. As with isotropic media, traveltimes in an inhomogeneous, transversely isotropic medium can be modeled adequately with a homogeneous model with vertical velocity equal to the vertical rms velocity of the inhomogeneous medium. In practice, dip‐moveout (DMO) is based on the assumption that either the medium is homogeneous or its velocity varies with depth, but in both cases isotropy is assumed. It turns out that for only one of the transversely isotropic media considered here—shale‐limestone—would v(z) DMO fail to give an adequate correction within CMP gathers. For the shale‐limestone, fortuitously the constant‐velocity DMO gives a better moveout correction than does the v(z) DMO.


Geophysics ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo L. Faria ◽  
Paul L. Stoffa

An approach for calculating first‐arrival traveltimes in a transversely isotropic medium is developed and has the advantage of avoiding shadow zones while still being computationally fast. Also, it works with an arbitrary velocity grid that may have discontinuities. The method is based on Fermat’s principle. The traveltime for each point in the grid is calculated several times using previously calculated traveltimes at surrounding grid points until the minimum time is found. Different ranges of propagation angle are covered in each traveltime calculation such that at the end of the process all propagation angles are covered. This guarantees that the first‐arrival traveltime for a specific grid point is correctly calculated. The resulting algorithm is fully vectorizable. The method is robust and can accurately determine first‐arrival traveltimes in heterogeneous media. Traveltimes are compared to finite‐difference modeling of transversely isotropic media and are found to be in excellent agreement. An application to prestack migration is used to illustrate the usefulness of the method.


1979 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 1998-2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. F. Daley ◽  
F. Hron

There are many reports in the literature of anomalies in traveltime data when an isotropic homogeneous Earth model is used to interpret field data. In several cases, the introduction of a layered transversely isotropic model has successfully explained these kinematic irregularities. However, it is useful, in fact essential, to confirm the kinematic fit with a dynamic (amplitude) comparison.In this paper the problem of SH waves propagating in a transversely isotropic plane layered medium is discussed through the use of integral transforms and evaluation by steepest descents. This procedure yields not only the asymptotic solution which is also attainable using an asymptotic ray series approach, but also allows for the investigation of the interference of the reflected and head waves in the vicinity of the critical point (point of critical refraction). It is in this region that asymptotic ray theory breaks down or at least introduces significant error in the displacement amplitudes.It can be shown that a simple transformation will reduce this problem to one that may be solved exactly by the Cagnaird de Hoop technique but it is instructive to examine nonspherical wave-fronts in order to obtain an insight into more complicated anisotropic media.


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