Laboratory results for the features of body‐wave propagation in a transversely isotropic media

Geophysics ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 1921-1924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Young‐Fo Chang ◽  
Chih‐Hsiung Chang

Much of the earth’s crust appears to have some degree of elastic anisotropy (Crampin, 1981; Crampin and Lovell, 1991; Helbig, 1993). The phenomena of elastic wave propagation in anisotropic media are more complex than those in isotropic media. Shear‐wave propagation in an orthorhombic physical model is most complex when the direction of the wave is close to the neighborhood of the cusp on the group velocity surfaces (Brown et al., 1991). The first identification of singularities in wave propagation through sedimentary basins occurred in the examination of shear‐wave splitting in multioffset vertical seismic profiles (VSPs) at a borehole site in the Paris Basin (Bush and Crampin, 1991), where large variations in shear‐wave polarizations in propagation directions close to point singularities were observed. Computation of synthetic seismograms for layer sequences showed that the shear‐wave polarizations and amplitudes were irregular near point singularities (Crampin, 1991).

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.


1993 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 529-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence H. T. Le

Abstract This paper studies the response to a qSH pulse generated by a line source, of two homogeneous half-spaces (transversely isotropic elastic or viscoelastic) separated by a plane boundary. For a simple model of two transversely isotropic half-spaces in welded contact, all the arrivals, including the incident, reflected, head, transmitted, and evanescent waves, that are predicted by the isotropic theory are present. For the 15% change in wave speeds considered here, anisotropy changes the dynamic and kinematic characteristics of the pulses. Depending on the anisotropy factor, the change can be pronounced. Because of the significant time shift and amplitude variation of the first arrivals due to anisotropy, proper consideration of the anisotropy of the medium is necessary in interpreting vertical seismic profiles or crosshole seismic data by means of any travel time or amplitude tomographic scheme.


Geophysics ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 896-917 ◽  
Author(s):  
James G. Berryman

Compressional waves in horizontally layered media exhibit very weak long‐wave anisotropy for short offset seismic data within the physically relevant range of parameters. Shear waves have much stronger anisotropic behavior. Our results generalize the analogous results of Krey and Helbig (1956) in several respects: (1) The inequality [Formula: see text] derived by Postma (1955) for periodic isotropic, two‐layered media is shown to be valid for any homogeneous, transversely isotropic medium; (2) a general perturbation scheme for analyzing the angular dependence of the phase velocity is formulated and readily yields Krey and Helbig’s results in limiting cases; and (3) the effects of relaxing the assumption of constant Poisson’s ratio σ are considered. The phase and group velocities for all three modes of elastic wave propagation are illustrated for typical layered media with (1) one‐quarter limestone and three‐quarters sandstone, (2) half‐limestone and half‐sandstone, and (3) three‐quarters limestone and one‐quarter sandstone. It is concluded that anisotropic effects are greatest in areas where the layering is quite thin (10–50 ft), so that the wavelengths of the seismic signal are greater than the layer thickness and the layers are of alternately high‐ and low‐velocity materials.


Geophysics ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 336-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix M. Lyakhovitskiy

Berryman and Levin made an assumption about constancy or limited variations of Poisson’s ratio in the thin layers, in their analyses of elastic anisotropy in thin‐layered media. Berryman states (p. 913): “Rare cases can occur with large variations in Poisson’s ratio.” However, on p. 911 Berryman does point out (with reference to Benzing) that range of variations of the parameter γ = VS/VP from 0.45 to 0.65 is typical of rocks. That corresponds to a range of variations of Poisson’s ratio of 0.373 to 0.134 (i.e., almost three times as much).


Geophysics ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. D17-D33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bing Zhou ◽  
Stewart Greenhalgh ◽  
Alan Green

Crosshole seismic tomography often is applied to image the velocity structure of an interwell medium. If the rocks are anisotropic, the tomographic technique must be adapted to the complex situation; otherwise, it leads to a false interpretation. We propose a nonlinear kinematic inversion method for crosshole seismic tomography in composite transversely isotropic media with known dipping symmetry axes. This method is based on a new version of the first-order traveltime perturbation equation. It directly uses the derivative of the phase velocity rather than the eigenvectors of the body-wave modes to overcome the singularity problem for application to the two quasi-shear waves. We applied an iterative nonlinear solver incorporating our kinematic ray-tracing scheme and directly compute the Jacobian matrix in an arbitrary reference medium. This reconstructs the five elastic moduli or Thomsen parameters from the first-arrival traveltimes of the three seismic body waves (qP, qSV, qSH) in strongly and weakly anisotropic media. We conducted three synthetic experiments that involve determining anisotropic parameters for a homogeneous rock, reconstructing a fault embedded in a strongly anisotropic background, and imaging a complicated four-layer model containing a small channel and a buried dipping interface. We compared results of our nonlinear inversion method with isotropic tomography and the traditional linear anisotropic inversion scheme, which showed the capability and superiority of the new scheme for crosshole tomographic imaging.


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