Seismoelectric Theory
Jardani, A and A. Revil, 2014: Seismoelectric couplings in a poroelastic material containing two immiscible fluid phases. Geophysical Journal International. 202 (2): 850-870.doi: 10.1093/gji/ggv176. (pdf)
A new approach of seismoelectric imaging has been recently proposed to detect saturation fronts in which seismic waves are focused in the subsurface to scan its heterogeneous nature and determine saturation fronts. Such type of imaging requires however a complete modeling of the seismoelectric properties of porous media saturated by two immiscible fluid phases, one being usually electrically insulating (for instance water and oil). We combine an extension of Biot dynamic theory, valid for porous media containing two immiscible Newtonian fluids, with an extension of the electrokinetic theory based on the notion of effective volumetric charge densities dragged by the flow of each fluid phase. These effective charge densities can be related directly to the permeability and saturation of each fluid phase. The coupled partial differential equations are solved with the finite element method. We also derive analytically the transfer function connecting the macroscopic electrical field to the acceleration of the fast P wave (coseismic electrical field) and we study the influence of the water content on this coupling. We observe that the amplitude of the co-seismic electrical disturbance is very sensitive to the water content with an increase in amplitude with water saturation. We also investigate the seismoelectric conversions (interface effect) occurring at the water table. We show that the conversion response at the water table can be identifiable only when the saturation contrasts between the vadose and saturated zones are sharp enough. A relatively dry vadose zone represents the best condition to identify the water table through seismoelectric measurements. Indeed, in this case, the coseismic electrical disturbances are vanishingly small compared to the seismoelectric interface response.
Jardani, A. Revil, E. Slob and W. Sollner, 2009: Stochastic joint inversion of seismic and seismoelectric signals in poroelastic materials. Geophysics. Vol: 75, (1), Pages: N19-N31 (pdf)
The interpretation of seismoelectrical signals is a difficult task because coseismic and seismoelectric converted signals are recorded simultaneously and the seismoelectric conversions are typically several orders of magnitude smaller than the coseismic electrical signals. The seismic and seismoelectric signals are modeled using a finite-element code with perfectly matched layer boundary conditions assuming a linear poroelastic body. We present a stochastic joint inversion of the seismic and seismoelectrical data based on the adaptive Metropolis algorithm, to obtain the posterior probability density functions of the material properties of each geologic unit. This includes the permeability, porosity, electrical conductivity, bulk modulus of the dry porous frame, bulk modulus of the fluid, bulk modulus of the solid phase, and shear modulus of the formations.Atest of this approach is performed with a synthetic model comprising two horizontal layers and a reservoir partially saturated with oil, which is embedded in the second layer. The result of the joint inversion shows that we can invert the permeability of the reservoir and its mechanical properties.
Revil , A. and A. Jardani, 2009 : Seismoelectric response of a charged rock saturated by a viscoelastic solvent. Theory. Geophysical Journal International. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2009.04439.x. (pdf)
We consider a linear poroelastic material filled with a linear viscoelastic solvent like wet heavy oils (oil as opposed to water or brines is wetting the surfaces of the pores). We extend the electrokinetic theory in the frequency domain accounting for the relaxation effects associated with resonance of the viscoelastic fluid. The fluid is described by a generalized Maxwell rheology with a distribution of relaxation times given by a Cole–Cole distribution.We use the assumption that the charges of the diffuse layer are uniformly distributed in the pore space (Donnan model). The macroscopic constitutive equations of transport for the seepage velocity and the current density have the form of coupled Darcy and Ohm equations with frequencydependent material properties. These equations are combined with an extended Frenkel–Biot model describing the deformation of the poroelastic material filled with the viscoelastic fluid. In the mechanical constitutive equations, the effective shear modulus is frequency dependent. An amplification of the seismoelectric conversion is expected in the frequency band where resonance of the generalized Maxwell fluid occurs. The seismic and seismoelectric equations are modelled using a finite element code with PML boundary conditions. We found that the DC-value of the streaming potential coupling coefficient is also very high. These results have applications regarding the development of new non-intrusive methods to characterize shallow heavy oil reservoirs in tar sands and DNAPL contaminant plumes in shallow aquifers.
