Abstract
Rock containing a compliant, fluid-filled fracture can be viewed as one case of heterogeneous poroelastic media. When this fracture is subjected to seismic waves, a strong contrast in the elastic stiffness between the fracture itself and the background can result in enhanced grain-scale local fluid flow. Because this flow—relaxing the pressure building up within the fracture—can increase the dynamic compliance of the fracture and change energy dissipation (attenuation), the scattering of seismic waves can be enhanced. Previously, for a flat, infinite fracture, we derived poroelastic seismic boundary conditions that describe the relationship between a finite jump in the stress and displacement across a fracture, expressed as a function of the stress and displacement at the boundaries. In this paper, we extend these boundary conditions to examine frequency-dependent seismic wave scattering by heterogeneous fractures. Fluid-filled fractures with a range of mechanical and hydraulic properties are examined. From parametric studies, we found that the hydraulic permeability of a fracture fully saturated with water has little impact on seismic wave scattering. In contrast, the seismic response of a partially water-saturated fracture and a heterogeneous fracture filled with compliant liquid (e.g., supercritical CO2) depended on the fracture permeability.
