Non-linear imaging condition to image fractures as non-welded interfaces

Non-linear imaging condition to image fractures as non-welded interfaces

Minato, S.
Ghose, R.

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Geoscience & Engineering

2014-10-26

Hydraulic properties of a fractured reservoir are often controlled by large fractures. In order to seismically detect and characterize them, a high-resolution imaging method is necessary. We apply a non-linear imaging condition to image fractures, considered as non-welded interfaces. We derive the imaging condition from the general correlation-type representation theorem, assuming compliances to be real-valued functions. We investigate the P-wave image due to P-wave sources and the effect of source illumination. We present here numerical modeling results for (1) a single dry fracture, (2) orthogonally intersecting fractures, and (3) deviated multiple fractures in a multi-layered subsurface. Our results show that the nonlinear terms in the imaging condition help to cancel the arte-facts appearing in case of conventional imaging condition, and improve the resolution of the final image. For a multi-layered model, the one-sided source illumination from the earth's surface can image the multiple fractures. However, an incomplete source illumination restricts the removal of all the artefacts. In this case, installing additional borehole sources can greatly improve the resolution of the fracture distribution.

elastic
fractures
imaging
migration
numerical

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e4cc2a28-9795-46d2-8715-cd78a9050917

SEG

1052-3812

https://doi.org/10.1190/segam2014-0582.1

SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts, 2014; 84th Conference of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), Denver, USA, 26-31 October 2014

Institutional Repository

conference paper

(c) 2014 SEG