Characteristics of fluid substitution in porous rocks

Abstract

Analysis of the effect of changes in fluid properties of rocks on the compressional-wave velocity VP and shear-wave velocity VS is very important for understanding the rock physical properties, especially in oilfield exploration and development. The fluid substitution process was analyzed by using ultrasonic measurement and theoretical calculations. The results showed that the effect of fluid substitution on the rock elastic modulus was mainly controlled by fluid properties, saturation, and confining pressure. For a rock with specific properties and porosity, the result of theoretical prediction for fluid substitution accorded with the experimental result under high confining pressure (higher than 60 MPa for our experimental data), but failed to describe the trend of experimental result under low confining pressure and VP predicted by Gassmann's equation was higher than that measured by experiment. A higher porosity resulted in stronger sensitivity of the bulk modulus of saturated rocks to the change of fluid properties. © 2009 China University of Petroleum (Beijing) and Springer-Verlag GmbH.