Numerical simulation of P and S wave propagation in porous and low porosity carbonate rocks: laboratory tests, automatic P and S waves detection and FLAC3D simulation

Abstract

This study presents laboratory measurements of P and S wave velocities of two carbonate rocks (porous limestone and yellow cemented limestone). The experimental results were validated and compared with the numerical simulation outputs using the 3D Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua software (FLAC3D). The main aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of frequency and mode of emission on ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) by applying an automatic method for the determination of P and S wave velocities. Based on the results, automatic detection of UPV can provide reliable outputs. The difference between numerical simulation results and laboratory measurement in terms of P and S wave velocities was, on average, around 7%, suggesting the applicability of the automatic detection method. Our study implies less noise in the perfect shear (PS) mode than in the single zone (SZ) emission mode. In summary, higher frequencies and the PS mode of emission are recommended.