Fracture evaluation using reflected Stoneley-wave arrivals

Abstract

We use the low-frequency reflected Stoneley-wave mode to locate permeable fractures intersecting a borehole and to estimate their effective apertures. Assuming a model in which the average aperture of the fracture is roughly constant, theoretical work relates the magnitude of the Stoneley-wave reflection to an effective fracture width. We treat both the case of a horizontal fracture and the case of a fracture crossing the borehole at an angle. -from Authors