Experimental laboratory determination of the dynamic elastic properties of wet, drained shales

TLDR

The study focuses on highly anisotropic shales, whose textural and elastic anisotropy were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and ultrasonic measurements. Ultrasonic anisotropic elastic properties of two drained, saturated shales—Jurassic outcrop and Kimmeridge Clay—were measured under varying confining pressures. The Kimmeridge Clay exhibited the greatest anisotropy (up to 38 % compressional and 58 % shear wave anisotropy), but both ε and γ, as well as porosity, decreased with increasing confining pressure, aligning with theoretical predictions that reduced fluid‑filled porosity lowers shale anisotropy.

Abstract

The ultrasonic anisotropic elastic properties of drained, saturated shales were measured as a function of confining pressure. Two shales were characterized in this study: a Jurassic outcrop shale retrieved under the sea in a saturated state and a Kimmeridge Clay shale cut from a North Sea borehole. Both shales were highly anisotropic, both texturally, as revealed by scanning electron microscopy analysis, and elastically, as measured ultrasonically in the laboratory. The strongest anisotropy was seen in the Kimmeridge Clay shale, where up to 38% compressional wave anisotropy (Thomsen's parameter ε) and up to 58% shear wave anisotropy (Thomsen's parameter γ) were observed. In addition, for both shales, ε and γ were found to decrease as a function of increasing confining pressure, with the pore pressure drained to atmosphere, while the anellipticity (deviation of the slowness surfaces from ellipses) was found to be positive and decreased as a function of increasing confining pressure. Accompanying these changes in elastic properties was a decrease in porosity with increasing confining pressure, from 10.5 to 8.5% for the Jurassic shale. The decrease in overall anisotropy of the shales with increasing confining pressure was found to be consistent with theoretical modeling of shale properties where the shale anisotropy and anellipticity were predicted to decrease as a function of decreasing fluid‐filled porosity.