Wave motion between two fluid-filled boreholes in an elastic medium

Abstract

The boundary element method (BEM) is used to fully simulate the propagation of waves between two fluid-filled boreholes. The sources are placed in one of the boreholes while the receivers are placed in the other. This model is frequently used in cross-hole seismic prospecting techniques to assess the characteristics of the elastic medium between the two boreholes. This work studies the dependence of the wave propagation patterns on the distance between the source and the receiver, their location and orientation relative to the axis of a circular borehole and type of elastic formation (fast and slow formations). In addition, this BEM model is used to compute the influence of the deformed boreholes whose cross-section is not circular. Both the spectra responses and the time-domain responses are computed to elucidate the main physical features of the problem solved.