Abstract of the the paper ``Evidence for correlation of ultrasonic attenuation and fluid permeability in very low porosity water-saturated rocks'' with B. P. Bonner and R. C. Y. Chin

The measured amplitude A of ultrasonic pulses in intact and fractured samples of water-saturated gabbro and granite is observed to decrease as the permeability kappa increases according to the proportionality A ~ kappa^{-1/2}. This relation is predicted by Biot's theory of elastic waves in fluid-saturated porous media and, therefore, suggests that Biot's attenuation mechanism may play a significant role in low porosity materials at ultrasonic frequencies. The evidence is not conclusive. The limited data set studied here is also consistent with correlations of the form A ~ kappa^{-epsilon} where 0.2 < epsilon < 0.6. Nevertheless, the observed correlations may still provide a means for monitoring changes in permeability of low-porosity underground repositories of radioactive waste.

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