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.
Electronic copies of this paper are not available.