Effect of subsurface hydrological properties on velocity and attenuation of compressional and shear wave in fluid-saturated viscoelastic porous media

Over the past years there has been a growing interest in the use of seismic waves to gain required information about the Earth’s subsurface. Despite all achievements, the problem of accurately linking field measurement of seismic attributes to subsurface hydrological properties such as porosity and intrinsic permeability is still ambiguous. The goal of the present paper is to provide a comprehensive study on the effect of subsurface hydrological properties on seismic attributes such as wave attenuation and velocity. This is achieved by using dispersion relations obtained from equations of wave motion that are derived from Biot’s theory of poroelasticity. Since the attenuation predicted from Biot’s theory is only due to relative motion of the solid and fluid phases, viscoelasticity effects are introduced to consider the attenuation caused by grain to grain contact. The dispersion relations for body waves including fast wave, slow wave and shear wave are valid in both low and high frequency ranges where viscous and inertia effects are dominant, respectively.