Abstract
The acoustic response of gas and/or water saturated coal rock is fundamental for establishing the correspondence between the physical properties of the coal reservoir and the characteristics of the well-logging response, which is the technology essential for the geophysical exploration of coalbed methane (CBM). This acoustic response depends on water (Sw) and gas (Sg) saturation among other factors. In this study, we performed acoustic tests on dry and different gas-water saturated coal samples with different degrees of metamorphism and deformation, collected from several coal mining areas in China. These tests enabled us to analyze the influence of coal type and gas-water saturation on the acoustic response of CBM formations. Our results show that the acoustic velocity of P-wave and S-wave (Vp and Vs, respectively), and the relative anisotropy of and Vs, increased with increasing vitrinite reflectance, density, Vp and Sw. With Sw increasing from 0 to 100%, the growth rate of the acoustic velocity decreased with increasing vitrinite reflectance. The Vp/Vs ratio of tectonic coal was generally higher than that of primary coal. The growth rate of the relative anisotropy in tectonic coal was markedly higher than that in primary coal.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Frontiers of Earth Science |
| Early online date | 29 Mar 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 29 Mar 2022 |
Bibliographical note
AcknowledgmentsThis research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42130806, 41922016, 41830427 and 41772160).
Keywords
- coal rock
- gas-water
- water saturation
- acoustic velocity
- relative anisotropy