Reconstruction of Hydraulic Fractures Using Passive Ultrasonic Travel-Time Tomography

Wei Zhu, Xu Chang, Yibo Wang, Hongyu Zhai and Zhenxing Yao
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Wei Zhu: Key Laboratory of Shale Gas and Geoengineering, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Xu Chang: Key Laboratory of Shale Gas and Geoengineering, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Yibo Wang: Key Laboratory of Shale Gas and Geoengineering, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Hongyu Zhai: Key Laboratory of Shale Gas and Geoengineering, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Zhenxing Yao: Institutions of Earth Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 5, 1-17

Abstract: The knowledge of hydraulic fracture morphology is significant for the analysis of fracture mechanisms. This paper utilizes passive Ultrasonic Travel-time Tomography (UTT) to characterize the hydraulic fracture. We constructed a velocity model based on X-ray computerized tomography (X-CT) images scanned on a real hydraulically fractured shale column. Then, ray-paths and travel times corresponding to the source-receiver configuration were calculated by curved ray-tracing schemes. Lastly, we performed tomographic inversions using total variation regularization (TVR). The simulation results showed that 3D passive UTT based on TVR is an accurate, efficient, and stable method to reconstruct the velocity structures with fractures, even in the case of sparse ray-coverage or high noise level. Meanwhile, we also verified that the passive UTT is a valid alternative to X-CT in depicting the hydraulic fracturing rock via a proper interpretation method.

Keywords: hydraulic fracture; passive ultrasound; travel-time tomography; total variation regularization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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