Wave scattering in porous media and shape reconstruction of scatterers

Koji Yamamoto
Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, Chiba, Japan

Masaki Yamamda
Department of Civil Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

ABSTRACT: The Linearized Inverse Scattering Analysis (LISA) with Born approximation is utilized for a
shape reconstruction of inhomogeneties in fluid filed porous materials using elastic waves. The mechanical
characters of the media are modeled with Biots theory of poroelasticity. Integral expression of the scattered
field is the basis of this method, and inverse Fourier transform of the approximate form of the equations gives the
geometry of the scatterer from the observable values of scattered amplitude. Numerical examples of the shape
reconstruction that are derived from simulated scattered amplitude computed by the boundary integral equation.
In the examples, images of the scatterers such as a cavity in porous media or a domain in which pore fluid is
different from surrounding region are presented.

1 INTRODUCTION poroelasticity (Biot 1956, 1962). In this model, three

Imaging of inhomogeneities in a porous material using
elastic waves is a key technology of the resource and
environmental engineerings. Particularly, monitoring
of phase transition of pore fluids is important for
Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) (Nur 1987), CO2 geo-
logic sequestration (Chadwick et al. 2002, Ohsita
2002), gas production from methane hydrate bearing
sediments (Takahashi et al. 2003), and other applica-
tions. For such purposes, several inversion techniques
have been developed and implemented to the field
application such as the cross well tomography tech-
nique. In most of such techniques, observed value is
refracted waves, and the velocity structure of the media
is reconstructed to match with the observed arrival
time or waveforms by iterative methods.
On the other hand, Linealized Inverse Scattering
Analysis (LISA) is a technique to observe scattered
waves for the reconstruction of the shape of a scat-
terer in a uniform medium. The spatial and frequency
distribution of the amplitude of scattered waves are
measured around the scatterer for this purpose (Rose &
Opsal 1982, Rose 1984, Schmerr et al. 1989). The
method adopts either Born or Kirchihoff approxima-
tions for the linearization of the relation between the
scattered fields and the geometry of the scatterer. The
method has been formulated for elasticmedia, and
applied to the real solids such as metals and cements.
(Kitahara et al. 2002).
For model the characteristics of fluid-filled porous
materials, the authors use Biots model of dynamic
waves, namely a transverse wave (T -wave) and two
longitudinal waves (fast wave or L1-wave, and slow
wave or L2-wave). Those waves have dispersive char-
acter with different degrees. Using this model, pore
fluid characters are directly considered in the wave
velocities.
In this paper, the formulation of LISA and some
numerical examples of the shape reconstruction are
presented. The accuracy of the reconstructed shape
is discussed for the effect of limited frequency and
spatial data.
2 FORMULATION OF LISA IN
POROELASTIC MEDIA
2.1 Integral expression of scattered field
As shown in Fig. 1, a scatterer Dc is modeled in
an infinite and uniform medium D (matrix) defined
,
by poroelastic parameters (, , , 1/M , 1/m). The
definitions and the typical values using here for
the matrix are listed in Table 1. The differences of
the parameters between the matrix and the scatterer
are written as (, , , , (1/M ), (1/m)).
The listed values are based on the ones of porous
sandstones (Detournay & Cheng 1993).
Let us consider an incidence of a unit amplitude
time-harmonic wave q(i) (x, t) =A(i) ekw(i) p (i)x eit to
the scatterer Dc , where A(i) is the amplitude vec-
tor, kw(i) is the complex wavenumber of (i) wave

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Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
 D (,,
,f /m,1/M,1/m)
x

Dc (,, + ,
+ ,
f /m + (f /m)1/M + (1/M), 1/m + (1/m))
q(s)
q(i)
p(i) where ui , p is the total field that is the sum of the
p(s) incident and the scattered waves.
y By applying the far field approximation of the
fundamental solution (Yamamoto & Kitahara 2003):
Figure 1. Wave scattering by a scatterer Dc in a poroelastic
medium.

Table 1. Poroelastic parameters used in this paper.

the scattered field is rewritten as
Symbol Definition Values in matrix

Bulk density 3000 kg/m3

f Fluid density 1000 kg/m3
, Lam constant = = 5.0 GPa
Biots constant 1.0 where kw(s) is a complex wavenumber of the scattered
Porosity 0.2
wave, r is the distance between the scatterer and the
M Biots modulus 12.5 GPa
b Dissipation factor 0 (no dissipation) observation point y. Aw(s) is the scattering amplitude,
Coupling parameter f /m and defined as
m Mass parameter = f / ib
m

(w(i) = L1, L2 or T ), p (i) is the propagation vector,

is angular frequency of the wave. The generalized dis-
placement q is defined as the combination of solid In the equations, (x) is a function that determine the
displacement (ui ) and pore pressure ( p), and written as geometry of the equivalent source, and defined as
q(i) (x) = {ui (x), p(x)}. The type of the wave is written
as wi where.
Using a equivalent source B that means the effect
of scatterer on scattered waves, the scattered field by
the scatterer Dc at the point y (q(s) ) is written as and p (s) is the propagation vector of the scattered wave.

2.2 Born inversion

where q(s) ( y) is the generalized displacements of scat-
tered fields, and [G] is the frequency domain funda-
mental solution of the Navier-Caucy type motion equa-
tions of Biots material (Cheng et al. 1991, Dominguez
1992, Fukui et al. 1996, Yamamoto& Kitahara 2004).
The equivalent source is defined as
The right-hand side of Equation 6 contains the mate-
rial constants of both the scatterer and the matrix, the
shape of the scatterer, and total field in the scatterer.
Therefore, the observable scattering amplitude in the
left-hand side includes those information.
The total field q = (ui , p) in Eqs. 2 and 3 is a function
of the geometry and material constant of the scatterer.
If the material constants of the scatterer are known,
and the geometry defined by (x) is unknown, Equa-
tion 6 is nonlinear one for the value of  By using
Born approximation, the equivalent source B becomes
known value. The approximate form of the source term
Bexp(ik (i) x) is obtained by replacing total fields
w(i) p
in Eqs. 2 and 3 by the incident wave. In this form, the

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Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
unknown value of the righthand side is solely the shape
of the scatterer (x), and the scattering amplitude is a
linear function of (x). It is noted that the Born approx-
imation is well established in the low-frequency range
in which wavelengths of incident and scattered waves
is longer than the typical length of the scatterer.
Let us multiply both sides of Equation 6 by the par-
ticle displacement vector of the scattering wave dK ,
and the equation is rewritten as
(s) (i)
where, sp = kw(s) p kw(i) p . Figure 2. Schematics of a Pulse-Echo mode measurement.
Since Equation 8 has a form of Fourier transform,
F(k) = f (x)exp(ik x)dx, the inverse Fourier
transform f (x) = 1/(2)3 F(x) exp(ik x)dk gives
the shape function (x). In the case of Biot material,
the wavenumber vector s is complex, thus the follow-
ing modified form of the inverse Fourier transform
is used:
Using this equation, the geometry of the scat-
KS ), close
terer (x) is reconstructed by the observation of the
w
scattered amplitude AK(s) (p(s) ) in entire direction and
frequency.
When the scattered wave is either transverse (T )
or fast longitudinal (L1), the effect of the imaginary
part that causes energy dissipation is almost negli-
gible. However, when it is slow longitudinal wave
(L2), the energy attenuation should be accounted in
the scattered field.
3 NUMERICAL EXAMPLES
3.1 Model configuration
To verify the effectiveness of LISA, a trial of the shape
reconstruction in poroelastic media is carried out using
simulated scattering amplitude that is computed by the
surface displacements of the scatterer given by the inte-
gral form of the scattered field (Yamamoto & Kitahara
2003).
For examples, spherical and ellipsoidal scatterers
are modeled in poroelastic media of which the poroe-
lastic parameters are similar to the ones of porous sand
stone in Table. The measurement configuration is the
Pulse-Echo mode in which the transducer and receiver
are common, and the back scattering is observed.
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Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
Transmitter-
receiver
3a
2a
Flat ellipsoid Scatterer
3a
2a
Long ellipsoid
For the scatterer, solely Biots modulus M (Biot &
Willis 1957) is different from the matrix. Among four
moduli of poroelastic system, only the modulus is
affected by the compressibility of the pore fluid, and
the effect is written as follows (Stoll & Kan 1981):
where K, KS and KF are the bulk moduli of solid frame,
grain, and pore fluid. In the case that the solid frame is
far more compressible than the grain (K
approximation of M is given as
Therefore, the fluid compressibility determines Biots
modulus M in porous materials such as sandstones.
Thus, a region in which phase of the pore fluid
is different from surrounding region, e.g. the pore
fluid contains gas by gas injection from borehole, is
modeled as the domain with different M .
In the following numerical examples, Biots modu-
lus in the scatterer Minc is set to be 10.
The incident and scattered waves are the fast longi-
tudinal (L1-) wave. For the simplification, dissipation
is neglected (b = 0).
The wavenumbers used here is normalized by
the typical length of the scatterer a, and its range
is 0.17 < aRe(kLS ) < 1.52 that corresponds to 28
krad/sec in the angular frequency for the a = 1 m
scatterer.
3.2 Reconstruction of scatterer shape
3.2.1 Image of the scatterer
Figures 3 and 4 shows the reconstructed images of
flat and long ellipsoids. The figures indicate the
 (x) (x)

x3
x3

x1
x1
(a) Distribution of (x) in x1-x3
(a) Distribution of (x) in x1-x3

x3
x3 x2
x2 x1

x1
(b) Isopleth surface that (x) is 50% of its peak value

Figure 5. Reconstructed image by the data of upper and

(b) Isopleth surface that (x) is 50% of its peak value
right half space ((x) distribution.
Figure 3. Reconstructed image of a flat ellipsoid
M = 0.9 M ((x) distribution). distribution of (x) in a plane that include the rota-
tion axis, and the isoplethic boundaries on which the
value of Gamma(x) is half of its peak. The dotted lines
in the figures are true shape of the scatterers.
(x)
Even by this relatively narrow range of the fre-
quency, the reconstructed shapes agree well with the
true geometry of the scatterers. Those results show
that the region with different Biots modulus can be
x3
reconstructed by observing the scattered waves.
x1 3.2.2 Shape reconstructions using imperfect
data: spatial domain
(a) Distribution of (x) in x1-x3 plane In real situations, spatial and frequency domains for
observation are limited due to technical reasons. The
inverse method should be less sensitive to such lack of
the information.
Figures 5 and 6 show the reconstructed images of
the flat ellipsoid using the data in upper half ( 90 ),
and half side (90 90 ) regions, respectively.
In both images, the reconstructed shapes are sim-
ilar to the true geometry of the scatterers in the
x3
observed hemispheres. Those results mean that the lin-
x2 earized method is robust process for the lack of spatial
x1 information.

3.2.3 Shape reconstructions using imperfect

(b) Isopleth surface that (x) is 50% of its peak value data: frequency range
In order to evaluate the effect of the frequency range,
Figure 4. Reconstructed image of a long ellipsoid the varied frequency range is used for the shape
M = 0.9 M ((x) distribution). reconstruction. A spherical cavity is modeled for

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Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
 (x) 0.2- 4.0krad/sec
0.2- 8.0krad/sec
0.2-12.0krad/sec
0.2-16.0krad/sec
x3
0.2-20.0krad/sec
Reference
x1

(x)
(a) Distribution of (x) in x1-x3

x(y = 0, z = 0)

Figure 8. Distribution of (x) on x-axis for different fre-

x3 quency range data. (Spherical cavity case.)

x1 x2 Gamma(x) should be a step shape as shown with a gray

thick line.
The results show that the data with higher fre-
quency range tend to give more accurate distribution
(b) Isopleth surface that (x) is 50% of its peak value of Gamma(x) when the highest frequency is less than
1.6 krad/sec. However, the highest frequency (0.2
Figure 6. Reconstructed image by the data of right half 20 kHz) result leaves the true value. One reason is that
space ((x) distribution. Born approximation is not held in higher frequency
range. It shows that the usable frequency range should
be chosen carefully.Also, it is noted that the error of the
L1-wave BEM result is also large in higher frequency ranges.
Scattering Amplitude (Backward)

L2-wave
4 CONCLUSION

The paper presents the shape reconstruction formula-

Frequency (rad/sec)
Figure 7. Variety of scattering amplitude with frequency.
(Spherical cavity case.)
this purpose, and used frequency ranges are set to
0.28 krad/sec, 0.212 krad/sec, 0.216 krad/sec, and
20 krad/sec (four cases). The scattering amplitude
variation with frequency is shown in Fig. 7, and depen-
dency of the Gamma(x) distribution on x-axis for each
frequency range is shown in Fig. 8. The true value of
tion for fluid saturated porous media using the integral
expression of the scattered field and Born approxima-
tion. The numerical examples show that the method is
applicable for the domain in which pore fluid is dif-
ferent from surrounding regions. This method gives a
certain degree of accuracy if the usable data is limited
in spatial and frequency domains.
The formulation is low frequency approximation
in which typical wavelength is shorter than the scat-
terer size. In such low frequency ranges, power of the
transmitter can be strongthened, and effect of small
scatterers such as small voids and fractures can be
negligible.
The example presented here suggests that this tech-
nique is applicable to the monitoring of the fluid
in earth formations. For such application, verifica-
tion of the model, noise reduction technologies, and
development of hardware such as transducers are
necessary.

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Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
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