From noise correlation to resonant ultrasound spectroscopy in rock acoustics

ABSTRACT This article introduces an alternative experimental procedure for measuring the elastic properties of a solid material at laboratory scale, using both the principles of passive seismic interferometry and resonance ultrasound spectroscopy. We generate noise into the studied sample with a pneumatic air blow gun, and we cross‐correlate the signals recorded with two passive piezoelectric sensors put in soft contact with the sample surface. Resonance phenomena are induced in the sample, but in contrast with conventional resonance ultrasound spectroscopy experiments, we have no control over the injected frequencies that are sent all together within the noise spectrum. The spectrum of the correlogram is a good approximation of the resonance spectrum of the vibrating sample and can be inverted in terms of the elastic moduli of the constituent material of the sample. The experimental procedure is validated on samples made of standard materials (here, aluminium and Plexiglas) by consistently comparing the inverted elastic velocities with the velocities independently measured with the conventional technique of ultrasonic pulse transmission. Moreover, we got similar positive results on dry rock samples, such as Vilhonneur limestone. These encouraging preliminary results open up promising prospects for monitoring fluid substitution in rock samples using the technique described in this paper.