Seismic modelling for geological fractures

ABSTRACT Based on knowledge of a commutative group calculation of the rock stiffness and on some geophysical assumptions, the simplest fractured medium may be regarded as a fracture embedded in an isotropic background medium, and the fracture interface can be simulated as a linear slip interface that satisfies non‐welded contact boundary conditions: the kinematic displacements are discontinuous across the interface, whereas the dynamic stresses are continuous across the interface. The finite‐difference method with boundary conditions explicitly imposed is advantageous for modelling wave propagation in fractured discontinuous media that are described by the elastic equation of motion and non‐welded contact boundary conditions. In this paper, finite‐difference schemes for horizontally, vertically, and orthogonally fractured media are derived when the fracture interfaces are aligned with the boundaries of the finite‐difference grid. The new finite‐difference schemes explicitly have an additional part that is different from the conventional second‐order finite‐difference scheme and that directly describes the contributions of the fracture to the wave equation of motion in the fractured medium. The numerical seismograms presented, to first order, show that the new finite‐difference scheme is accurate and stable and agrees well with the results of previously published finite‐difference schemes (the Coates and Schoenberg method). The results of the new finite‐difference schemes show how the amplitude of the reflection produced by the fracture varies with the fracture compliances. Later, comparisons with the reflection coefficients indicate that the reflection coefficients of the fracture are frequency dependent, whereas the reflection coefficients of the impedance contrast interface are frequency independent. In addition, the numerical seismograms show that the reflections of the fractured medium are equal to the reflections of the background medium plus the reflections of the fracture in the elastic fractured medium.