S-wave velocity self-adaptive prediction based on a variable dry rock frame equivalent model

Seismic velocities are important reservoir parameters in seismic exploration. The Gassmann theory has been widely used to predict velocities of fluid-saturated isotropic reservoirs at low frequency. According to Gassmann theory, dry rock frame moduli are essential input parameters for estimating reservoir velocities. A variable dry rock frame equivalent model called VDEM based on the differential effective medium (DEM) theory is constructed in this paper to obtain the dry rock frame moduli. We decouple the DEM equations by introducing variable parameters, then simplify these decoupled equations to get the equivalent dry rock fame model. The predicted dry rock frame moduli by the VDEM are in good agreement with the laboratory data. The VDEM is also utilized to predict S-wave velocity combined with Gassmann theory. A self-adaptive inversion method is applied to fit the variable parameters with the constraint of P-wave velocity from well logging data. The S-wave velocity is estimated from these inversed parameters. A comparison between the self-adaptive method and the Xu-White model on S-wave velocity estimation is made. The results corroborate that the self-adaptive method is flexible and effective for S-wave velocity prediction.