scholarly journals An acoustic wave equation for orthorhombic anisotropy

Geophysics ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 1169-1172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tariq Alkhalifah

Using a dispersion relation derived under the acoustic medium assumption, I obtain an acoustic wave equation for orthorhombic media. Although an acoustic wave equation does not strictly describe a wave in anisotropic media, it accurately describes the kinematics of P‐waves. The orthorhombic acoustic wave equation, unlike the transversely isotropic one, is a sixth‐order equation with three sets of complex conjugate solutions. Only one set of these solutions are perturbations of the familiar acoustic wavefield solution for isotropic media for incoming and outgoing P‐waves and, thus, are of interest here. The other two sets of solutions are simply the result of this artificially derived sixth‐order equation.

Geophysics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 1239-1250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tariq Alkhalifah

A wave equation, derived using the acoustic medium assumption for P-waves in transversely isotropic (TI) media with a vertical symmetry axis (VTI media), yields a good kinematic approximation to the familiar elastic wave equation for VTI media. The wavefield solutions obtained using this VTI acoustic wave equation are free of shear waves, which significantly reduces the computation time compared to the elastic wavefield solutions for exploding‐reflector type applications. From this VTI acoustic wave equation, the eikonal and transport equations that describe the ray theoretical aspects of wave propagation in a TI medium are derived. These equations, based on the acoustic assumption (shear wave velocity = 0), are much simpler than their elastic counterparts, yet they yield an accurate description of traveltimes and geometrical amplitudes. Numerical examples prove the usefulness of this acoustic equation in simulating the kinematic aspects of wave propagation in complex TI models.


Geophysics ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. SM223-SM230 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Etgen ◽  
Michael J. O’Brien

We present a set of methods for modeling wavefields in three dimensions with the acoustic-wave equation. The primary applications of these modeling methods are the study of acquisition design, multiple suppression, and subsalt imaging for surface-streamer and ocean-bottom recording geometries. We show how to model the acoustic wave equation in three dimensions using limited computer memory, typically using a single workstation, leading to run times on the order of a few CPU hours to a CPU day. The structure of the out-of-core method presented is also used to improve the efficiency of in-core modeling, where memory-to-cache-to-memory data flow is essentially the same as the data flow for an out-of-core method. Starting from the elastic-wave equation, we develop a vector-acoustic algorithm capable of efficiently modeling multicomponent data in an acoustic medium. We show that data from this vector-acoustic algorithm can be used to test upgoing/downgoing separation of P-waves recorded by ocean-bottom seismic acquisition.


Geophysics ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 78 (5) ◽  
pp. WC41-WC50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tariq Alkhalifah

Solving the anisotropic acoustic wave equation numerically using finite-difference methods introduces many problems and media restriction requirements, and it rarely contributes to the ability to resolve the anisotropy parameters. Among these restrictions are the inability to handle media with [Formula: see text] and the presence of shear-wave artifacts in the solution. Both limitations do not exist in the solution of the elliptical anisotropic acoustic wave equation. Using perturbation theory in developing the solution of the anisotropic acoustic wave equation allows direct access to the desired limitation-free solutions, that is, solutions perturbed from the elliptical anisotropic background medium. It also provides a platform for parameter estimation because of the ability to isolate the wavefield dependency on the perturbed anisotropy parameters. As a result, I derive partial differential equations that relate changes in the wavefield to perturbations in the anisotropy parameters. The solutions of the perturbation equations represented the coefficients of a Taylor-series-type expansion of the wavefield as a function of the perturbed parameter, which is in this case [Formula: see text] or the tilt of the symmetry axis. The expansion with respect to the symmetry axis allows use of an acoustic transversely isotropic media with a vertical symmetry axis (VTI) kernel to estimate the background wavefield and the corresponding perturbation coefficients. The VTI extrapolation kernel is about one-fourth the cost of the transversely isotropic model with a tilt in the symmetry axis kernel. Thus, for a small symmetry axis tilt, the cost of migration using a first-order expansion can be reduced. The effectiveness of the approach was demonstrated on the Marmousi model.


Geophysics ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. S27-S34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tong W. Fei ◽  
Christopher L. Liner

When a subsurface is anisotropic, migration based on the assumption of isotropy will not produce accurate migration images. We develop a hybrid wave-equation migration algorithm for vertical transversely isotropic (VTI) media based on a one-way acoustic wave equation, using a combination of Fourier finite-difference (FFD) and finite-difference (FD) approaches. The hybrid method can suppress an additional solution that exists in the VTI acoustic wave equation, and it offers speed and other advantages over conventional FFD or FD methods alone. The algorithm is tested on a synthetic model involving log data from onshore eastern Saudi Arabia, including estimates of both intrinsic and layer-induced VTI parameters. Results indicate that VTI imaging in this region offers some improvement over isotropic imaging, primarily with respect to subtle structure and stratigraphy and to image continuity. These benefits probably will be overshadowed by perennial land seismic data issues such as near-surface distortions and multiples.


Geophysics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. C75-C83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zedong Wu ◽  
Tariq Alkhalifah

The acoustic approximation, even for anisotropic media, is widely used in current industry imaging and inversion algorithms mainly because P-waves constitute most of the energy recorded in seismic exploration. The resulting acoustic formulas tend to be simpler, resulting in more efficient implementations, and they depend on fewer medium parameters. However, conventional solutions of the acoustic-wave equation with higher-order derivatives suffer from S-wave artifacts. Thus, we separate the quasi-P-wave propagation in anisotropic media into the elliptic anisotropic operator (free of the artifacts) and the nonelliptic anisotropic components, which form a pseudodifferential operator. We then develop a separable approximation of the dispersion relation of nonelliptic-anisotropic components, specifically for transversely isotropic media. Finally, we iteratively solve the simpler lower-order elliptical wave equation for a modified source function that includes the nonelliptical terms represented in the Fourier domain. A frequency-domain Helmholtz formulation of the approach renders the iterative implementation efficient because the cost is dominated by the lower-upper decomposition of the impedance matrix for the simpler elliptical anisotropic model. In addition, the resulting wavefield is free of S-wave artifacts and has a balanced amplitude. Numerical examples indicate that the method is reasonably accurate and efficient.


Geophysics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-58
Author(s):  
Hongwei Liu ◽  
Yi Luo

We present a concise time-domain wave equation to accurately simulate wave propagation in visco-acoustic media. The central idea behind this work is to dismiss the negative frequency components from a time-domain signal by converting the signal to its analytic format. The negative frequency components of any analytic signal are always zero, meaning we can construct the visco-acoustic wave equation to honor the relaxation property of the media for positive frequencies only. The newly proposed complex-valued wave equation (CWE) represents the wavefield with its analytic signal, whose real part is the desired physical wavefield, while the imaginary part is the Hilbert transform of the real component. Specifically, this CWE is accurate for both weak and strong attenuating media in terms of both dissipation and dispersion and the attenuation is precisely linear with respect to the frequencies. Besides, the CWE is easy and flexible to model dispersion-only, dissipation-only or dispersion-plus-dissipation seismic waves. We have verified these CWEs by comparing the results with analytical solutions, and achieved nearly perfect matching. Except for the homogeneous Q media, we have also extended the CWEs to heterogeneous media. The results of the CWEs for heterogeneous Q media are consistent with those computed from the nonstationary operator based Fourier Integral method and from the Standard Linear Solid (SLS) equations.


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