Q reflections modeling with generalized Maxwell model in time domain

Danping Cao*, Xingyao Yin, China University of Petroleum, China

Summary

Seismic reflections can be caused by contrasts in quality
factor. The constant Q model to describe the attenuation
materials is very important to modeling this reflection
phenomenon. Numerical simulation shows the constant Q
property of the viscoelastic media can be fitted well with
the 5-order generalized Maxwell models. Combined this
general Maxwell model with the finite difference method in
time domain, the reflection characteristic caused by the Q
value difference has be revealed, it is very important to the
research of the high attenuated reservoir target.

Introduction

Seismic reflections are generally caused by the contrasts in
acoustic impedance (product of seismic velocity and
density). However, the reflections can also be caused by
contrasts in seismic absorption coefficient (Lines et al.,
2008). The contrasts in absorption have been considered as
contrasts in quality factor commonly.

Q (quality factor) is the efficient parameter to describe the
seismic attenuation property in the viscoelastic materials.
The observations show that the internal friction in the Earth
is nearly constant over the seismic frequency range. This
has been well recognized since the work of Liu et al (1976).
So the constant Q model is very important to modeling the
seismic attenuation characteristic of viscoelastic materials
especially in time domain.

Day and Minister (1984) incorporated realistic attenuation
into the time-domain computation at first. They
approximated a vsicoelastic moudlus by the nth-order
rational function and determined its coefficients by the
Pade approximant method. From then on, Emmerich and
Korn (1987) obtained for a new variables similar
differential equation as Day and Minister, they adopted the
generalized Maxwell body- n Maxwell bodies and one
Hook element (elastic spring) connected in parallel.
Independently, Carcione et al (1988), assumed the
generalized Zener body n standard linear bodies
connected in parrallel in accordance with the approach of
Liu et al. These two kind approaches can satisfy the
constant Q property at the specified frequency. Moczo and
Kristek (2005) proved the equivalence of the generalized
Maxwell body as defined by Emmericha and Korn and
generalized Zener body defined by Carcione et al.

This note adopted the generalized Maxwell body to
modeling the seismic attenuation property of real materials.
The different-order generalized Maxwell bodies have been
tested to fitting the constant Q model. The 5-order
generalized Maxwell model has been selected to model the
reflecting property of attenuation media with the finite
difference method in time domain. The Q reflections
phenomenon has been revealed with this constant Q model.

Constant Q modeling with generalized Maxwell model

According to the Boltzmann principle (Christensen, 1982),
the stress-strain relation of the linear viscoelastic material
can be expressed as,
( ) ( )
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
t t
t t t M t t
t t
c
o c c
c c
= - = - = -
c c
(1)
Where ( ) t o is stress, ( ) t c is strain, ( ) t is the stress
relaxation function, ( ) M t is the stress response to the Dirac
o -function in strain, the symbol - indicate the
convolution property.

Therefore, the Fourier transform of equation (1) give,
( ) ( ) ( ) M o e e c e = (2)
Where ( ) M e is a complex, frequency-dependent
viscoelastic modulus.

The rheology of generalized Maxwell body is
schematically illustrated in Figure 1. The viscoelastic
modulus in frequency domain is,
{ }
1
( ) 1 , ,
L
l
U l U
l l
M M Y M
i
e
e
e e
=
(
= e
(
+

(3)
Where U indicates the unrelaxed modulus, L is the number
of the Maxwell body,
l
e are the angular relaxation
frequencies, the anelastic coefficients
l
Y can be calculated
from the Q value with the least square method (Kristek and
Moczo, 2003).


Figure1: The generalized Maxwell body.
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Q reflections modeling with generalized Maxwell model
The quality factor ( ) Q e is defined by
( ) Re ( )/ Im ( ) Q M M e e e = . For the generalized Maxwell
body, the Q equation can be express as,
2
2 2 2 2
1 1
1 /
L L
l l
l l
l l l l
Q Y Y
e ee
e e e e
= =
( (
=
( (
+ +


(4)

From the Q equation of the generalized Maxwell body, the
Q value of generalized model can fit the constant value
well with more Maxwell bodies. Figure 2 give the results of
constant Q value fitting test. The expected Q value is 20,
the fitting Q value of 3-order, 5-order, 7-order, 9-order and
15-order generalized Maxwell body have been tested and
compared with the constant Q value.


Figure 2: Fitting of Q value with different order generalized
Maxwell body.

From the Figure 2, the fitting error of 3-order generalized
Maxwell model is about 5.22%, the fitting error of 5-order
model is less than 2%. Counting for the computing
efficiency and the fitting precision, the 5-order generalized
Maxwell body is suited to modeling the seismic attenuation
property of the viscoelastic materials.

According to the equation of motion and Hooks law of
homogeneous elastic media, the wave equation of an
isotropic viscoelastic medium can be got. From the
equation (1), the convolution relationship between stress
and strain can be embedded into the equation of
viscoelastic materials. The difficulty to modeling the
viscoelastic media in time domain is to solve the
convolution relationship between stress and strain.
According the method of Kristek and Moczo (2003), the
wave equation of the viscoelastic media can be written as,
,
1
2 2
, 1,...,
i ij j i
L
kk ij
ij kk ij ij l l ij l l
l
ij ij
l l l l ij
u f
Y Y
l L

o
o c o c , o ,
, e, ec
=
= +

( = + +

+ = =

(5)
This way to solve the convolution relationship between
stress and stain has used the term anelastic functions, it is
similar with the way that use the memory variables.
These two kinds method have successively to modeling the
seismic attenuation property in time domain.

The numerical solution of equation (5) with finite
difference method has been compared with the analytical
solution in X components and Z components. It is shown
on figure 3.


Figure 3: The numerical solution (solid lines) and analytical
solution (dotted lines) comparsion in two dimension
homogeneous isotropic viscoelastic media.

The numerical result shows exactly same with the
analytical solution. It can be used to modeling the seismic
attenuation characteristic in viscoelastic media at the
reasonable constant Q fitting precision.

According to the accuracy of constant Q fitting, the 5-order
generalized Maxwell body has been used to modeling the
seismic attenuation property in real media. The 10-order
difference format in space domain and 2-order in time
domain has been considered. The snapshots of different Q
value modeling results with the 5-order generalized
Maxwell body have been shown in Figure 4.
Elastic Q=500 Q=50 Q=25
Q=15 Q=8 Q=5 Q=3

Figure 4: Snapshot characteristics of different Q in
homogeneous istropic visocelastic media with 5-order
generalized Maxwell body.

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Q reflections modeling with generalized Maxwell model
From the Figure 4, the seismic attenuation property has
been modeling well in different Q value with the 5-order
generalized Maxwell model. When Q is up to 500, the
seismic propagation characteristic is equal to elastic media,
when Q value is down to 3, the Q property has influenced
the seismic wave seriously. With the decreasing of Q value,
the amplitude of the seismic wave has been attenuated and
the phase has been changed at some degree. This result is
very important to the high attenuation reservoir especially
in the gas target. It can be used to identify the attenuation
property these targets. The results comparison also shows
the modeling method is reasonable at different Q situation
even the Q value is low to 3.

Q reflections modeling and analysis

Since the 5-order generalized Maxwell body can modeling
the seismic attenuation property in time domain, the
constant Q value has been fitted well with high precision.
This algorithm can be used to modeling the seismic
reflecting phenomenon caused by the contrasts in Q value.
The Q interface model is simply descripted in Figure 5. The
Q value is equal to 100 and 10 respectively up and down at
the Q interface, the P wave velocity, S wave velocity and
density are the same at the whole model. The shot point S
is located in the middle of the model and the receivers R
are located at the top.


Figure 5: The viscoelastic model.

When the source is excited at the middle in the isotropic
elastic model, the snapshot is a circle and the shot gather is
simple with direct wave. The Q value difference in the
model will change the seismic reflecting property of the
elastic model with some mechanisms, this have been
proved by Lines et al (2008).

The snapshot at 490ms of this model has been shown in
Figure 6 and the shot gather has been collected in Figure 7.




Figure 6: Snapshot of X components (left) and Z
components (right) at 490ms from the viscoelastic model.


Figure 7: Shot gathers of X components (left) and Z
components (right) from the viscoelastic model.

From the snapshot and the shot gather from this model, the
reflecting P-wave caused by the Q interface is marked as ,
the reflecting S-wave caused by the Q interface is marked
as , the transmitting P-wave caused by the Q interface is
marked as , the transmitting S-wave caused by the Q
interface is marked as . From the snapshot we can
identify the 4 kinds wave phenomenon clearly, the
reflecting P and S wave also obviously displayed in the
shot gathers.

The P-wave and S-wave can be separated in the modeling
processing with many methods. It is useful to known about
the different wave phenomenon caused by the Q value
difference. The separated P components and S components
snapshots have been shown in Figure 8 and the shot gathers
have been shown in Figure 9.



















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Q reflections modeling with generalized Maxwell model

Figure 8: Snapshot of P components (left) and S
components (right) at 490ms from the viscoelastic model.


Figure 9: Shot gathers of P components (left) and S
components (right) from the viscoelastic model.

From the separated P wave and S wave snapshot and shot
gathers, reflecting P-wave , the reflecting S-wave , the
transmitting P-wave and the transmitting S-wave are
more clear. It is similar with the impedance reflecting and
transmitting, and the reflecting P-wave and S-wave caused
by the Q interface is obviously.

The Q interface is caused by the value of 100 and 10 in this
model, it is the typically value in the attenuated reservoir
target. The reflecting and transmitting seismic wave in the
attenuation media is valuable to research the high
attenuated gar target. The top and the bottom of the high
attenuated target will change the reflectivity caused by the
contrasts of impedance, the reflecting wave has been
influenced by the attenuation property. This phenomenon
should be considered more in the AVO analysis.

Conclusions

The generalized Maxwell body is suited to modeling the
seismic attenuation property in viscoelastic materials.
Numerical testing shows the 5-order generalized Maxwell
model can fitting the constant Q value at a high precision.
With the 5-order generalized Maxwell model, the finite
difference method can be used to modeling the seismic
propagation at attenuation media in time domain. The
seismic reflections caused by contrasts in Q value have
been revealed with this method. These Q reflections are
similar with the impedance reflection, its very important
for the high attenuated reservoir especially for gas target
and should be considered in the AVO analysis.

Acknowledgements

Financial support for this work was provided by the
National Nature Science Foundation of China (No.
41004050) and the Doctoral Fund of Ministry of Education
of China (No. 20100133120001).

















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EDITED REFERENCES
Note: This reference list is a copy-edited version of the reference list submitted by the author. Reference lists for the 2011
SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts have been copy edited so that references provided with the online metadata for
each paper will achieve a high degree of linking to cited sources that appear on the Web.

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