See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/273000474

Estimation of Biot’s effective stress coefficient from well logs

Article  in  Environmental Earth Sciences · March 2015

DOI: 10.1007/s12665-015-4219-8

CITATIONS READS

26 4,980

4 authors:

Xuan Luo Patrick Were

BEGIS GmbH Technische Universität Clausthal
9 PUBLICATIONS   39 CITATIONS    44 PUBLICATIONS   550 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Jianfeng Liu Zhengmeng Michael Hou

Sichuan University Technische Universität Clausthal
148 PUBLICATIONS   2,029 CITATIONS    134 PUBLICATIONS   1,417 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

DGMK680-IV View project

salt cavern gas storage View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Jianfeng Liu on 02 June 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Environ Earth Sci (2015) 73:7019–7028
DOI 10.1007/s12665-015-4219-8

THEMATIC ISSUE

Estimation of Biot’s effective stress coefficient from well logs

Xuan Luo • Patrick Were • Jianfeng Liu •

Zhengmeng Hou

Received: 8 September 2014 / Accepted: 21 February 2015 / Published online: 1 March 2015
Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Abstract Effective stress governs the mechanical re-
sponse of rock formations to variations in stress and pore
pressure, which affect wellbore stability and reservoir in-
tegrity during drilling and production. Biot’s coefficient is
employed to calculate effective stresses from total stress
and pore pressure. Therefore, the measurement of Biot’s
coefficient becomes crucial. However, the laboratory
measurement of Biot’s coefficient is expensive and labo-
rious. This paper presents three methods for computing
Biot’s coefficient using logging data. The first method
calculates Biot’s coefficient using the existing empirical
correlations between porosity and Biot’s coefficient. The
second and third methods calculate Biot’s coefficient using
dynamic rock and solid bulk modulus, computed using
rock and solid wave velocities, respectively. However, the
second and third methods calculate the necessary solid
wave velocities in different ways. The second method
calculates solid shear and compressive velocities (Vs and
Vp) using a newly developed correlation between the dif-
ferential pressure, porosity and wave velocity of sandstone.
The third method calculates solid wave velocities based on
the significant finding that the Vp/Vs ratio with respect to
the S-wave velocity is constant for sediments including
highly compacted sand. Case studies were undertaken us-
ing logging data from the Gulf Coast Gas Wells. It was
found that Biot’s coefficient calculated using the first
method was highly dependent on the chosen relation, while
the coefficients calculated using the second and third
methods were related to well logs. Results from the third
method show that Biot’s coefficient deflects to higher
values in situations where gamma ray surveys read low
API values. This is in agreement with the phenomenon that
rocks with a smaller API should have lower a clay content
and bigger value of Biot’s coefficient. Therefore, the third
method is more reliable and also requires fewer input
parameters.
Keywords Biot’s coefficient measurement  Well
logging  Measurement while drilling  Effective stress 
Acoustic logging

List of symbols
X. Luo  Z. Hou reff Effective stress [MPa]
Sino-German Energy Research Center, Sichuan University, rtotal Total stress [MPa]
Chengdu, China
a Biot’s coefficient [–]
X. Luo (&)  P. Were  Z. Hou p Pore pressure [MPa]
Energy Research Centre of Niedersachsen, / Rock porosity [–]
38640 Goslar, Germany Krock Rock bulk modulus [MPa]
e-mail: xluo@tu-clausthal.de
Ksolid Solid bulk modulus [MPa]
J. Liu E Young’s modulus [MPa]
State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River t Poisson’s ratio [–]
Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China Vs Shear wave velocity [m/s]
Vp Compressive wave velocity [m/s]
Z. Hou
Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Clausthal University of Pd Differential pressure [MPa]
Technology, 38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany C Clay content [–]

123
7020 Environ Earth Sci (2015) 73:7019–7028

Vrock
p Rock compressive wave velocity [m/s] are two correlations for unconsolidated sediments (Lee
Vsolid
p Solid compressive wave velocity [m/s] 2002) and consolidated sediments (Wu 2001).
Vrock
s Rock shear wave velocity [m/s] 184:05
Vsolid Solid shear wave velocity [m/s] a¼ þ 0:99494; ð2Þ
s
1 þ expðuþ0:5646
0:09425 Þ
Vconstant Constant wave velocity under high confining
pressure [m/s] a ¼ 1  ð1  uÞ3:8 : ð3Þ
Vsolid Solid wave velocity [m/s]
Rp/s Radios between Vsolid constant Hou and Yoon (2011) collected Biot’s coefficient and
p/s and Vp/s [–]
corresponding porosity data for various rocks in Germany
which are listed in Table 1. According to the collected
data, it was found that Biot’s coefficient will normally
Introduction
increase with increasing porosity since, in a rock with a
large porosity, pore fluid will be able to flow around with
Biot’s coefficient is one of the most significant hydro-
ease. This is because Biot’s coefficient is the ratio of the
mechanical parameters used for determining the magnitude
fluid volume gained (or lost) in a material element to the
of the induced effective stress that governs the mechanical
volume change in the material element. This ratio is bigger,
response of a rock formation to variations in stress and pore
if the rock possesses a higher porosity which facilitates an
pressure variations and, furthermore, affects the wellbore
easier flow of fluid out of the rock by compaction.
stability, reservoir deformation and integrity, oil/gas pro-
duction, rocks’ hydro- and geo-mechanical properties, etc.
(Li and Jing 2013; Belkhatir et al. 2013; Hou et al. 2012; Li
Calculation of Biot’s coefficient with dynamic rock
and Ito 2011). Terzaghi (1936) introduced the terminology
and solid compressibility
‘‘differential pressure’’, which is equal to confining pres-
sure minus pore pressure. Therefore, the so-called Terzaghi
Cheng (1997) derived the relation between Biot’s coeffi-
effective stress coefficient should be equal to one. Biot and
cient and solid and bulk compressibility. Equation (4)
Willis (1957) defined the effective stress coefficient as the
gives the relationship for isotropic rock. The mechanical
ratio of the static pore-space deformation to the total bulk-
meaning of Biot’s coefficient is that the supporting effect
volume change (Sarker and Batzle 2008), which means the
of the pore fluid is partially reduced by solid compaction.
ratio of the fluid volume gained (or lost) in a material
Biot’s coefficient describes the degree of the reduction
element to the volume change of that element, when the
effect.
pore pressure is allowed to return to its initial state (De-
tournay and Cheng 1993). The mathematic expression of K rock
a¼1 ; ð4Þ
Biot’s effective stress is: K solid
reff ¼ rtotal  a  p; ð1Þ where Krock is the rock bulk modulus, MPa and Ksolid is the
solid bulk modulus, MPa. Biot’s coefficient can be calcu-
where reff is the effective stress, MPa; rtotal is the total stress,
lated if the rock and solid bulk moduli are known. If the
MPa; a is a fraction called Biot’s coefficient, and p is the pore
pressure, MPa. The traditional method for measuring Biot’s
Table 1 Biot’s coefficient data, including sources
coefficient is by obtaining a drained triaxial compression
measurement under constant volumetric strain condition Rock type / (%) a (–) Location References
after Charlez (1991). Hou et al. (2005) performed measure- Siltstone 0.7 0.172 Altensalzwedel Hou et al. (2009)
ments on samples of tight gas formation sandstone in North Claystone 2.5 0.358 Altensalzwedel Hou et al. (2009)
Germany and found that Biot’s coefficient ranged from 0.21 Siltstone 1.1 0.210 Altensalzwedel Hou et al. (2009)
to 0.58. However, laboratory measurements are expensive Sandstone 7.0 0.645 Altensalzwedel Hou et al. (2009)
and laborious while the core samples are mostly unavailable. Anhydrite 0.1 0.082 Altensalzwedel Hou et al. (2009)
Therefore, in this paper, efforts were made to estimate Biot’s RRS 15.3 0.78 North German Basin Trautwein
coefficient using logging data. (2005)
RRS 18.3 0.90 North German Basin Trautwein
(2005)
Calculation of Biot’s coefficient by correlation RRS 9.8 0.61 North German Basin Trautwein
(method 1) (2005)
RRS 4.7 0.64 North German Basin Trautwein
(2005)
There are many empirical relations for Biot’s coefficient,
which are mainly through porosity. Equations (2) and (3) RRS rotliegend reservoir sandstones

123
Environ Earth Sci (2015) 73:7019–7028 7021

shear and compressive wave velocity of the rock and the
solid can be measured, their dynamic bulk modulus K can
be calculated using Eq. (5).
E Calculation of solid velocities using Eqs. (9) and (10) re-
K¼ ; ð5Þ
3ð1  2vÞ
where E is Young’s modulus, MPa and v is Poisson’s
value. The dynamic E and v can be calculated using
Eqs. (6) and (7), respectively.
qVs2 ð3Vp2  4Vs2 Þ
E¼ ; ð6Þ
Vp2  Vs2
ðVp2  2Vs2 Þ
v¼ ; ð7Þ
2ðVp2  Vs2 Þ
where q is the density, kg/m3; Vs is the shear wave velocity,
m/s; and Vp is the compressive wave velocity, m/s.
The shear and compressive wave velocities in sonic
logging are measured under in situ loading conditions,
from which the dynamic rock bulk modulus can be ap-
proximately calculated. However, the dynamic solid bulk
modulus was mostly unknown. Some authors have calcu-
lated Biot’s coefficient by assuming the solid bulk mod-
ulus, i.e., Wu (2001). However, if the solid bulk modulus
can be computed based on well logs rather than on as-
sumptions, the determined Biot’s coefficient should be
more reliable. To calculate the solid bulk modulus, the
solid wave velocities should be estimated based on well
logs. The methods 2 and 3 in this paper compute the solid
wave velocities in different ways.
Calculation of solid wave velocities based on fitting
equation of sandstone (method 2)
in Eqs. (9) and (10). These equations are based on
laboratory measurements of water-saturated samples from
64 different sandstones (Eberhart-Phillips et al. 1989).
mains problematic as the equations indicate no relationship
between solid and rock velocities. Therefore, empirical
equations related to solid and rock velocities need to be
developed. After a detailed study of many measurement
results for clean sandstone, conclusions about rock wave
velocity can be made for water-saturated clean sandstone.
If porosity is equal to zero, the rock acoustic wave velocity
should be identical to the solid acoustic wave velocity. If
no pores exist in the rock, it behaves the same as a solid.
The rock acoustic wave velocity should depend on the
porosity; the bigger the porosity, the slower is the acoustic
wave velocity. Confining pressure decreases porosity and,
consequently, the rock acoustic wave velocity should in-
crease with increasing confining pressure but at a de-
creasing rate. The rock compressibility also decreases
during compaction.
Based on the above conclusions, the acoustic wave ve-
locities of sandstone have a straightforward relation to
porosity, solid acoustic wave velocities and confining
pressure. These empirical relations have been developed
for the shear and compressive wave velocities of the rock,
as described in Eqs. (11) and (12):
a puffiffiffi
Vprock ¼ e b Pd  Vpsolid ; ð11Þ
c puffiffiffi
Vsrock ¼ e d Pd
 Vssolid ; ð12Þ
where Vrock
p is the rock compressive wave velocity, m/s;
Vsolid
p is the solid compressive wave velocity, m/s; Vrock
s is
the rock shear wave velocity, m/s and Vsolid
s is the solid

Han (1986) investigated the relation between the wave 4100

velocity and porosity of sandstone. The best fits for clean
sandstones were based on his experimental results: 3600
Wave velocity [m/s]

Vp ¼ 6080  8060u; Vs ¼ 4060  6280u; ð8Þ

3100 Vp calculation
where the unit of Vp and Vs is m/s and / is the porosity. Vp measured
These fitting equations are only suitable for sandstones 2600 Vs calculation
under a confining pressure of 40 MPa and a pore pressure
Vs measured
of 1.0 MPa. The influence of differential pressure was not 2100
considered. Eberhart-Phillips et al. (1989) further devel-
oped the best fitting formulations considering porosity, clay 1600
content and differential pressure: 10 20 30 40 50 60
pffiffiffiffi Differential pressure [MPa]
Vp ¼ 5:77  6:94u  1:73 C þ 0:446ðPd  e16:7Pd Þ; ð9Þ
pffiffiffiffi Fig. 1 Fitting relations between measured–calculated wave velocity
Vs ¼ 3:7  4:94u  1:57 C þ 0:361ðPd  e16:7Pd Þ; ð10Þ data (from Franklin 1989) and differential pressure for a brine-
saturated sandstone sample (/ = 0.18, under atmospheric pressure)
where Pd is the differential pressure, MPa and C is the clay
from Budare Oil Field. The solid shear and compressive velocities are
content. The unit of Vp and Vs is km/s. For practical pur- assumed to be 4000 and 5800 m/s, respectively. Parameters a, b, c,
poses, e16:7Pd is considered zero and, therefore, redundant d are 5.79, 10, 3.95 and 10, respectively

123
7022 Environ Earth Sci (2015) 73:7019–7028

5000
4000
4500
Wave velocity [m/s]

Vs measured 3500
4000

Wave velocity [m/s]

Vs calculation Vs calculation
3500 Vp measured 3000 Vp calculation
Vp calculation Vs measured
3000
Vp measured
2500
2500

2000 2000
0 10 20 30 40 50
Differential pressure [MPa]
1500
5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Fig. 2 Fitting relations between measured–calculated wave velocity
data (from Han 1986) and differential pressure for a water-saturated Uniaxial differential stress [MPa]
sandstone sample (/ = 0.1854, under atmospheric pressure). The
solid shear and compressive velocities are assumed to be 4000 and Fig. 4 Fitting relations between measured–calculated wave velocity
5800 m/s, respectively. Parameters a, b, c, d are 2.17, 6, 3.22 and 6, data (from Wang 2004), for a brine-saturated Africa sand sample (E2)
respectively of porosity 0.159, under atmospheric pressure. The solid shear and
compressive velocities are assumed to be 4000 and 5800 m/s,
respectively. Parameters a, b, c, d are 3.1, 8, 4.8 and 8, respectively
5000
5500
4500
Wave velocity [m/s]

Vs measured 5000
4000
Wave velocity [m/s]

Vs calculation
4500
Vp measured Vs calculation
3500
Vp calculation 4000
Vp calculation
3000 Vs measured
3500 Vp measured
2500
0 10 20 30 40 50 3000
Differential pressure [MPa]
2500
Fig. 3 Fitting relation between measured–calculated wave velocity 20 30 40 50 60 70
data (from Han 1986) and differential pressure for a water-saturated Uniaxial differential stress [MPa]
sandstone (/ = 0.1854, under atmospheric pressure). The solid shear
and compressive velocities are assumed to be 4000 and 5800 m/s, Fig. 5 Fitting relations between measured–calculated wave velocity
respectively. Parameters a, b, c, d are 1.8, 8, 2.5 and 8, respectively data (from Wang 2004), for a brine-saturated tight sand sample (G8)
of porosity 0.042, under atmospheric pressure. The solid shear and
shear wave velocity, m/s; a, b, c and d are parameters; and compressive velocities are assumed to be 3500 and 5800 m/s,
porosity / is measured under atmospheric pressure. respectively. Parameters a, b, c, d are 3.9, 8, 7 and 8, respectively
Many experimental results were collected from lit-
eratures and fitted using the above developed formula. The parameters measured during well logging were rock
Figures 1, 2 and 3 show the results of the fitting relation- porosity and density, including the S- and P wave velocities.
ship between measured and calculated wave velocities for The total vertical stress was calculated from the measured
clean water-saturated sandstone samples under varying rock densities. Since the pore pressure was known, the dif-
hydrostatic loading conditions. ferential pressure could easily be computed. Solid velocities
Figures 4 and 5 show the results of the fitting relation- were calculated using the Eqs. (13) and (14). Consequently,
ships between measured and calculated wave velocities for since rock and solid velocities were known, the rock and
brine-saturated sandstone samples under varying uniaxial solid bulk moduli could be calculated using Eqs. (5), (6) and
loading conditions. (7) to determine Biot’s coefficient through Eq. (4).
The fitting Eqs. (11) and (12) were developed for water- Vprock
saturated sandstone under hydrostatic loading conditions, V solid
p ¼ apbuffiffiffi
; ð13Þ
and the fitting results in Figs. 4 and 5 show a good match e Pd
between the measured and the calculated wave velocities. Vsrock
According to the fitting results, parameters b and d are Vssolid ¼ cpduffiffiffi
: ð14Þ
normally identical to each other. e Pd

123
Environ Earth Sci (2015) 73:7019–7028 7023

Fig. 6 Evolution of the S- and 5500

P-wave velocities with
5000
confining pressure for sandstone
samples (SS1–SS3), according 4500 SS1/Vs

Wave velocity [m/s]

to Lin (1985) SS1/Vp
4000
SS3/Vs
3500 SS3/Vp
SS2/Vp
3000
SS2/Vs
2500

2000

1500

1000
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Confining pressure [MPa]

Fig. 7 Evolution of the S- and 4500

P-wave velocities with
4000
confining pressure for sandstone
samples, according to Liu 3500
Wave velocity [m/s]

(1994)
3000

2500
Vp_Hanson Sandstone
2000
Vs_Hanson Sandstone
Vp_Berea Sandstone
1500
Vs_Berea Sandstone
Vp_Buff Sandstone
1000 Vs_Buff Sandstone
Vp_Massillong_Sandstone at 1185m
500 Vs_Massillong_Sandstone at 1185m
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Confining pressure [MPa]

Table 2 Constant Vp/Vs ratios for various rock samples Table 3 Acoustic wave velocities for different minerals (Kern et al.
2008)
Sample no. Vp/Vs Sample no. Vp/Vs
Minerals Vp Vs Vp/Vs
SS1 1.6 SH1 1.45
SS2 1.49 SH2 1.58 Quartz 6050 4090 1.48
SS3 1.49 SH3 1.69 Plagioclase 6300 3450 1.82
SS4 1.42 SH4 1.57 K’ feldspar 5930 3260 1.8
SS5 1.38 SH5 1.635 Biotite 6010 3000 2.05
Muscovite 5810 3370 1.72
SS sandstone (Lin 1985), SH shale (Lin 1985)
Amphibole 7200 3370 2.14
Diopside 7800 4450 1.75
Serpentine 5850 3370 1.73
Calculation of solid wave velocities using the ratio
Chlorite 6010 3000 2.05
Vp/Vs (method 3)
Fe-sulfides 7920 5060 1.56
Calcite 6540 3430 1.91
The velocity ratio Vp/Vs and its relation to pressure,
velocity, etc. were already investigated by many au-
thors, including Khatchikian (1995), Eberhart-Phillips
indicator for sediments, including highly compacted
et al. (1989), Prasad (2002) and Lee (2003). For ex-
sands. The linear Eq. (15) describes how the ratio Vp/Vs
ample, Lee (2003) investigated the elastic properties of
and Vs are related:
highly compacted and unconsolidated sediments and
found that the trend of the ratio Vp/Vs with respect to Vp
¼ eVs þ f ; ð15Þ
the S-wave velocity was constant and, therefore, a good Vs

123
7024
Fig. 8 Calculation of Biot’s coefficient in a vertical Gas Well off the Gulf Coast (method 1)
where e and f are the fitting parameters for the linear
regression. As observed from many tests, wave velocity
will initially increase with increasing loading, but will re-
main constant under higher loading conditions (see Figs. 6,
7). Consequently, the velocity ratio Vp/Vs will also remain
constant under higher loading conditions.
When the rocks are highly compacted (before rock
failure), the pore fluids drain off during compaction, as the
micro-cracks, and pores tend to close, which means that no
fluid or gas exists in the rocks. Since the S-wave cannot
propagate through pore fluids, it will take a longer path
than the P-wave. The S-wave velocity is inversely pro-
portional to the amount of fluid contained in the rock.
During compaction, the S- and P-wave velocities will tend
to increase due to a decrease in the rock volume. In addi-
tion, the drainage of pore fluid contributes to a further
increase in the velocity of the S-wave. This is the main
reason why the velocity of the S-wave increases faster than
that of the P-wave during compaction and drainage. If there
is no fluid existing in the rocks, the wave velocities should
increase extremely slowly with increasing pressure
(Figs. 6, 7), because the rock compressibility becomes
123
Environ Earth Sci (2015) 73:7019–7028
extremely small. Moreover, in the absence of fluids, the
rate of the increase in the velocity for both the S- and P-
waves should be similar under very high confining pres-
sures. Therefore, the measured constant Vp/Vs ratio (also
called ‘constant Vp/Vs ratio’) should, under very high
confining pressures, be approximately equal to the Vp/Vs
ratio for the solid (also called ‘solid Vp/Vs ratio’), because
there will be almost no fluid existing in the rock sample.
The slowly increasing rate of the S- and P-waves should be
identical. However, the wave velocities cannot attain a
solid velocity, because even at higher confining pressures
there are still some rock fragments with micropores that
cannot be removed by compaction. If the confining pres-
sure further increases, the sample will collapse, however,
leaving the mineral grains intact and only the rock matrix
will fail. Therefore, under very higher confining pressure,
the calculated wave velocity obtained using Eq. (15) is no
longer the solid wave velocity but the constant wave ve-
locity. Since rock fragments reduce the wave velocity of
the rock, solid velocity can be calculated using new ratios
Rs and Rp [defined in Eq. (16)], which depend on the
content of the rock fragments.
Environ Earth Sci (2015) 73:7019–7028 7025

Fig. 9 Calculation of Biot’s coefficient in a vertical Gas well off the Gulf Coast (method 2)

Vssolid Vpsolid The value of constant Vp/Vs ratio should be investi-

Rs ¼ ; R p ¼ ; ð16Þ gated. Table 2 lists the constant Vp/Vs ratio from different
Vsconstant Vpconstant
tests on different rock types (Lin 1985). As shown in
where Vconstant
s and Vconstant
p stand for the constant S- and P- Table 2, the range of the constant Vp/Vs ratio is small. The
wave velocities under high confining pressure, respectively. constant Vp/Vs ratio of shale is relatively bigger than that
And Vsolid
s and Vsolid
p are the solid S- and P-wave velocities, of sandstone.
respectively. The ratios Rs and Rp are demonstrated to be However, the solid wave velocities are difficult to
identical. As previously discussed, the constant velocity ratio measure because the solid is made up of different minerals.
Vp/Vs is considered to be approximately equal to the solid Therefore, the Vp/Vs ratio for each mineral should be in-
velocity ratio Vp/Vs [see Eq. (17)]. The solid S- and P-wave vestigated. For example, sandstone is made up of quartz,
velocities in the left side of Eq. (17) can be substituted by feldspar and rock fragments. According to Table 3, it is
Rs 9 Vconstant
s and Rp 9 Vconstant
p , respectively. Then, the known that quartz has the lowest constant Vp/Vs ratio.
Eq. (18) can be obtained. Because sandstone normally possesses a higher per-
centage of quartz, the value of the constant Vp/Vs ratio for
Vpsolid Vpconstant
 ; ð17Þ sandstone is smaller than that of shale. The results from Lin
Vssolid Vsconstant (1985) are consistent with this conclusion. During the
Vpsolid Rp  Vpconstant Vpconstant logging analysis, a solid Vp/Vs ratio was normally assumed
¼  : ð18Þ to be about 1.5. The parameters e and f in Eq. (15) can be
Vssolid Rs  Vsconstant Vsconstant
fitted with the measured rock ratio Vp/Vs during well log-
Therefore the ratio Rs is approximately equal to Rp. ging. The constant Vp and Vs can be calculated from the
According to the collected data, the solid velocity ratio fitting parameters e and f. To obtain the solid wave ve-
Vp/Vs ranges from 1.4 to 2.1 and the ratio R is assumed to locity, the calculated constants Vp and Vs should be mul-
range from 1.2 to 2.0. tiplied by their corresponding ratios Rp and Rs.

123
7026 Environ Earth Sci (2015) 73:7019–7028

Fig. 10 Calculation of Biot’s coefficient in a vertical Gas well off the Gulf Coast (method 3)

Table 4 Fitting values for the Depth section e f

parameters e and f at various Method 1
depth intervals determined from 3500–3610 -1.8 5.1
logs Figure 8, track 6, shows two calculated Biot’s coefficient
3610–3640 -1.4 4.75
3640–3700 -1.3 4.3 logs using Eqs. (2) and (3). The ‘‘BIOT (Wu)’’ is calcu-
3700–3740 -0.5 2.7 lated using the correlation relation for consolidated sedi-
ment, while the BIOT (Lee) is calculated using the
correlation relation for an unconsolidated sediment.
Table 5 Biot methods suitable for various rock types
Method 2
Method Rocks

Method 1 (Wu) Consolidated sediments The solid shear and compressive velocities can be calcu-
Method 1 (Lee) Unconsolidated sediments lated based on the logging data according to Eqs. (13) and
Method 2 Water-saturated sand (14). The two solid velocities are shown in Fig. 9, track 6.
Method 3 Sediments Biot’s coefficient can be calculated according to Eq. (4).
The parameters a, b, c, d are assumed to be 3.5, 8, 3.5 and
8, respectively.

Case study Method 3

Well logging data from the Gulf Coast Gas Well were used
for the case study. The data were obtained from a published
logging table by Jack Petrovich Dvorkin at Stanford
University (Dvorkin 2001) and include density, gamma
ray, porosity and sonic log measured in the depth interval
3500–3740 m.
Using the GR to distinguish the different rock types, the
investigated depth range is divided into depth intervals
determined from the GR log (see Figs. 8, 9, 10; Table 4).
Assuming the solid Vp/Vs ratio is equal to 1.5, the fitted
Vp/Vs ratios are shown in Fig. 10 (track 6) and are in
agreement with the measured Vp/Vs ratios. The fitted

123
Environ Earth Sci (2015) 73:7019–7028
Fig. 11 Comparison of the calculated Biot’s coefficients using different methods
parameters e and f for each section are listed in Table 4.
The parameters for the section (3700–3740) are quite dif-
ferent from those of other sections, i.e., in the depth range
(3500–3700). This is because the rocks in the bottom
section are not water saturated (see the water-saturation
logs, SW, in Figs. 8, 9 and 10, tracks 3, 4 and 3, respec-
tively). Assuming the ratio Rs and Rp are equal to 1.7, the
calculated solid S- and P-wave velocities are as shown in
Fig. 10, track 5, and Biot’s coefficient can be calculated
using Eq. (4) as shown in Fig. 10, track 7.
Comparison of the three methods
The three methods were developed based on different
concept for different rock types. Table 5 lists the methods
with respect to their applicable rock types. Figure 11, track
5, compares the results calculated using the three methods.
7027
For method 1, there are two correlations. One is for con-
solidated sediments [Biot (Wu)], and the other is for un-
consolidated sediments [Biot (Lee)].
Conclusions
In this paper, three methods are presented to calculate the
Biot’s coefficient using logging data. Method 1 computed
the Biot’s coefficient based on empirical relations. Methods
2 and 3 used the dynamic solid and rock compressibility.
Method 2 calculated the solid wave velocities according to
a newly developed correlation relation between wave ve-
locities and porosity as well as loading. Method 3 was
based on the significant finding that the trend of Vp/Vs with
respect to S wave velocity is constant for sediments, in-
cluding highly compacted sand. It was observed that the
123
7028
results calculated using method 2 were similar to those for
method 1 in consolidated sediments. The results calculated
using method 1 for unconsolidated sediments were
relatively high compared to the other methods. The results
for method 3 show that Biot’s coefficient deflects to higher
values in depth intervals where the GR readings are low. A
smaller GR reading indicates lower clay content, more
sand, and typically higher porosity for the rock formations
involved. This means that fluids will flow more freely
through rock formations with a relatively larger value of
Biot’s coefficient. Method 3 is, therefore, more reliable and
suitable for all sedimentary rocks, although different rock
layers may have different fitting parameters e and
f. Moreover, this method needs fewer input parameters.
Acknowledgments The work presented in this paper was funded by
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.
NSFC51374147) and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Tech-
nology (Grant 2012DFA60760).
References
Belkhatir M, Schanz T, Arab A (2013) Effect of fines content and
void ratio on the saturated hydraulic conductivity and undrained
shear strength of sand-silt mixtures. Environ Earth Sci
70:2469–2479. doi:10.1007/s12665-013-2289-z
Biot MA, Willis DF (1957) The elastic coefficients of the theory of
consolidation. J Appl Mech 24:584–601
Charlez PA (1991) Rock mechanics, vol 1—theoretical fundamentals.
Editions Technip, Paris
Cheng AH-D (1997) Material coefficients of anisotropic poroelas-
ticity. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 34(2):199–205
Detournay E, Cheng AH-D (1993) Fundamentals of poroelasticity.
Chapter 5 in comprehensive rock engineering: principles,
practice and projects. In: Fairhurst C (ed) Analysis and design
method, vol 2. Pergamon Press, pp 113–171
Dvorkin JP (2001) Personal page at Standford University/GP170.
http://pangea.stanford.edu/*jack/GP170/GP170%233.pdf. Ac-
cessed 10 Dec 2013
Eberhart-Phillips D, Han D-H, Zoback MD (1989) Empirical
relationships among seismic velocity, effective pressure, poros-
ity, and clay content in sandstone. Geophysics 54(1):82–89
Franklin JRP (1989) Elastic properties of sedimentary anisotropic
rocks. Master dissertation at Central University of Venezuela
Han D (1986) Effects of porosity and clay content on acoustic
properties of sandstones and unconsolidated sediments. Doctor
dissertation at Stanford University
Hou Z, Yoon J (2011) Porosity based correlations for estimation of
geomechanical and geohydraolic rock properties of reservoir
formations in the Altensalzwedel natural gas field. Interim
Report to the BMBF-Project (03G0704Q), CLEAN TV3.1 rock
parameters subproject 2
Hou Z, Somerville J, Hutcheon R (2005) Experimental investigation
of the hydro-mechanical behavior of tight gas formation
123
View publication stats
Environ Earth Sci (2015) 73:7019–7028
sandstone and its impacts on the wellbore stability. Presented
in ISRM-Eurock 2005, in Brno, May 2005
Hou MZ, Yoon J, Khan IU, Wundram L (2009) Determination of the
3D primary stresses and hydromechanical properties of several
strata in the Salzwedel reservoir area & multi-layer caprock-
reservoir 2D-model for the Altensalzwedel test field for THMC
coupled numerical modelling. Report to the BMBF project
03G0704Q, Milestones I & II of the Subproject PI.2 in the TV-
III of the CLEAN-Project
Hou Z, Gou Y, Taron J, Gorke UJ, Kolditz O (2012) Thermo-hydro-
mechanical modeling of carbon dioxide injection for enhanced
gas-recovery (CO2-EGR): a benchmarking study for code
comparison. Environ Earth Sci 67:549–561. doi:10.1007/
s12665-012-1703-2
Kern H, Mengel K, Strauss KW, Ivankina TI, Nikitin AN, Kukkonen
IT (2008) Elastic wave velocities, chemistry and modal miner-
alogy of crustal rocks sampled by the Outokumpu Scientific Drill
Hole: evidence from lab measurements and modeling. Phys
Earth Planet Inter 175:3–4
Khatchikian A (1995) Deriving reservoir pore-volume compress-
ibility from well logs. SPE Advanced Technology Series, vol 4,
No. 1, SPE 26963
Lee MW (2002) Biot–Gassmann theory for velocities of gas-hydrate-
bearing sediments. Geophysics 67:1711–1719
Lee MW (2003) Elastic properties of overpressured and uncon-
solidated sediments. US Geological Survey Bulletin 2214,
Version 1.0, 2003
Li Q, Ito K (2011) Analytical and numerical solution on the response
of pore pressure to cyclic atmospheric loading: with application
to Horonobe underground research laboratory, Japan. Environ
Earth Sci. doi:10.1007/s12665-011-1058-0
Li Q, Jing M (2013) Thermo-poroelastic coupling analysis of rock
damage around wellbore due to CO2 injection. Chin J Rock
Mech Eng 32(11):2205–2213
Lin W (1985) Ultrasonic velocities and dynamic elastic moduli of
mesaverde rocks. Report for Unconventianal gas program,
Western Gas Sands Research, UCID-20273-Rev.1
Liu X (1994) Nonlinear elasticity, seismic anisotropy, and petro-
physical properties of reservoir rocks. Doctor dissertation at
Stanford University
Prasad M (2002) Acoustic measurements in unconsolidated sands at
low effective pressure and overpressure detection. Geophysics
67(2):405–412
Sarker R, Batzle M (2008) Effective stress coefficient in shales and its
applicability to Eaton’s equation. The Leading Edge,
pp 798–804
Terzaghi K (1936) The shear resistance of saturated soils. In:
Proceedings for the 1st international conference on soil me-
chanics and foundation engineering in Cambridge, MA, 1,
pp 54–56
Trautwein U (2005) Poroelastische Verformung und petrophysikalis-
che Eigenschaften von Rotliegend Sandsteinen. Doctor disser-
tation, Technische Universität Berlin
Wang Z (2004) Seismic anisotropy in sedimentary rocks, part 2:
laboratory data. Geophysics 67(5):1423–1440
Wu B (2001) Biot’s effective stress coefficient evaluation: static and
dynamic approaches. Presented in ISRM-2nd Asian rock
mechanics symposium, Beijing, 11–13 September 2001