On the correlation between compaction in fine-grained barite sediment and its ultrasound attenuation and wave speed

This study investigates the influence of compaction on P-wave attenuation and wave speed properties of fine-grained barite sediment over the ultrasonic frequency range from 0.15 to 2 MHz. Barite is a mineral widely used in drilling fluids that accumulates through sedimentation, eventually obstructing the transmission of static pressure in wellbores. Understanding its acoustic behavior may enable improved oil field monitoring. The measurements reveal that attenuation decreases with increasing compaction at lower frequencies (below 600 kHz), whereas at higher frequencies (above 600 kHz) it exhibits a slight increasing trend. An increase in the frequency power-law dependence of attenuation with compaction is also observed at lower frequencies, indicating a transition toward a stiffness-dominated regimen. The attenuation responses between the samples converge at higher levels of compaction to a frequency power-law of α∝f2. The P-wave speed exhibits positive dispersion over the lower investigated frequency range in the substitution method measurements, whereas it remains essentially frequency independent over the higher-frequency range investigated using the pulse-echo reflectometer method. For both methods, the P-wave speed decreases systematically with increasing initial compaction. These findings are interpreted using extended Biot-based models, particularly the modified corrected, Revil, extended Biot model, and suggest that poroelastic models have the potential to predict barite sediment compaction.