An overview of laboratory apparatuses to measure seismic attenuation in reservoir rocks

Intrinsic wave attenuation at seismic frequencies is strongly dependent on rock permeability, fluid properties, and saturation. However, in order to use attenuation as an attribute to extract information on rock/fluid properties from seismic data, experimental studies on attenuation are necessary for a better understanding of physical mechanisms that are dominant at those frequencies. An appropriate laboratory methodology to measure attenuation at seismic frequencies is the forced oscillation method, but technical challenges kept this technique from being widely used. There is a need for the standardization of devices employing this method, and a comparison of existing setups is a step towards it. Here we summarize the apparatuses based on the forced oscillation method that were built in the last 30 years and were used to measure frequency-dependent attenuation in fluid-saturated and/or dry reservoir rocks under small strains (10 −8 ‐10 −5 ). We list and discuss important technical aspects to be taken into account when working with these devices or in the course of designing a new one. We also present a summary of the attenuation measurements in reservoir rock samples performed with these apparatuses so far.