Squirt flow in isotropic porous rocks with wedge-shaped cracks
Name
geo-2025-0542.pdf
Size
4.2 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
69a327afa8b8ea9702e2b48d4a6ab83b
Author(s)
Fang, Zhijian
Alkhimenkov, Yury
Ba, Jing
Hou, Zhiyu
Quintal, Beatriz
Date Issued
April 1, 2026
Journal
Geophysics
Publisher
Society of Exploration Geophysicists
Citation
Zhijian Fang, Yury Alkhimenkov, Jing Ba, Zhiyu Hou, Beatriz Quintal; Squirt flow in isotropic porous rocks with wedge-shaped cracks. Geophysics 2026;; 91 (3): WB27–WB35.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Seismic wave propagation in fluid-saturated porous rocks exhibits significant dispersion and attenuation due to pore-scale fluid flow, known as squirt flow. Squirt flow occurs at the microscopic scale and takes place in compliant pores (e.g., grain contacts or microcracks) connected to stiffer pores. Recently, an analytical model for squirt flow in wedge-shaped cracks connected to a stiff pore was developed to investigate wave dispersion and attenuation in isotropic porous rocks. To validate this model, 3D numerical simulations of squirt flow were conducted using the finite element method. The numerical results revealed a significant discrepancy between the published analytical and the present numerical solutions. After modifying the published analytical model, the updated analytical solution showed a good agreement with the numerical solution. The study also analyzed how wedge-shaped crack aperture and crack geometry affect the attenuation and dispersion responses. The results demonstrate that, using an equivalent crack aperture, the penny-shaped crack geometry serves as a physically consistent substitute for the wedge-shaped geometry. Furthermore, in numerical simulations of squirt flow, using penny-shaped geometries presents great advantages compared to using wedge-shaped geometries due to the heavier discretization requirements of the latter.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1190/GEO-2025-0542
