Flow Properties in Saturated Soils from Dispersive Seismic Velocity and Attenuation - Test on Field Data

In this paper, we have tested on field data a recently developed approach for in-situ estimation of the flow properties – especially porosity and permeability- in near-surface soil layers, utilizing intrinsic velocity dispersion and attenuation of shear waves and a pertinent theory of poroelasticity. Shallow VSP experiments have been performed using a novel digital array seismic cone penetrometer. The results show that even at the low field-seismic frequency band, we can obtain realistic and stable estimates of porosity and permeability for relatively coarse-grained (higher permeability) soil layers. It is difficult to get these properties when the permeability is very low. This problem is alleviated when the frequency content in the data is increased.