Laboratory Measurement of Guided Wave (Krauklis Wave) Propagation Within a Fluid-Saturated Fracture

A fluid-saturated flat channel between two solid half-spaces (i.e. a fracture) is known to support a guided wave called the Krauklis wave. In the field, this wave can potentially be used to examine the size and connectivity of natural and hydraulically induced fractures from a borehole. Krauklis waves propagate primarily within the fluid part of a fracture, can have very low velocity and large attenuation, and are very dispersive at low frequencies. We conducted laboratory measurements of the velocity of Krauklis waves using analogue fracture models at frequencies below 1 kHz. The models consisted of (1) two concentric aluminum cylinders with a water-filled gap and (2) a pair of rectangular aluminum plates containing a thin water-filled gap (tri-layer mode). In the latter, the water was contained by an o-ring along the edge of the plates. The velocity of the waves propagating within the models was determined both from waveforms in the time domain measured along the wave path and from acoustic resonances in the system. The results indicated that the waves measured from the cylindrical model were not dispersive at frequencies below 400 Hz, with a phase velocity of ~250 m/s. In contrast, the tri-layer model exhibited strongly dispersive velocity at measured frequencies of 7.5 Hz-500 Hz, with the lowest phase velocity being ~14 m/s at 7.5 Hz. These measurements agree well with our theoretical model predictions.