The effect of fluid saturation on the dynamic shear modulus of tight sandstones

Tight sandstones have become important targets in the exploration of unconventional oil and gas reservoirs. However, due to low porosity, low permeability, complex pore structure and other petrophysical properties of tight sandstones, the applicability of Gassmann's fluid substitution procedure becomes debatable. Aiming at this problem, this paper attempts to explore the applicability of Gassmann's theory in tight sandstones. Our focus is to investigate the sensitivity of dynamic shear modulus to fluid saturation and the possible mechanism. Ultrasonic velocity in dry and saturated tight sandstone samples was measured in the laboratory under an effective pressure within the range of 1-60 MPa. This study shows that the shear modulus of the watersaturated samples appears to either increase or decrease, and the soft porosity model (SPM) can be used to quantitatively estimate the variation of shear modulus. Under the condition of in situ pressure, samples dominated by secondary pores and microcracks are prone to show shear strengthening with saturation, which is possibly attributed to the local flow dispersion. Samples that mainly have primary pores are more likely to show shear weakening with saturation, which can be explained by the surface energy mechanism. We also find good correlation between changes in shear modulus and inaccurate Gassmann-predicted saturated velocity. Therefore, understanding the variation of shear modulus is helpful to improving the applicability of Gassmann's theory in tight sandstones.