Investigation Of Acoustoelasticity Method For Measurement Of Rock Stress

Based on the acoustoelasticity theory of rock, quantitative acoustoelasticity relation around a borehole in an infinite isotropic rock subjected to the far-field stresses is investigated in this paper. The research background and the present common methods for crustal stress measurement are presented , and the advance in the investigation of acoustoelasticity of rock is reviewed. Then, the concept of continuum mechanics and the acoustoelasticity theory of rock are introduced briefly.Based on the acoustoelasticity theory of rock, an accurate model and a simplified model for quantitative acoustoelasticity relation around a borehole in the natural configuration is presented, where velocity distribution of waves propagating along the axis of the borehole under different far-field stress state is discussed. The numerical results show that the extremum direction of shear waves coincides with the direction of far-field principal stress. Furthermore, we verify the validity condition of the simplified model. In final, we extend the previous work to investigate the quantitative acoustoelasticity relation around a borehole in the initial configuration and compare the influence of the initial configuration and the natural configuration on the velocity distribution around the borehole.