Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

ScienceDirect
Procedia Computer Science 96 (2016) 920 – 929

20th International Conference on Knowledge Based and Intelligent Information and Engineering
Systems, KES2016, 5-7 September 2016, York, United Kingdom

Numerical modeling of wave processes during shelf seismic

exploration
Alena Favorskayaa*, Igor Petrova, Nikolay Khokhlova
a
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 9 Institytsky Pereylok st., Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, 141700 Russian Federation

Abstract

The attention to Arctic shelf is explained by the real need of exploration and development of oil-fields and gas-fields. The
computer modeling is a single appropriate approach because the physical experiments in Arctic are expensive and sometimes
difficult or impossible to make. In this research, the wave processes during seismic exploration of Arctic shelf are studied. The
up-to-date numerical simulation by gird-characteristic method was applied. This method allows to obtain all types of elastic and
acoustic waves (longitudinal P-waves, transverse S-waves, Stoneley, Rayleigh, Love, scattered PP-, SS-, and converted PS- and
SP-waves) in the heterogeneous media, using mathematically correct conditions on boundaries and interfaces. Also a comparison
of acoustic and elastic wave processes during shelf seismic exploration was implemented. The experiments show that it is more
precise and informative to solve the elastic wave equation in geological media and the acoustic wave equation in the sea water
layer only despite of sources and receivers, which are located in the water layer near the surface. The experiments demonstrate
the opportunity to measure the reflections in the water from the converted PS-waves and the reflected SS-waves, using receivers
in the water layer. The software based on grid-characteristic method was developed. It is possible to use different interface and
boundary conditions and obtain full wave pattern.
©©2016
2016TheTheAuthors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by Elsevier B.V. B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Peer-review under responsibility of KES International.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of KES International
Keywords: seismic exploration; Arctic shelf; ice formations; wave processes; numerical modeling; grid-characteristic method

* Corresponding author. E-mail address: aleanera@yandex.ru

1. Introduction

More than 25 % of hydrocarbon resources are located in the Arctic region1. There are eight fields discovered on
the Arctic shelf of Russian Federation in 1983-1992 with estimates of reserves of hydrocarbons about 2.7 trillions
m3. Five of these eight fields are the objects related to the objects of federal significance: Ledovoe, Ludlovskoe,
Murmanskoe in the Barents Sea, Pomorskoe, Gulyaevskoe in the Pechora Sea, Leningradskoe, Rusanovskoe in the

1877-0509 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of KES International
doi:10.1016/j.procs.2016.08.271
 Alena Favorskaya et al. / Procedia Computer Science 96 (2016) 920 – 929 921

Kara Sea. The ice-resistant platform called Prirazlomnaja was constructed for oil production in the Pechora Sea. The
project of the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea is designed for gas production. The improvement of estimates of
hydrocarbon reserves volumes is required for these fields2. A significant complicating factor in the production of
hydrocarbons in the North Seas is the existence of ice and different kinds of ice formations. The drifting ice is
observed almost during all year in the Kara Sea, as well as the icebergs and the ice hummocks are in the Barents and
the Pechora Sea. The depths of these North Seas in the industrial zones reach up to 300 m. For example, the Pechora
Sea and the Kara Sea are covered with drifting ices most time of the year. The speed of ices may exceed 5 m/s, the
thickness of plane ice3 is up to 2 m, the thickness of draft ice hummocks is 20 m. Thus, the structure and parameters
of the ice, covering the Northern seas, are significant parameters, determining the extreme loads at fixed and floating
offshore oil and gas industrial structures4,5,6.
The hydrocarbon exploration in the Arctic area has its own specificity. In particular, one of the layers, through
which the seismic signals are propagated, is the sea, another layer is the ice7,8,9,10. The icebergs, ice hummocks,
drifting ice, and ice cover have also contributed to the measured or calculated responses obtained during the seismic
exploration. In addition to seismic technology, the electrical exploration of hydrocarbons is an effective approach.
The review of studies on this topic is given in11,12.
In this paper, the wave processes occurred during seismic exploration at the Arctic shelf using numerical
modeling by grid-characteristic method13,14,15,16,17,18,19 are discussed in detail. The remainder of this paper is
organized as follows. Section 2 describes the systems of equations of proposed numerical methods. Section 3 gives a
brief survey of grid-characteristic method used. Section 4 describes the problem definition and section 5 represents
the results of numerical experiments. Section 6 includes conclusions.

2. Numerical modeling of elastic and acoustic waves

For numerical modeling of seismic prospecting the systems of equations describing acoustic waves is usually
used20,21,22. There are three most common types of numerical methods for modeling in geophysics, such as direct
methods, integral-equation methods, and asymptotic methods23. In direct methods24, it is possible to use a
topography, to solve large-scale problems25, to obtain high-order accuracy26,27, to model heterogeneous acoustic
media28, to involve some of elastic effects29, and to apply curvilinear grids30 using finite-difference methods.
The system of equations, describing the acoustic wave propagation, can be written as follows31:
*
U vt ’p (1)

*
pt  ɫ 2 U (’ ˜ v ) (2)

*
In equations (1), (2) p is an acoustic pressure field, v is a velocity, and ɫ is a speed of the sound in the acoustic
medium.
However, it is more correct to solve the system of equations, describing the elastic wave propagation32. There are
a lot of methods for finding these solutions, for example, finite-difference33,34, including fluid-solid case35. Also one
can use discontinuous Galerkin method7,8,9,10, high-order spectral element method36, a multidomain PSTD method37,
fully unstructured hexahedral meshes38, and the collocated grids considering a surface topography39. A
comprehensive review of the mentioned above methods for modeling of elastic wave propagation one can found in40.
The system of equations, describing the elastic wave propagation, can be written as follows32:

* ɬ
Uw t v ’ ˜ ı  (3)

* * *
wtı 
U  ɫ 2p  2ɫs2   ’ ˜ v  I  U ɫs2 ’ … v   ’ … v 
ɬ
 (4)

*
In equations (3), (4) U is a density, v is a velocity, ı is the stress tensor, c p is a speed of P-waves, and cs is a
922 Alena Favorskaya et al. / Procedia Computer Science 96 (2016) 920 – 929

speed of S-waves.

3. Grid-characteristic method

For the solving of these two systems of equations (1), (2) and (3), (4), a family of grid-characteristic
methods13,14,15,16,17,18,19 was developed. The grid-characteristic approach for solving a hyperbolic system of equations
was suggested in 1980s in Russia13,18. Then this approach obtained different useful modifications, for example,
hexahedral meshes14,16, triangular17 and tetrahedral meshes15. The grid-characteristic method allows to investigate all
types of seismic and acoustic waves (longitudinal P-waves, transverse S-waves, Stoneley, Rayleigh, Love, scattered
PP-, SS-, and converted PS- and SP-waves) in the heterogeneous media, using mathematically correct conditions on
boundaries and interfaces.
Hereinafter, one can find a brief description of grid-characteristic method in the case of 3D structured meshes.
First, one should make a splitting along three directions OX, OY, and OZ. Second, one should make the following
* * *
operations for all of these three directions consecutively. Consider the direction OX. Vectors n0 , n1 , and n2 are
unit vectors along directions OX, OY, and OZ, respectively. Let us use the following tensors of rank 2:

1 * * *
N ij
2
 ni … n j  n j … n*i  (5)

One should find the Riemann invariants Zi , using the following expressions for the system (1), (2)

* * p
Z1,2 n0 ˜ v r (6)
cU

* *
Z3,4 n1,2 ˜ v (7)

or the following expressions for the system (3), (4)

* * 1
Z1,2 n0 ˜ v # N 00 y ı (8)
cp U

* * 1
Z3,4 n1 ˜ v # N 01 y ı (9)
cs U

* * 1
Z5,6 n2 ˜ v # N 02 y ı (10)
cs U

Z7 N12 y ı (11)

Z8  N11  N 22  y ı (12)

§ ɫ 2p  2ɫs2 ·
Z9 ¨¨ N11  N 22  2 2
N 00 ¸ y ı
¸
(13)
© ɫp ¹

Then one can use a grid-characteristic scheme13,15,16 to solve the transport equations

w tZi  ci w xZi 0 (14)

 Alena Favorskaya et al. / Procedia Computer Science 96 (2016) 920 – 929 923

Finally, one should find the unknown fields using the following expressions for the system (1), (2)

* 1 1 1
v Z1  Z2  n*0  Z3n*1  Z4n*2 (15)
2 2 2

1
p cU Z1  Z2  (16)
2

or the following expressions for the system (3), (4)

* 1 1 1
v Z1  Z2  n*  Z3  Z4  n*1  Z5  Z6  n*2 (17)
2 2 2

U
ı Z2  Z1   2cs2 N00   c 2p  2cs2  I   ɫs U Z4  Z3  N01 
2ɫ p
(18)
1 1
 ɫs U Z6  Z5  N 02  2Z7 N12  Z8  N11  N 22   Z9  I  N 00 
2 2

4. The problem definition

In this research, the multilayered model is considered. The elastic parameters of each layer one can find in Table
1. The layer 7 represents a hydrocarbon reservoir and has a limited horizontal extension equal to 3 000 m, which is
included into layer 6. The domain of integration extends to 12,000 m in the horizontal direction and 4,001 m in the
vertical direction.

Table 1. Elastic parameters of multilayered medium.

The number of the layer Density, kg/m3 P-wave speed, S-wave speed, Thickness, m
m/s m/s
1 (water) 1000 1500 - 60
2 (geological medium) 2300 3200 1960 70
3 (geological medium) 2300 3700 2260 150
4 (geological medium) 2400 4000 2450 340
5 (geological medium) 2500 4300 2630 360
6 (geological medium) 2600 4500 2750 270
7 (hydrocarbon reservoir) 2300 3200 1700 60
8 (geological medium) 2600 4600 2820 80
9 (geological medium) 2700 4800 2940 70
10 (geological medium) 2800 5400 3300 2601
The zero initial conditions, nonreflecting boundary conditions on the sides and on the bottom of the integration
domain and the free-surface conditions on the water’s surface15 were used. The source is modeled using a Ricker
wavelet with the frequency, , equal to S 1 6 ˜ 40 Hz. The receivers are placed in the water layer near its surface
and located every 24 m along a horizontal profile extended to 4,500 ɦ in both directions from the source.
A rectangular grid with a cell size of 3 m in the horizontal direction and 2 m in the vertical direction was used.
Note that the cell size in the bottom layer 10 was 3 m by 3 m. The time step equaled to 0.00037 s and a total number
of 5,001 time steps were applied. The wave propagation in four different models was modeled. In the case of models
1 and 2, the system of equation, describing wave propagation in acoustic media (1), (2), was solved. The speeds of
acoustic wave propagation equal to the corresponding speeds of the P-waves are mentioned in Table 1. In the case of
models 3 and 4, the system of equations, describing wave propagation in elastic media (3), (4) for layers 2-10, and
the system of equations, describing wave propagation in acoustic media (1), (2) in layer 1, were solved. On the
interface between acoustic and elastic layers the appropriate interface conditions14 was used. The hydrocarbon
924 Alena Favorskaya et al. / Procedia Computer Science 96 (2016) 920 – 929

reservoir presents in models 2 and 4. There is no hydrocarbon reservoir in models 1 and 3, and the elastic parameters
in layer 6 equal to the ones in layer 6.
In the water layer, the multiple waves are arising. For rejection of them, the non-reflecting boundary conditions
on water’s surface were used. Hereinafter, one can see the effectiveness of rejection of multiple waves.

5. The results of numerical experiments

The wave patterns at 0.6438 s are depicted in Fig. 1 (for models 1 and 2) and Fig. 2 (for models 3 and 4). Letters
“P” mean P-waves and letters “S” mean S-waves. The arising P-wave from the source achieves the geological
medium of sea bottom. Letters “PP1” and “PP2” mean PP-waves the reflected from the top and the bottom of the
hydrocarbon reservoir, respectively. Letters “PS1” and “PS2” mean the converted PS-waves reflected from the top
and the bottom of the hydrocarbon reservoir, respectively. Letters “SP1” and “SP2” mean the converted SP-waves
reflected from the top and the bottom of the hydrocarbon reservoir, respectively. Letters “SS1” and “SS2” mean SS-
waves reflected from the top and the bottom of the hydrocarbon reservoir, respectively.
One can see that S-waves and reflected from top and bottom of hydrocarbon reservoir PS-, SP-, and SS-waves are
absent in the case of solving acoustic wave equation in the geological media. This fact is true despite of the source
and the receivers placed in the sea water near its surface. Also there are no Stoneley waves in the acoustic wave
equation, describing the geological media. The analysis of wave patterns without multiple waves gives a key for
finding all types of waves of interest on the wave patterns and seismograms before rejection of multiple waves.
 Alena Favorskaya et al. / Procedia Computer Science 96 (2016) 920 – 929 925

Fig. 1. (a), (b) before multiple waves rejection; (c), (d) after multiple waves rejection; (a), (c) without the hydrocarbon reservoir;
(b), (d) with the hydrocarbon reservoir.

Fig. 2. (a), (b) before multiple waves rejection; (c), (d) after multiple waves rejection; (a), (c) without the hydrocarbon reservoir;
(b), (d) with the hydrocarbon reservoir.

The seismograms for these four models are depicted in Figs. 3 and 4. They were obtained by the software
discussed in41. In the case of rejection of multiple waves, the seismograms are informative significantly. Also the
seismograms for models 3 and 4 show more information about the hydrocarbon reservoir because of all these types
of reflected waves, such as PP-, PS-, SP, and SS-waves, have reflections in the water layer and could be registered
by the receivers in the water14. The analysis of wave propagation leads to detailed understanding of seismograms and
the nature of various phenomena fixed on these seismograms. Experiments show that seismograms, representing the
vertical component of velocity, are more informative than the ones, representing the horizontal component.
However, the seismograms with horizontal component of velocity can give some additional and useful information
about underwater geological media and the hydrocarbon reservoir from the sources and receivers, which are located
in the sea water layer near the surface.
926 Alena Favorskaya et al. / Procedia Computer Science 96 (2016) 920 – 929

Fig. 3. (a), (b), (c), (d) acoustic media; (e), (f), (g), (h) elastic media with water layer modeled as acoustic medium; (a), (b), (g), (h) before
multiple waves rejection; (c), (d), (e), (f) after multiple waves rejection; (a), (c), (e), (g) without the hydrocarbon reservoir;
(b), (d), (f), (h) with the hydrocarbon reservoir.
 Alena Favorskaya et al. / Procedia Computer Science 96 (2016) 920 – 929 927

Fig. 4. (a), (b), (c), (d) acoustic media; (e), (f), (g), (h) elastic media with water layer modeled as acoustic medium; (a), (b), (g), (h) before
multiple waves rejection; (c), (d), (e), (f) after multiple waves rejection; (a), (c), (e), (g) without the hydrocarbon reservoir;
(b), (d), (f), (h) with the hydrocarbon reservoir.

6. Conclusions

In this research, the acoustic wave equations and the elastic wave equations for numerical modeling of shelf
seismic exploration are compared. It is shown that the approach for multiple waves in water layer rejection is
effective, as well as the study of wave processes during shelf seismic exploration using up-to-date grid-characteristic
numerical method. Experiments show that a solving of the elastic wave equations in geological media and the
acoustic wave equations in the sea water layer using sources and receivers located in the water layer near the surface
is more precise and informative approach against to others. Also the experiments demonstrate the opportunity to
measure the reflections in the water from the converted PS-waves and the reflected SS-waves using receivers in the
water layer. The software based on grid-characteristic method was developed. It is possible to use different interface
and boundary conditions and obtain full wave pattern.
928 Alena Favorskaya et al. / Procedia Computer Science 96 (2016) 920 – 929

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant no. 14-11-00263.

References

1. Goodway W, Enachescu M. Introduction to this special section: Arctic/ATC. The Leading Edge 2013;32(5);522-523.
2. Lee SG, Lun SH, Kong GY Modeling and simulation system for marine accident cause investigation. Collision and Graunding of Ships and
Offsore Structure. Amdahl, Ehlers and Leira (Eds). Taylor and France Group, London 2013;39-47.
3. Bekker AT, Sabobash OA, Seliverstov VI, Koff GI, Pipko EN Estimation of Lomit Loads on Engeneering Offshore Structures Proceeding of
the Nineteenth International Offshore and Polar Engeneering Conference 2009;574-579.
4. Weiss J Drift, Deformation and Fracture of Sea Ise. A perspective Across Scales. Springer 2013;83.
5. Pavlov V, Pavlova O, Korsnes R Sea ice fluxes and drift trajectories from potential pollution sources, computed with a statistical sea ice
model of the Arctic Ocean. Journal of marine Systems . 2004;48;133-157.
6. Eik K Iseberg drift modeling and validation of applied metocean hindcust data. Cold Region Science and Technologhy 2009;57;67-90.
7. Käser M, Dumbser M. An arbitrary high-order discontinuous Galerkin method for elastic waves on unstructured meshes – I. The two-
dimensional isotropic case with external source terms. Geophys J Int 2006;166(2),855-877.
8. Käser M, Dumbser M. An arbitrary high-order discontinuous Galerkin method for elastic waves on unstructured meshes – II. The three-
dimensional isotropic case. Geophys J Int 2006;167(1);319-336.
9. Käzer M, Dumbser M. A highly accurate discontinuous Galerkin method for complex interfaces between solids and moving fluids.
Geophysics 2008;73(3);T723-T725.
10. Käser M, Igel H. Numerical simulation of 2D wave propagation on unstructured grids using explicit differential operators. Geophysical
Prospecting 2001;49(5);607–619.
11. Zhdanov MS. Geophysical Inverse Theory and Regularization Problems. Elsevier, 2002.
12. Zhdanov MS. Inverse Theory and Applications in Geophysics. Elsevier 2015.
13. Kholodov AS, Kholodov Ya A. Monotonicity criteria for difference schemes designed for hyperbolic equations. Computational Mathematics
and Mathematical Physics 2006;46(9);1560-1588.
14. Favorskaya AV, Petrov IB. Wave Responses from Oil Reservoirs in the Arctic Shelf Zone. Doklady Earth Sciences 2016;466(2);214-217.
15. Petrov IB, Favorskaya AV, Sannikov AV, Kvasov IE. Grid-Characteristic Method Using High Order Interpolation on Tetrahedral
Hierarchical Meshes with a Multiple Time Step. Mathematical Models and Computer Simulations 2013;5(5);409-415.
16. Golubev VI, Petrov IB, Khokhlov NI. Numerical simulation of seismic activity by the grid-characteristic method. Computational
Mathematics and Mathematical Physics 2013;53(10);1523-1533.
17. Kvasov IE, Petrov IB. High-performance computer simulation of wave processes in geological media in seismic exploration. Computational
Mathematics and Mathematical Physics 2012;52(2);302-313
18. Magomedov KM, Kholodov AS. Grid characteristic methods. Moscow: Nauka; 1988.
19. Muratov MV, Petrov IB. Estimation of wave responses from subvertical macrofracture systems using a grid characteristic method.
Mathematical Models and Computer Simulations 2013;5(5);479-491.
20. Bording RP, Lines LR. Seismic Modeling and Imaging with the Complete Wave Equation. SEG, Course Note Series; 1997
21. Aki K, Richards PG. Quantitative seismology, theory and methods. 2nd edition. Sausalito, California: University Science Books; 2002.
22. Chapman C, Fundamentals of Seismic Wave Propagation. Cambridge University Press; 2004.
23. Carcione JM, Herman GC, Kroode APE. Seismic modeling, Geophysics 2002;67(4);1304-1325.
24. Wang X, Liu X. 3-D acoustic wave equation forward modeling with topography. Appl. Geophys. 2007;4,8-15.
25. Etgen JT, O’Brien MJ. Computational methods for large-scale 3D acoustic finite-difference modeling: A tutorial. Geophysics
2007;72(5);SM223-SM230.
26. Hestholm S. Acoustic VTI modeling using high-order finite differences. Geophysics 2009;74(5);T67-T73.
27. Tong P, Yang D, Hua B. High accuracy wave simulation revised derivation, numerical analysis and testing of a nearly analytic integration
discrete method for solving acoustic wave equation. International Journal of Solids and Structures 2011;48;56-70.
28. Di Bartolo L, Dors C, Mansur WJ. A new family of finite-difference schemes to solve the heterogeneous acoustic wave equation. Geophysics
2012;77(5);T187-T199.
29. Hobro JWD, Chapman CH, Robertsson JOA. A method for correcting acoustic finite-difference amplitudes for elastic effects. Geophysics
2014;79(4);T243-T255.
30. Sanyi Y, Shangxu W, Wenju S, Lina M, Zhenhua L. Perfectly matched layer on curvilinear grid for the second-order seismic acoustic wave
equation. Exploration Geophysics 2014;45(2);94í104.
31. Landau LD, Lifshitz EM. Fluid mechanics. Pergamon Press; 1959.
32. LeVeque R. Finite volume methods for hyperbolic problems. Cambridge University Press; 2002.
33. Levander A. Fourth-order finite-difference P-SV seismograms. Geophysics 1988;53(11);1425–1436.
34. Jianfeng Z. Quadrangle-grid velocity-stress finite-difference method for elastic-wave-propagation simulation. Geophys J Int
1997;131(1);127-134.
35. Van Vossen R, Robertsson JOA, Chapman CH. Finite-difference modeling of wave propagation in a fluid-solid configuration. Geophysics
2002;67(2);618-624.
 Alena Favorskaya et al. / Procedia Computer Science 96 (2016) 920 – 929 929

36. Seriani G, Priolo E, Carcione JM, Padovani E. High-order spectral element method for elastic wave modeling. 62nd Annual International
Meeting and Exposition, SEG, Extended Abstracts 1992;1285-1288.
37. Zeng YQ, Liu QH. A multidomain PSTD method for 3D elastic wave equations. Bull. seism. Soc. Am. 2004;94;1002-1015.
38. Peter D, Komatitsch D, Luo Y, Martin R, Le Goff N, Casarotti E, Le Loher P, Magnoni F, Liu Q, Blitz C, Nissen-Meyer T, Basini P, Tromp
J. Forward and adjoint simulations of seismic wave propagation on fully unstructured hexahedral meshes. Geophys J Int 2011;186(2);721-
739.
39. Zhang W, Zhang Z, Chen X. Three-dimensional elastic wave numerical modelling in the presence of surface topography by a collocated-grid
finite-difference method on curvilinear grids. Geophys. J. Int. 2012;190(1);358-378.
40. Virieux J, Etienne V, Cruz-Atienza V, Brossier R, Chaljub E, Coutant O, Garambois S, Mercerat D, Prieux V, Operto S, Ribodetti A, Tago J.
M Kanao editor. Modelling Seismic Wave Propagation for Geophysical Imaging, Seismic Waves - Research and Analysis. 2012.
41. Golubev VI Metodika otobrazheniia i interpretatsii rezultatov polnovolnovykh sejsmicheskikh raschetov. Trudy MFTI 2014;6(1); 54-161.