ABSTRACT
The water content of rock may strongly influence seismic waves. Rock engineers sometimes need to estimate the wet-rock P-wave velocity from the dry-rock P-wave velocity. In this study, in order to investigate the predictability of wet-rock P-wave velocity from the dry-rock P-wave velocity, P-wave velocity measurements were performed on 49 core specimens pertaining to 8 different igneous rocks such as granite, syenite, and andesite. The evaluation of the results showed that P-wave velocity increment due to saturation ranged from 44.7% to 99%, with an average of 66.7%. The wet-rock P-wave velocity values were also correlated to the dry-rock P-wave velocity values. A weak linear correlation was found between the two parameters for all tested samples. After the regression analysis was repeated for each rock group, it was seen that the correlation coefficients were significantly increased. Concluding remark is that the wet-rock P-wave velocity values of granite, syenite, and andesite can be predicted from the developed empirical equations. However, because the regression equation for syenite was derived from 5 data points its validity should be further checked by including more data points.
