Method of imaging the permeability and fluid content structure within sediment

In a non-destructive method of measuring physical characteristics of a medium, the steps which comprise:

• (a) generating a pseudo-random code;
• (b) generating a pseudo-random acoustic signal based upon said pseudo-random code;
• (c) transmitting said pseudo-random acoustic signal into said medium;
• (d) receiving said pseudo-random acoustic signal;
• (e) processing said pseudo-random acoustic signal to obtain an image of the velocity and attenuation of said acoustic signal;
• (f) determining a relevant geoacoustic model of said medium for a set of measured data;
• (g) solving said model for said measured data to obtain a pair of physical characteristic results;
• and
• (h) determining the one of said pair of said physical characteristics results which is correctly indicative of said physical characteristics of said medium.

In a non-destructive method of measuring physical characteristics of a medium, the steps which comprise:

• (a) generating a pseudo-random code;
• (b) generating a pseudo-random acoustic signal based upon said pseudo-random code;
• (c) transmitting said pseudo-random acoustic signal into said medium;
• (d) receiving said pseudo-random acoustic signal;
• (e) processing said pseudo-random acoustic signal to obtain an image of the velocity and attenuation of said acoustic signal;
• (f) determining a geoacoustic model of said medium for measured data, said measured data comprising velocity, attenuation, and frequency of said acoustic signal;
• (g) solving said model for said set of measured data to obtain a resulting pair of permeability-porosity results for said medium;
• and
• (h) determining the one of said pair of permeability-porosity results which is correctly indicative of said physical characteristics of said medium.

In a method of acoustically measuring cross-sectional spatial distribution or imaging of the porosity and permeability within a segment of a geological medium using an acoustic signal, the steps which comprise:

• (a) measuring and recording velocity and attenuation of said acoustical signal at a single PRBS frequency of frequency less than about 4 kHz;
• (b) generating a pair of corresponding electrical signals from said recording that are representative of said velocity and attenuation,
• (c) creating a comparative theoretical or actual model based upon said geological medium,
• (d) inverting said electrical signals according to an inversion equation, in real time, to generate a signal indicative of porosity and permeability.