Laboratory apparatuses for measuring seismic attenuation in fluid-saturated rocks

Intrinsic wave attenuation at seismic frequencies is strongly dependent on rock permeability and on fluid properties and saturation. However, in order to extract this information from seismic, experimental studies on attenuation are needed for a better understanding of such dependency. Here, we briefly describe two apparatuses developed to measure seismic attenuation in fluid-saturated rocks: the SWAM and the BBAV. Additionally, we described some advantages and drawbacks of these two machines through comparisons with six other experimental setups that have been built in the last 25 years for similar studies. All these apparatuses measure frequency-dependent attenuation in dry and partially fluid-saturated rock samples under small strains which are comparable to strains caused by seismic waves in the Earth.