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Electric fields applying on the fluid-filled porous materials can induce small relative pore-fluid motions due to electroseismic conversions. In order to characterize the electroseismic propagation phenomena, we have designed an experimental apparatus to acquire the electroseismic (ES) signals. The electroseismic measurements on different samples have been conducted to confirm the origin of the recorded signals. We find that a strong acoustic signal generates around the electrode and affects the identification of ES signals. To further confirm and distinguish the ES signal as well as the acoustic signal around the electrode, we have analyzed records obtained with regular movements of the receiver, the sample and the source. Analysis has been made on the characteristics of the traveltime, polarity and frequency of ES signals. Our results show that the traveltime of ES signal relates to the distance between the rock sample and the receiver, the location of the exciting electrode has little impact on the traveltime. The applied electric field influences the polarity of ES signal, the polarity of ES signal reverses along with the changes of the electric field direction. While it has no polarity effects on the acoustic signal generated around the electrode. The frequency spectrum of ES signal is absolutely different with that of the acoustic signal generated around the electrode. The acoustic signal around the electrode has multiple dominant frequencies which are mainly in low-frequency range without being affected by the frequency of the electric field. The ES signal has only one dominant frequency which closely relates to the frequency of the electric field. The understanding of the signal characteristics on electroseismic conversion can contribute to a better application and interpretation of ES exploration.

The seismoelectric effects induced from the coupling of the seismic wave field and the electromagnetic field depend on the physical properties of the reservoir rocks. We built an experimental apparatus to measure the seismoelectric effects in saturated sandstone samples. We recorded the seismoelectric signals induced by P-waves and studied the attenuation of the seismoelectric signals induced at the sandstone interface. The analysis of the seismoelectric effects suggests that the minimization of the potential difference between the reference potential and the baseline potential of the seismoelectric disturbance area is critical to the accuracy of the seismoelectric measurements and greatly improves the detectability of the seismoelectric signals. The experimental results confirmed that the seismoelectric coupling of the seismic wave field and the electromagnetic field is induced when seismic wave propagating in a fluid-saturated porous medium. The amplitudes of the seismoelectric signals decrease linearly with increasing distance between the source and the interface, and decay exponentially with increasing distance between the receiver and the interface. The seismoelectric response of sandstone samples with different permeabilities suggests that the seismoelectric response is directly related to permeability, which should help obtaining the permeability of reservoirs in the future.