  Rock formations often exhibit transversely anisotropic elastic behavior due
to their layered structure. Such materials are characterized by five
independent elastic constants. In the context of petroleum applications, it is
often challenging to accurately measure all these elastic parameters. At the
same time, the effect of elastic anisotropy can be noticeable and therefore
there is a need to include it in some form. To fill the gap, this study
proposes a three parameter elastic anisotropy model. It captures the dominant
anisotropic behavior and yet has only three elastic constants that are
relatively easy to measure in laboratory. The approach is based on upscaling of
a periodically layered material characterized by equal height layers with
different Young's moduli and the same Poisson's ratio. The resultant upscaled
material is transversely isotropic and is also physically admissible. The
developed approach allows to effectively reconstruct or estimate the values of
the two remaining parameters needed for the transversely isotropic model.
Comparison between the reconstructed results and the measured values are
compared for several rock types.
