Halliburton Company

Charles D Donaghe

Stephen E Tilghman

Michael J Lynch

Gilbert H Forehand

Ronald E Dant

Jack C Penn

Billy W White

Richard L Duncan

Charles F VanBerg, Jr

J Mark Richardson

Terry O Anderson

Stanley Vernon Stephenson

Karl W Blanchard

Herbert John Horinek

John Hanton

Jerry N Browning

Neil A Pritchard

A self-contained downhole apparatus for being lowered into an oil or gas well to internally record samples of at least one environmental condition comprises three body sections linearly and releasably interconnected. One of the body sections is a selected one of a plurality of transducer housing sections. The selected transducer housing section is mechanically and electrically connected to a second body section containing microcomputer-operated signal processing circuitry. The third body section contains a power supply.

Self-contained downhole gauge system

A cement mixing and pumping simulator comprises actual and virtual equipment. In response to an operator controlling this equipment, signals representing operating characteristics of a cement mixing system realistically represented by the actual and virtual equipment are generated. These signals are communicated for displaying the operating characteristics to the operator so that the operator obtains real-time responses to the operator's control of the actual and virtual equipment. A method of simulating operation of a cement mixing system comprises: operating, at a master control location within actual equipment of the cement mixing system, at least one actual control device of the cement mixing system; operating, at the respective location of each, at least one of the actual equipment located away from the master control location; determining characteristics of material flow through the cement mixing system in response to the operation of the at least one actual control device and the at least one actual equipment without actually flowing material through the cement mixing system; and displaying the determined characteristics in real time with the operating and determining steps. This method preferably further comprises recording data identifying a performance evaluation of an operator in response to a comparison between at least one of the determined material flow characteristics and a corresponding predetermined characteristic.

Cement mixing system simulator and simulation method

A self-contained memory gauge includes either semiconductor or magnetic core memory for retaining downhole information related to sampled parameters, such as borehole temperature and pressure. A microprocessor-based computer manages the power utilization by independently and selectably energizing and de-energizing different sections of the gauge. The magnetic core memory is tested for operability, and the addressing of the magnetic core memory is adjusted in accordance with any inoperable memory locations. Samples of the monitored environmental conditions can be taken at variable rates dependent upon software monitoring of the condition, the remaining battery life and the remaining memory capacity and in response to hardware monitored pressure changes. Each sample can be taken to a selectable resolution. A watchdog circuit monitors the microprocessor to insure that it is operating within a preselected time limit. Further, resolution counters (282) and (284), in association with multiplexer (280), provide selectable timing signals.

Self-containing downhole gauge system

In an oil well instrumentation system, the downhole sensor system is controlled by a computer which is powered-on only during sampling movement. An independent circuit, continuously powered, detects significant sensor rate-of-change values whereby the computer-sampling equipment is powered-on. A self-contained memory gauge includes either semiconductor or magnetic core memory for retaining downhole information related to sampled parameters, such as borehole temperature and pressure. A microprocessor-based computer manages the power utilization by independently and selectably energizing and deenergizing different sections of the gauge. The magnetic core memory is tested for operability, and the addressing of the magnetic core memory is adjusted in accordance with any inoperable memory locations. Samples of the monitored environmental conditions can be taken at variable rates dependent upon software monitoring of the condition, the remaining battery life and the remaining memory capacity and in response to hardware monitored pressure changes. Each sample can be taken to a selectable resolution. A watchdog circuit monitors the microprocessor to insure that it is operating within a preselected time limit.

Growing community of inventors

Duncan, OK, United States of America

Charles D Donaghe