Weatherford/lamb, Inc.

Weatherford Technology Holdings, LLC

Domino Taverner

John J Grunbeck

Trevor Wayne MacDougall

Edward Michael Dowd

James R Dunphy

David LaBella

Richard Todd Jones

Guy A Daigle

Jason Scott Kiddy

Andre R Vincelette

Trevor Macdougall

Milton E Ives

David Labella

Francis X Bostick, Iii

Paul Lefebvre

Mark William Baker

Andrew S Kuczma

Milton E Ives, Jr

Christopher S Baldwin

Hongbo Li

Michael Lagace

Francis X Bostick

James C Dunphy

Paul Eric Sanders

Douglas A Norton

Zhuang Wang

Francis X,iii Bostick

Doug Norton

Iii Francis X Bostick

Francis X Bostick Iii

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for making armored cables. An example method for making an armored cable includes forming a strip stock into an armor tubing; welding a seam of the armor tubing in a welding zone; inserting at least one of a first optical fiber or a first wire into a first end of a first guide tube, wherein: the first guide tube extends through the welding zone; the first guide tube protects the at least one of the first optical fiber or the first wire during the welding of the seam; and the first guide tube is not part of the armored cable after the making of the armored cable; and supporting the first guide tube within the armor tubing by a plurality of support legs such that the first guide tube does not contact the armor tubing.

Cable to reduce optical fiber movement and methods to fabricate

Methods and apparatus to control the acoustic properties of optical cables used as in-well oil and gas probes for acoustic monitoring, such as distributed acoustic sensing (DAS). One example aspect provides a solid path for the acoustic wave to propagate from an outside armor layer of the cable to the sensing optical waveguide embedded therein. Another example aspect offers ways to spatially dispose the optical sensing elements to create response delays indicative of the propagation speed and/or direction of an acoustic wave. Yet another example aspect provides ways to utilize additional spectral interrogation to increase ultimate spatial resolution. Yet another example aspect provides ways to locally vary the acoustic properties along the length of the cable.

Acoustically enhanced optical cables

Certain aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to an optical reference element having a wavelength spectrum comprising a plurality of wavelength functions having wavelength peaks spaced over a range of wavelengths, wherein adjacent wavelength functions are due to two orthogonal birefringence axes in the optical reference element. Aspects of the present disclosure may eliminate the drift issues associated with residual polarization and polarization dependent loss (PDL) with respect to grating-based sensor and reference element measurements.

Birefringent multi-peak optical reference element and birefringent sensor system

Mechanical acoustic actuators and methods for using these actuators to generate controlled acoustic signals to measure silent or quiet parameters are provided. One example method includes using fluid flows (whistle) and/or mechanical shocks between solids (bells) to stimulate the actuators, either proportionally from the parameter targeted for measurement or artificially modulated to create emitters. Some aspects provide for usage of the actuators within an oil and gas well or a fluid conduit, including in combination with arrays of acoustic sensors, to perform sonar array processing monitoring of acoustic wave propagation to derive properties of the media traversed.

Transducers and acoustic emitters for fiber-optic-based acoustic sensing

Techniques and apparatus are provided for downhole sensing using optical couplers in a downhole splitter assembly to split interrogating light signals into multiple optical sensing branches. Each optical branch may then be coupled to an optical sensor (e.g., a pass-through or an optical single-ended transducer (OSET)) or to another optical coupler for additional branching. The sensors may be pressure/temperature (P/T) type transducers. Some systems may exclusively use OSETs as the optical sensors. In this manner, if one of the OSETs is damaged, it does not affect light traveling to any of the other sensors, and sensing information from remaining sensors is still returned.

Optical couplers used in a downhole splitter assembly

Fiber optic cables suitable for use in downhole applications, with one or more features for inhibiting flow of any fluid breaching an armor layer of the optical cable are provided. By preventing, or at least impeding, fluid flow along the cable length, any breaching fluid may be confined to a small region of the cable, which may significantly reduce the deleterious effects (e.g., hydrogen darkening) of an armor layer breach. One example optical cable generally includes one or more optical fibers, an inner tube surrounding the one or more optical fibers, an outer tube surrounding the inner tube, and one or more polymer sealing features disposed in an annulus between the outer tube and the inner tube and bonded to at least one of the inner tube or the outer tube to prevent fluid flow in the annulus along at least a portion of a length of the optical cable.

Fiber optic cable for inhibiting breaching fluid flow

A sensing device is used for measuring physical characteristics. The sensing device may include an optical fiber disposed in a tube. The optical fiber may have a section containing a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor. A support member may be coupled to the ends of the section, such that the section includes a length greater than a length of the portion of the support member disposed between the ends of the section. The support member is configured to isolate the FBG sensor from strain in the optical fiber.

Strain isolated fiber Bragg grating sensors

Small profile apparatus for pressure and/or temperature sensing within a wellbore are provided. The apparatus may include optical sensing assemblies designed for inclusion in traditional or coiled production tubing deployments and suitable for use in high pressure, high temperature environments. One example assembly generally includes an outer housing, an inner housing at least partially disposed in the outer housing, a port for fluid communication between an internal volume of the inner housing and a volume external to the outer housing, and a large diameter optical waveguide disposed in the internal volume of the inner housing. The waveguide includes a first portion with a first grating and a second portion with a second grating, wherein the outer diameter of the large diameter optical waveguide is at least 300 &#x3bc;m.

Small profile pressure and temperature gauges

Methods and apparatus for fast sweeping a spectral bandwidth in order to distinguish among signals received from effectively wavelength division multiplexed (WDMed) and time division multiplexed (TDMed) optical components on a single fiber. For some embodiments, a method for interrogating optical elements having characteristic wavelengths spanning a sweep range is provided. The method generally includes introducing a pulse of light, by an optical source, into an optical waveguide to interrogate at least a first set of optical elements having different characteristic wavelengths by performing a sweep of wavelengths over a period of the pulse, wherein the period is less than a round-trip time for light reflected from an optical element closest to the optical source to reach a receiver and processing the reflected light to determine a parameter based on the times at which signals are received.

Time division multiplexing (TDM) and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) fast-sweep interrogator

Methods and apparatus for performing Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) using fiber optics with increased acoustic sensitivity are provided. Acoustic sensing of a wellbore, pipeline, or other conduit/tube based on DAS may have increased acoustic sensitivity through fiber optic cable design and/or increasing the Rayleigh backscatter property of a fiber's optical core. Some embodiments may utilize a resonant sensor mechanism with a high Q coupled to the DAS device for increased acoustic sensitivity.

Fiber optic cable for distributed acoustic sensing with increased acoustic sensitivity

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Delray Beach, FL, United States of America

Domino Taverner