Dresser Industries, Inc.

Eric C Hopkinson

Donald W Oliver

In a neutron induced gamma ray well logging instrument, a neutron generator is pulsed at a preselected clock frequency. Each neutron burst produces inelastic scattering gamma rays and capture gamma rays. Inelastic scattering gamma rays are detected using a bismuth germanate scintillator during a first time interval coinciding with the neutron source being on. Capture gamma rays are detected by bismuth germanate scintillator during a second interval subsequent to the termination of each neutron burst. The detected pulses are converted into electrical pulses by a photomultiplier. The electrical pulses are coupled into processing circuitry. The use of address decoders, subtractors and ratio circuits enables measurements of the characteristic full-energy photopeaks of selected elements within the formations.

Method and apparatus for induced gamma ray logging

A pulsed source of fast neutrons and a radiation detector system are utilized in a well logging instrument, the detector being responsive to the thermal neutron population decay rate. The inverse of the decay rate is proportional to the measured macroscopic neutron absorption cross-section (Sigma) of the surrounding formations. A first Sigma is measured by taking the natural logarithm of the ratio of the detected radiation counts occurring within two measurement intervals. A second Sigma is measured by taking the natural logarithm of the ratio of the detected radiation counts occurring within a second pair of measurement intervals. The first Sigma value is recorded when the Sigma value falls below a preselected limit and the second Sigma value is recorded when the formation Sigma value is above the preselected limit. Thus, the Sigma log is a composite of the two Sigma measurements.

Method and apparatus for measuring neutron characteristics of material

A logging instrument contains a pulsed neutron source and a pair of radiation detectors spaced along the length of the instrument. The radiation detectors are gated differently from each other to provide an indication of formation porosity which is substantially independent of the formation salinity. In the preferred embodiment, the electrical signals indicative of radiation detected by the long-spaced detector are gated for almost the entire interval between neutron pulses and the short-spaced signals are gated for a significantly smaller time interval which commences soon after the termination of a given neutron burst. The signals from the two detectors are combined in a ratio circuit for determination of porosity.

Dual detector pulsed neutron logging for providing indication of

A pulsed neutron generator in a well logging instrument is pulsed at a clock frequency of 20 KHz. Inelastic scatter gamma rays are detected during a first time interval coinciding with the neutron source being on and capture gamma rays are measured during a second interval subsequent to the end of each neutron burst. Only a single detected pulse, assuming detection occurs, is transmitted during each of the two detection intervals. Sync pulses are generated in the well logging instrument scaled down to a frequency of 200 Hz for transmission to the earth's surface. At the earth's surface, the scaled-down sync pulses are applied to a phase-locked loop system for regenerating the sync pulses to the same frequency as that of the clock frequency used to pulse the neutron source and to open the detection gates in the borehole instrument. The regenerated sync pulses are used in the surface instrumentation to route the pulses occurring in the inelastic interval into one section of a multichannel analyzer memory and the pulses occurring in the capture interval into another section of the multichannel analyzer. The use of memory address decoders, subtractors and ratio circuits enables both a carbon/oxygen ratio and a silcon/calcium ratio to be struck substantially free of background radiation and substantially unaffected by downscattering of high energy gamma rays.

Method and apparatus for pulsed neutron spectral analysis using spectral

Neutron generator in well logging instrument is pulsed 100 times having a time between pulses of 1400 microseconds. This is followed by an off period of four cycles wherein 2800 microseconds is allowed for capture radiation to decay to an insignificant level and the remaining 2800 microseconds is used to measure background radiation. This results in the neutron source being disabled four pulses after every hundred pulses of operation, or approximately a 4% loss of neutron output. A first detector gate is open from 400 to 680 microseconds and a second detector gate is open from 700 to 980 microseconds. During the 100 cycles, each of the gates is thus open for 280 microseconds times 100 for a total of 28,000 microseconds. By scaling the gate count rate by a factor of 10, the background is subtracted directly.

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Houston, TX, United States of America

Eric C Hopkinson