Dresser Industries, Inc.

Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.

Chevron U.s.a. Inc.

Sensorwise, Inc.

Laurence T Wisniewski

Georgios L Varsamis

Abbas Arian

Gary Lee Fickert

Michael Simmons

Carey R Murphey

Chung Lung Chang

Batakrishna Mandal

Edward Harrigan

James H Dudley

Gary Wayne Kainer

Chen-Kang David Chen

Denis P Schmitt

Gary Dean Althoff

Randall Bennett Jones

Dennis John Harris

Chen Chen-Kang David

A caliper tool for measuring a shape of a wellbore may include a sensor assembly and a movable measurement component including a hub and a measurement arm extending from the hub, and a magnetically-permeable target coupled to the hub and configured to rotate with the hub upon movement of the measurement arm. A sensor assembly includes primary coil and one or more secondary coils spaced apart from the primary coil, wherein output signals from the secondary coils facilitates measurement of the shape of the wellbore.

Caliper tool and sensor for use in high pressure environments

According to embodiments of the disclosure, a downhole tool for taking acoustic measurements in a wellbore is provided. The tool may have an acoustic dipole transmitter with a piston made from a soft magnetic material, mounted on a centering spring between the first coil and the second coil, which moves the piston bi-directionally along a longitudinal axis when energized. The tool may also have a feedback winding on at least one of the first or second coils. The tool may also have a circuit for energizing the first and second coils which includes an input for receiving a signal responsive to the position of the piston relative to the coils and a processor for determining an output waveform used to generate an acoustic signal.

Acoustic dipole piston transmitter

The artificial lift system comprises a downhole tool suspended by a power conductive cable in a wellbore. The downhole tool comprises an atomizing chamber for conversion of the liquid into droplets having an average diameter less than or equal to 10,000 microns. Natural gas produced by a producing zone of the subterranean reservoir transports the vaporized liquid molecules to the well surface. In operation, the atomizing chamber is located above the liquid column in the wellbore.

Acoustic artificial lift system for gas production well deliquification

A method and system for conducting a seismic survey by lowering a string of intelligent clampable sensor pods with 3-C sensors into a borehole. The string of pods is serially interconnected by a cable having a conductor pair which provides both power and data connectivity. The uppermost sensor pod is connected to a downhole telemetry and control module. The cables and pods use connectors to allow assembly, customization, repair, and disassembly on site. Each pod has an upper and a lower connector, a processor, and memory which is coupled to both the upper and the lower connectors. Each pod is capable of simultaneous and independent serial communications at each connector with the memory. The telemetry and control module is designed to query the pods to determine the system configuration. The telemetry and control module then simultaneously triggers all pods to acquire data, the pods storing the collected data locally in the memory. After data collection, the controller simultaneously signals the pods to immediately transfer data serially from the local memory to the next higher adjacent pod and receive data, if any, from the lower adjacent pod, if any, storing the received data in memory. The first data transferred from each pod is that data collected by its local sensors. Subsequent data originates from lower pods and is simply passed up the string of pods to the telemetry and control module. In other words, the pods communicate in a bucket brigade fashion.

Seismic data acquisition system and method for downhole use

A downhole crystal-based clock that is substantially insensitive to the factors that cause frequency deviation. The clock may be maintained at a predetermined temperature using a temperature sensing device and a heating device, where the predetermined temperature corresponds to the temperature at which the crystal experiences only slight frequency deviation as a function of temperature. A microprocessor may monitor the clock and compensate for long-term aging effects of the crystal according to a predetermined algorithm. The predetermined algorithm may represent long-term aging effects of the crystal which were derived by comparing the crystal clock to a more accurate clock (e.g., an atomic clock) prior to placing the clock downhole. In this manner, the crystal-based clock may be substantially free from the factors that cause frequency, and therefore time variations.

Method and system for downhole clock having compensation

An acoustic logging tool including an elongated body, one or more acoustic transmitters, one or more acoustic receivers, and a broadband acoustic absorption region. A substantial portion of the broadband acoustic absorption region is between the transmitter and the receiver. The acoustic energy absorber includes a first absorber for absorbing a first mode of acoustic energy and a second absorber for absorbing a second mode of acoustic energy. The acoustic absorption material used to make the acoustic absorbers has an acoustic impedance between 20% and 120% of the material used to construct the acoustic logging tool. The acoustic logging tool includes an elongated hollow tool body, an insert configured to be inserted into the tool body, and a ring configured to be inserted onto the insert. A first element is supported by the ring and exposed to a pressure field, and a second element is supported by the ring and exposed to a pressure field. The first element and the second element translate pressure from outside the tool body to the ring. The first element is supported on the opposite side of the ring from the second element, so that pressure translated to the ring by the first element substantially cancels the pressure translated to the ring by the second element. The ring substantially acoustically isolates the first and second element from the tool body and the insert.

Method and apparatus for absorbing acoustic energy

An acoustic tool that provides a programmable source waveform is disclosed. Numerous advantages may be achieved from the configurability of the source waveform. Notably, acoustic logs at multiple frequencies may be acquired with a single pass. The waveform may be frequency-adapted to maximize formation response and amplitude adapted for gain control. In one embodiment, the acoustic tool comprises: a controller, a digital-to-analog controller (DAC), an acoustic transducer, and a linear driver. The DAC converts a digital waveform from the controller into an analog waveform. The acoustic transducer converts an electrical signal into an acoustic signal. The linear driver receives the analog waveform from the DAC and responsively provides the electrical signal to the acoustic transducer. The electrical signal is proportional to the analog waveform. The tool may further include a memory for storing the digital waveform and/or software for generating the digital waveform.

Acoustic logging tool having programmable source waveforms

The invention is a method and apparatus for acoustic logging including one or more acoustic transmitters and one or more acoustic receivers. One or more of the elements of a set made up of the acoustic receivers and acoustic transmitters are spaced radially apart from one or more of the remaining elements of the set. The acoustic receivers and acoustic transmitters are configured along with electronics and software incorporated in the tool to allow the acoustic receivers and acoustic transmitters to act as multi-pole receivers and multi-pole transmitters, respectively. The tool is configured to compute one or more acoustic velocities and to provide storage for unprocessed and processed, compressed and error correction coded data. The tool is configured to provide the data for transmission to the surface.

Method and apparatus for acoustic logging

An acoustic logging apparatus includes a tool body and a housing. A transducer operating in the bending mode is mounted in the housing. The transducer operates such that it is excited by or emits acoustic energy in only one of the two directions substantially perpendicular to the face of the transducer. The housing is mounted substantially removed from the axis of the body. An acoustic receiver includes an outer sleeve having a flange and a hat slidably mounted within the outer sleeve. The sliding of the hat compensates for variations in pressure and temperature. An acoustic transmitter includes a main housing and a hat slidably supported within the main housing. The sliding of the hat compensates for variations in pressure and temperature. Combinations of air gaps and o-rings in the transducer acoustically isolate a piezoelectric crystal from its housing and the housing from its enclosure. The acoustic receiver and acoustic transmitter are configured to be replaced in the field.

Transducer for acoustic logging

A method and apparatus are provided for estimating the cross-sectional shape and orientation of an earth borehole and the motion of a tool therein. The method and apparatus involve measuring the distance from the tool to the borehole wall at a plurality of locations around the periphery of the tool and fitting those measured distances to a predetermined shape function using a nonlinear parameter estimation technique to minimize the error between the estimated shape of the borehole and the measured distances. The method and apparatus may be used to estimate elliptical and higher order borehole shapes. Additionally, the method and apparatus may be used while drilling the borehole.

Method and apparatus for determining the shape of an earth borehole and

A downhole apparatus is provided for quickly and accurately estimating the ellipticity of an earth borehole during any drilling operation using circle-based calculations involving statistical analysis of distance measurements made by acoustic sensors. A corresponding method of estimating such ellipticity is also disclosed.

Method and apparatus for quick determination of the ellipticity of an

An acoustic logging tool, useful for creating a circumferential image of an earth borehole or well casing, which includes one or many acoustic transceivers mounted in substantially the same plane, in a drill string sub. The mounting receptacles are located in blocks, flexibly mounted in fixed inserts within the interior of the drill string sub. Each of the transceivers is structured to provide temperature and pressure compensation. The echo signals received by the transceivers are digitized and processed to eliminate extraneous noise created by the ringing of the transducers, by the signals reflected from the material backing the transducer ultrasonic element, and by any other sources inherent to the drilling environment. Digitization and further processing also allows for signal enhancement, thus allowing detection of signals in the presence of substantial noise. Temperature and pressure determinations are used to correct the acoustic velocity of the waves passing through the drilling fluid, 'on-the-fly', as the drilling process continues.

Growing community of inventors

Houston, TX, United States of America

Laurence T Wisniewski