The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 08, 1989
Filed:
Feb. 08, 1988
Jayanth R Banavar, Ridgefield, CT (US);
David L Johnson, Danbury, CT (US);
Sidney R Nagel, Chicago, IL (US);
Kambiz A Safinya, Ridgefield, CT (US);
Schlumberger Technology Corp., New York, NY (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for investigating earth formations surrounding a borehole operates by selectively heating a region of the formations, and measuring the thermal response to obtain useful information concerning the characteristic length scales of the pores in the heated region. The thermal response is obtained indirectly by measuring the electrical conductivity response. The invention can be utilized to obtain, inter alia, indications of porosity, permeability, and the distribution of pore geometries. In accordance with an embodiment of the method of the invention, the following steps are performed: heating a region of the formations with a series of pulses of microwave electromagnetic energy; measuring the conductivity characteristic of the region which result from the heating pulses; and determining a property of the region of the formations from the measured conductivity characteristic. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the conductivity characteristic is converted to conductivity as a function of frequency, and the desired property is determined from the conductivity as a function of frequency. The disclosed technique can also be used for studying the microgeometry of media such as core samples.