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:
Sep. 15, 2009
Filed:
Feb. 01, 2007
Wei Han, Sugar Land, TX (US);
Wei Han, Sugar Land, TX (US);
Smith International Inc., Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
Aspects of this invention include a downhole tool having first and second radially offset ultrasonic standoff sensors and a controller including instructions to determine at least one of a drilling fluid acoustic velocity and a drilling fluid attenuation coefficient from the reflected waveforms received at the standoff sensors. The drilling fluid acoustic velocity may be determined via processing the time delay between arrivals of a predetermined wellbore reflection component at the first and second sensors. The drilling fluid attenuation coefficient may be determined via processing amplitudes of the predetermined wellbore reflection coefficients. The invention advantageously enables the acoustic velocity and attenuation coefficient of drilling fluid in the borehole annulus to be determined in substantially real-time.