Apparatus for evaluating rock properties while drilling using drilling rig-mounted acoustic sensors
First Claim
1. An apparatus for identifying rock properties in real-time during drilling, the apparatus comprising:
- an acoustic signal recording and transmitting system including an acoustic sensor connected to one of the following;
(i) a drive shaft of a drill rig, the drive shaft including a plurality of extensions, and (ii) an extension of the plurality of extensions of the drive shaft the drive shaft connected to a drill string, a drill bit connected to the downhole end of the drill string; and
a computer in communication with one or more components of the acoustic signal recording and transmitting system, the computer configured to perform the following operations;
receiving an acoustic sensor data signal from the acoustic signal recording and transmitting system, the acoustic sensor data signal representing an acoustic signal generated real-time by the acoustic sensor as a result of rotational contact of the drill bit with rock during drilling, andanalyzing the acoustic sensor data signal to determine, real-time, at least one of the following;
lithology type and one or more petrophysical properties of rock engaged by the drill bit during drilling operations, analyzing the acoustic sensor data signal comprising the steps of;
deriving a plurality of acoustic characteristics from the acoustics sensor data signal, the plurality of acoustic characteristics including mean frequency, mean amplitude, normalized deviation of frequency, normalized deviation of amplitude, and apparent power, andcorrelating the man frequency, the mean amplitude, the normalized deviation of frequency, the normalized deviation of amplitude, and the apparent power with the same types of the acoustic characteristics of a rock sample of known lithology type to identify, in real-time, one or moare of the following;
the lithology type and one or more pertrophysical properties of the rock engaged by the drill bit during drilling operations.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus for identifying rock properties in real-time during drilling, are provided. An example of an embodiment of such an apparatus includes one or more acoustic sensors positioned to detect drill sounds emanating from the drill bit and the rock encountered during drilling operations, connected to select components of a drilling rig to maximally pick up the drill sounds of the drill bit engaging rock during drilling operations. The apparatus also includes an inductive telemetry, wireless telemetry, or wired transmitting system. The apparatus also includes a computer to analyze the acoustic signals received from the acoustic sensors through the respective transmitting system for lithology type and petrophysical properties.
113 Citations
39 Claims
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1. An apparatus for identifying rock properties in real-time during drilling, the apparatus comprising:
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an acoustic signal recording and transmitting system including an acoustic sensor connected to one of the following;
(i) a drive shaft of a drill rig, the drive shaft including a plurality of extensions, and (ii) an extension of the plurality of extensions of the drive shaft the drive shaft connected to a drill string, a drill bit connected to the downhole end of the drill string; anda computer in communication with one or more components of the acoustic signal recording and transmitting system, the computer configured to perform the following operations; receiving an acoustic sensor data signal from the acoustic signal recording and transmitting system, the acoustic sensor data signal representing an acoustic signal generated real-time by the acoustic sensor as a result of rotational contact of the drill bit with rock during drilling, and analyzing the acoustic sensor data signal to determine, real-time, at least one of the following;
lithology type and one or more petrophysical properties of rock engaged by the drill bit during drilling operations, analyzing the acoustic sensor data signal comprising the steps of;deriving a plurality of acoustic characteristics from the acoustics sensor data signal, the plurality of acoustic characteristics including mean frequency, mean amplitude, normalized deviation of frequency, normalized deviation of amplitude, and apparent power, and correlating the man frequency, the mean amplitude, the normalized deviation of frequency, the normalized deviation of amplitude, and the apparent power with the same types of the acoustic characteristics of a rock sample of known lithology type to identify, in real-time, one or moare of the following;
the lithology type and one or more pertrophysical properties of the rock engaged by the drill bit during drilling operations. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. The apparatus for identifying rock properties in real-time during drilling, the apparatus comprising:
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a drill string comprising a plurality of drill pipes; a drill bit connected to the downhole end of the drill string; a drive shaft connected to the drill string, the drive shaft including a plurality of extensions; an acoustic signal recording and transmitting system including an acoustic sensor connected to one of the following;
(i) the drive shaft, and (ii) an extension of the plurality of extensions of the drive shaft; anda computer in communication with one or more components of the acoustic signal recording and transmitting system, the computer including a processor, memory in communication with the processor, and petrophysical properties analyzing program, the computer configured to perform the following operations; receiving an acoustic sensor data signal from the acoustic signal recording and transmitting system, the acoustic sensor data signal representing an acoustic signal generated real-time by the acoustic sensor as a result of rotational contact of the drill bit with rock during drilling, performing the following processing operations; deriving a frequency distribution from the acoustic sensor data signal, deriving a plurality of acoustic characteristics from the acoustic sensor data signal, the plurality of acoustic characteristics including mean frequency, normalized deviation of frequency, mean amplitude, normalized deviation of amplitude, and apparent power, and deriving a petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm to predict one or more petrophysical properties of rock engaged by the drill bit during drilling operations and encoding the derived petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm into a subroutine for the petrophysical properties analyzing program; and performing one or more of the following analyzing operations; correlating the frequency distribution of the processed acoustic sensor data signal with a frequency distribution of a rock sample of known lithology type to identify a lithology type of rock engaged by the drill bit real-time during drilling operations, correlating the mean frequency, the normalized deviation of frequency, the mean amplitude, the normalized deviation of amplitude, and the apparent power with the same types of the acoustic characteristics of a rock sample of known lithology type to identify, real-time, one or more of the following;
(i) the lithology type, and (ii) one or more petrophysical properties, of the rock engaged by the drill bit during drilling operations, andemploying the portion of the petrophysical properties analyzing program encoding the derived petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm to predict the one or more petrophysical properties of rock engaged by the drill bit during drilling operations from the acoustic data contained within the acoustic sensor data signal. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. An apparatus for identifying rock properties in real-time during drilling, the apparatus comprising:
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a drill string comprising a plurality of drill pipes; a drill bit connected to the downhole end of the drill string; a drive shaft connected to the drill string, the drive shaft including a plurality of extensions; an acoustic signal recording and transmitting system including an acoustic sensor connected to one or more of (i) the drive shaft, and an (ii) an extension of the plurality of extensions of the drive shaft; and a computer in communication with one or more components of the acoustic signal recording and transmitting system, the computer including a processor, memory in communication with the processor, and a petrophysical properties analyzing program, the computer configured to perform the following operations; receiving an acoustic sensor data signal from the acoustic signal recording and transmitting system, the acoustic sensor data signal representing an acoustic signal generated real-time by the acoustic sensor as a result of rotational contact of the drill bit with rock during drilling, deriving a plurality of acoustic characteristics from the acoustic sensor data signal, the plurality of acoustic characteristics including mean frequency, normalized deviation of frequency, mean amplitude, normalized deviation of amplitude, and apparent power, and correlating the mean frequency, the normalized deviation of frequency, the mean amplitude, the normalized deviation of amplitude, and the apparent power with the same types of acoustic characteristics of a rock sample of known lithology type to identify, real-time, one or more of the following;
(i) the lithology type, and (ii) one or more petrophysical properties of the rock engaged by the drill bit during drilling operations. - View Dependent Claims (39)
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Specification