Acoustics – Geophysical or subsurface exploration – Well logging
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-16
2001-01-30
Dang, Khanh (Department: 2837)
Acoustics
Geophysical or subsurface exploration
Well logging
C367S912000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06179084
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a device and method for transmitting acoustic wave into underground, for receiving the acoustic wave, and an underground exploration method using above mentioned device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a device and method for transmitting acoustic wave into underground, for receiving the acoustic wave, and an underground exploration method using the same, which are preferably used for obtaining a cross section of porosity image and permeability image and variations of sedimentary material, and of shear modules and shear strength, and the like of sedimentation layer and rock layers, at the exploration of oil and ground water, and the soil investigation for plan and design of civil engineering work and foundation work.
BACKGROUND OF TECHNIQUE
The conventional borehale measurement method is restricted in measurement range or distance to a periphery of the bore hole when executing the method electrically or magnetically, thereby disabling a measurement between bore holes. A technique of solving this problem includes a seismic exploration method using an elastic wave or a shear wave. However, in the existing seismic exploration method, a steel casing for protecting the hole wall has a problem related to the coupling, and a vibration source has some problems, thereby disabling the satisfactory investment to be carried out. For example, there is disclosed a technique of emitting the vibration energy outside the hole wall by vibrating a mass up and down and left- and right-hand using hydraulic system, and closely contacting it to the hole wall by a clamp (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,229,554, 4,923,030, 4,648,478, 4,991,685, 4,796,723, 5,031,717, 5,212,354, 5,113,966, and 4,805,725).
But, the vibration caused by a hydraulic system cannot exhibit the stable output in a wide frequency range, particularly a high frequency range of more than 1 kHz, which provides the defect that it is difficult to use a signal compression technique using a pseudo random signal, and the like. Also, the large output vibration source disclosed by the representative U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,725 is capable of transmitting the receivable energy by .enlarging the output without using the signal compression technique. However, the measurement is difficult in the high frequency range, thereby making it difficult to improve the measurement accuracy, and further it is impossible to carry out the measurement while changing the frequency, thereby making it difficult to calculate the information, such as the permeability values, which is obtained from the sound propagation characteristics. Moreover, a device installed on the ground for generating the large output becomes very large, thereby increasing the time and the cost which are required for the preparation of the measurement such as the movement of the measuring equipment, and the measurement itself.
On the other hand, The vibration source (U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,611), called bender type, in which the vibrator vibrates like a cord is capable of emitting the pseudo random signal and keeping high output. However, it has a problem on the durability of the vibrator, which makes it impractical.
According to the prior invention which was previously invented by the inventor, the permeability and the porosity of the sediments, and the nature of the pore-fluid (oil, gas, and/or water) within the sediment pore space is remotely determined and imaged through the crosswell tomography (See Japanese Patent Provisional Publication (Kokai) No. 4-198794), and the like, which was proposed by the present inventor. The crosswell tomography enables to measure the sound velocity and attenuation at high frequencies (typically 500 to 6000 Hz).
However, this acoustic tomography has been limited to a relatively low frequencies of the order of 100 Hz in order to sufficiently ensure the measurement distance. Acquisition of high frequency (500-6000 Hz) seismograms across two wells separated a long distance has been difficult because of the following reasons:
1. High attenuation of sound through sediments,
2. High level of ambient noise in the receiver wells,
3. Noise through receiver cable caused by wind and ground machines, and
4. The loss of the source energy by well casings.
This problem has been overcome substantially by the technique of the pseudo random binary sequence code measurement (hereinafter referred to as “PRBS measurement”) by the present inventor, which is one of the signal compression techniques. This technique utilizes an omnidirectional acoustic source
14
which continuously generates a PRBS signal into all directions in a well
12
drilled in a formation
10
, for transmitting underground acoustic wave, a vibration receiver comprising an array of hydrophones in another well, and a real time PRBS recorder capable of averaging and cross-correlating in real time without being subjected to the restriction of the measuring time and the length. The boring investigation of the well reveals that the obtained two-dimensional image of porosity, permeability, shear strength, and the like are correct.
For the case of PVC (vinyl chloride) cased wells having a casing
16
comprising a PVC pipe, such as for ground water and well for foundation engineering, crosswell tomography measurements have been successfully made to crosswell distance of up to 600 m with PRBS frequencies up to 6000 Hz using the above technique. From this data, accurate two-dimensional images of the permeability, porosity and shear strength have been obtained. For the PVC pipe, the acoustic impedance of well fluid (water) is approximately the same as that of PVC, so that the acoustic source
14
does not have the energy loss when the energy passes through the substances which are different in impedance from one another, which enables sufficient energy to effectively propagate in the ground through the casing
16
.
However, for the steel cased wells, such as a deep well for producing oil, the impedance of steel is two order of magnitude larger than that of water or oil, thereby increasing the transmission loss at the casing pipe wall as shown by the arrow A, and then causing the energy to be dispersed upward and downward, as shown by the arrow B, which disables the acoustic source
14
to transmit only very low acoustic energy to the formation
10
through this steel casing
16
for oil well. For example, in the experiment of the crosswell tomography by the original PRBS system using the conventional acoustic source, which was carried out at the production oil field of Trinidad Tobago in October 1996, new oil reservoir was discovered by the successful crosswell tomography at the PRBS frequency of 500 Hz in 300 m deep×100 m wide section. Also, it was discovered that the conventional method has the loss of the acoustic energy due to the steel casing, which was as large as substantially 55 dB, that is, 99%. In other words, the steel casing can pass only 1% of the acoustic energy to the formation.
On the other hand, as the source for providing a vibration in the ground, it is expected to dispose a clamping mechanism
24
on a source vibrator
20
provided with an axial direction-wise actuator
22
, and then to directly fix the both sides of the upper portion of the axial direction-wise actuator
22
to the casing
16
as shown in FIG.
19
. In the drawing, reference numeral
26
designates a motor pump, and
28
a cable.
However, thus clamping the source vibrator
20
at its both sides causes the vibration generated by the axial direction-wise actuator
22
to be unfavorably released in a direction opposite to such a direction that the vibration should be propagated, which deteriorates the efficiency. Further, the axial direction-wise actuator
22
vibrates in the axial direction, which enables only the up and down transverse wave (shear wave) to propagate in the formation
10
, but which disables the longitudinal wave (compression wave) to propagate therein. Further, the frequency characteristics are very bad, which provides problems that although the propagation at
Sakakibara Junichi
Yamamoto Tokuo
Dang Khanh
Miller Austin R.
Yamamoto Engineering Corporation
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