The disclosure generally relates to downhole tools, and more particularly relates to a systems and methods for reducing torque on a rotating downhole logging tool.
When a well is drilled into a geological formation, logging tools are used to determine a variety of characteristics of the well. Some logging tools may determine characteristics of the surrounding rock formation. Other logging tools may determine when cement has been properly installed in the well to achieve zonal isolation. Still other logging tools may measure characteristics of one or more fluids present in the well.
In certain cases, a logging tool may be configured to rotate while obtaining measurements in the well. However, the presence of fluids in the well may result in the logging tool experiencing fluidic resistance, thereby increasing the driving torque for rotating the logging tool while in the well.
A summary of certain embodiments disclosed herein is set forth below. It should be understood that these aspects are presented merely to provide the reader with a brief summary of these certain embodiments and that these aspects are not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure. Indeed, this disclosure may encompass a variety of aspects that may not be set forth below.
Embodiments of the disclosure relate to systems and methods for reducing torque on a rotating downhole logging tool. According to one or more embodiments of the disclosure, a downhole logging tool is provided. In one example, a downhole logging tool may include a support element, which may include a hollow cavity. The support element can rotate about an axis when the support element is inserted in a well, and the hollow cavity can permit fluid flow through the support element when the support element is in the well. Furthermore, the downhole logging tool may include a first fairing portion, which may include a first sensor to obtain measurements in the well. Additionally, the first fairing portion can form a revolution surface associated with a portion of the support element to reduce fluidic resistance of the rotating support element.
According to one or more other embodiments of the disclosure, a system is provided. In one example, a system may include data processing circuitry. Additionally, the system may also include a logging tool. The logging tool may include a support element, which may include a hollow cavity. The support element can rotate about an axis when the support element is inserted in a well, and the hollow cavity can permit fluid flow through the support element when the support element is in the well. Furthermore, the logging tool may include a first fairing portion, which may include a first sensor to obtain measurements in the well. Additionally, the first fairing portion can form a revolution surface associated with a portion of the support element to reduce fluidic resistance of the rotating support element.
According to one or more other embodiments of the disclosure, a method is provided. In one example, a method may include providing a logging tool with one or more sensors. The tool may include one or more revolution surfaces that can reduce fluidic resistance of the tool when the tool is within a well. Additionally, fluid may flow through the tool when the tool is in the well. The method may also include inserting the tool in the well and rotating the tool in the well. Furthermore, the method may include receiving measurements from the one or more sensors within the well.
Various refinements of the features noted above may be made in relation to various aspects of the disclosure. Further features may also be incorporated in these various aspects as well. These refinements and additional features may exist individually or in any combination. For instance, various features discussed below in relation to one or more of the illustrated embodiments may be incorporated into any of the above-described aspects of the disclosure alone or in any combination. The brief summary presented above is intended just to familiarize the reader with certain aspects and contexts of embodiments of the disclosure without limitation to the claimed subject matter.
The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanying drawings. The use of the same reference numerals may indicate similar or identical items. Various embodiments may utilize elements and/or components other than those illustrated in the drawings, and some elements and/or components may not be present in various embodiments. Elements and/or components in the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. Throughout this disclosure, depending on the context, singular and plural terminology may be used interchangeably.
Certain implementations will now be described more fully below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which various implementations and/or aspects are shown. However, various aspects may be implemented in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the implementations set forth herein; rather, these implementations are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. Like numbers in the figures refer to like, but not necessarily the same or identical, elements throughout. Hence, if a feature is used across several drawings, the number used to identify the feature in the drawing where the feature first appeared will be used in later drawings.
Overview
Described herein are various implementations related to a rotating wireline logging tool with a reduced torque. Broadly, the systems and methods described herein may describe a logging tool configured to obtain measurements while moving through fluid in a well. The logging tool may include certain features configured to reduce an amount of driving torque used to rotate the logging tool while obtaining the measurements in the well. The reduction of torque on the logging tool can improve measurement data received by or otherwise obtained from the logging tool.
These and other embodiments of the disclosure will be described in more detail through reference to the accompanying drawings in the detailed description of the disclosure that follows. This brief introduction, including section titles and corresponding summaries, is provided for the reader's convenience and is not intended to limit the scope of the claims or the proceeding sections. Furthermore, the techniques described above and below may be implemented in a number of ways and in a number of contexts. Several example implementations and contexts are provided with reference to the following figures, as described below in more detail. However, the following implementations and contexts are but a few of many.
Illustrative Embodiments
The casing string 118 may include several casing joints 122 (also referred to below as casing 122) coupled together by casing collars 124 to stabilize the wellbore 116. The casing joints 122 represent lengths of conductive pipe, which may be formed from steel or similar materials. In one example, the casing joints 122 each may be approximately 13 meters or 40 feet long, and may include an externally threaded (male thread form) connection at each end. A corresponding internally threaded (female thread form) connection in the casing collars 124 may connect two nearby casing joints 122. Coupled in this way, the casing joints 122 may be assembled to form the casing string 118 to a suitable length and specification for the wellbore 116. The casing joints 122 and/or collars 124 may be made of carbon steel, stainless steel, or other suitable materials to withstand a variety of forces, such as collapse, burst, and tensile failure, as well as chemically aggressive fluid.
The surface equipment 112 may carry out various well logging operations to detect and/or inspect for corrosion, cement bonding with respect to casing, casing centricity, and/or other conditions related to the wellbore 116 or components thereof. The well logging operations may measure parameters of the geological formation 114 (e.g., resistivity or porosity) and/or the wellbore 116 (e.g., temperature, pressure, fluid type, or fluid flowrate). Some measurements may obtained by a downhole logging tool 126, for which various embodiments are described herein. In certain embodiments, the logging tool 126 may include one or more features and/or characteristics that may reduce the driving torque used to rotate the logging tool 126 while placed in the wellbore 116. For example, as described in more detail with reference to
According to one or more embodiments, when the downhole logging tool 126 provides measurements to the surface equipment 112 (e.g., through the cable 128), the surface equipment 112 may pass the measurements as logging data to a data processing system 132, which is illustrated in more detail in
The computer processors 134 may include one or more cores and may be configured to access and execute (at least in part) computer-readable instructions stored in the memory 136. The one or more computer processors 134 may include, without limitation: a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), a reduced instruction set computer (RISC), a complex instruction set computer (CISC), a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or any combination thereof. The data processing system 132 may also include a chipset (not shown) for controlling communications between the one or more processors 134 and one or more of the other components of the data processing system 132. In certain embodiments, the data processing system 132 may be based on an Intel® architecture or an ARM® architecture, and the processor(s) and chipset may be from a family of Intel® processors and chipsets. The one or more processors 134 may also include one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or application-specific standard products (ASSPs) for handling specific data processing functions or tasks.
The memory 136 may include one or more computer-readable storage media (CRSM). In some embodiments, the memory 136 may include non-transitory media such as random access memory (RAM), flash RAM, magnetic media, optical media, solid state media, and so forth. The memory 136 may be volatile (in that information is retained while providing power) or non-volatile (in that information is retained without providing power). Additional embodiments may also be provided as a computer program product including a transitory machine-readable signal (in compressed or uncompressed form). Examples of machine-readable signals include, but are not limited to, signals carried by the Internet or other networks. For example, distribution of software via the Internet may include a transitory machine-readable signal. Additionally, the memory 136 may store an operating system 138 that includes a plurality of computer-executable instructions that may be implemented by the computer processor to perform a variety of tasks to operate the interface(s) and any other hardware installed on the data processing system 132. The memory 136 may also store content that may be displayed by the data processing system 132 or transferred to other devices (e.g., headphones) to be displayed or played by the other devices. The memory 136 may also store content received from the other devices. The content from the other devices may be displayed, played, or used by the data processing system 132 to perform any tasks or operations that may be implemented by the computer processor or other components in the data processing system 132.
The memory 136 may also include an operating system (O/S) 138, which may provide an interface between other application software executing on the same system and/or platform and hardware resources of the data processing system 132. More specifically, the operating system 138 may include a set of computer-executable instructions for managing hardware resources of the data processing system 132 and for providing common services to other application programs (e.g., managing memory allocation among various application programs). The operating system 138 may include any operating system now known or which may be developed in the future including, but not limited to, any consumer operating system, any server operating system, any mainframe operating system, or any other proprietary or freely available operating system.
The one or more network and I/O interfaces 140 may include one or more communication interfaces or network interface devices to provide for the transfer of data between the data processing system 132 and another device (e.g., network server) via one or more networks. The communication interfaces may include, but are not limited to: personal area networks (PANs), wired local area networks (LANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), wireless wide area networks (WWANs), and so forth. The data processing system 132 may be coupled to the network via a wired or wireless connection. The communication interfaces may utilize acoustic, radio frequency, optical, or other signals to exchange data between the data processing system 132 and another device, such as an access point, a host computer, a server, a router, a reader device, and the like. The networks may include, but are not limited to, the Internet, a private network, a virtual private network, a wireless wide area network, a local area network, a metropolitan area network, a telephone network, and so forth.
The display 144 may include, but is not limited to, a liquid crystal display, a light-emitted diode display, or an E-Ink™ display. The display 144 may be used to show content to a user in the form of text, images, or video. In certain instances, the display 144 may also operate as a touch screen display that may enable the user to initiate commands or operations by touching the screen using certain finger or hand gestures.
Referring now to
The logging tool 200 may also include a support element 202, which may support various components, such as one or more sensors 210A-210C and one or more corresponding fairings portions 212A-212C. The support element 200 may be of a cylindrical shape, and the fairing portions 212A-212C may form respective revolution surfaces associated with at least a portion of the support element 202. In some embodiments, the fairing portions 212A-212C may form respective revolution surfaces around the support element 202. The revolution surfaces of the fairing portions 212A-212C may be shaped such that fluidic forces acting on the structural combination of the sensors 210A-210C and the fairing portions 212A-212C may be relatively shear, tangential, and/or indirect in nature and may reduce fluidic resistance to the rotation of the support element. As shown in
In view of the components described above, the logging tool 200 of
According to one or more embodiments, the support element 202 may also include a hollow cavity. To this end, an upper portion 218 of the support element 202 may include an opening 216 by which fluid in the wellbore 116 may be allowed to enter and flow into the hollow cavity. Additionally, the support element 202 may include a lower portion 220, which may be closed and/or sealed (e.g., by fairing portion 210C) although in other implementations, the lower portion 220 may also include an opening similar to the upper portion 218. As a result of allowing fluid flow into the hollow cavity of the support element 202, the blockage effect caused by the logging tool 200 in the wellbore (e.g., wellbore 116) may be reduced. For instance, by having the hollowing cavity in the support element 202, the speed of fluid flowing in the annulus (e.g., annulus 120 of
In certain embodiments, the length of the support element 202 may be approximately 425 millimeters (mm). Additionally the diameter of the support element 202 may be approximately 185 mm, and the diameter of the fairing portion may be approximately 265 mm. Furthermore, the thickness of the support element 202 may be approximately 1.0 mm to 1.5 mm.
Referring now to
Additionally, the support element 302 may support fairing portions 312A-312C, which may each be coupled to a pair of sensors 310A-310F. For instance, sensors 310A and 310B may be coupled to fairing portion 312A, sensors 310C and 310D may be coupled to fairing portion 312B, and sensors 310E and 310F may be coupled to fairing portion 312C. Furthermore, each of the sensor pairs may be located on opposing surfaces of their respective fairing portions 312A-312C. In some embodiments, the sensor pairs may be located symmetrically across the surfaces of the respective fairing portions 312A-312C (e.g., symmetrically across the hollow cavity 326 of the support element 302). Moreover, the sensors 310A-310F may also at least partially protrude into the hollow cavity 326 of the support element 302. In some implementations, the locations of the sensors 310A-310F on the fairing portions 312A-312C and the protrusion of the sensors 310A-310F into the hollow cavity may result in reduced side forces acting on the logging tool 300 during rotation of the support element 302. Furthermore, such a structural configuration may allow for a greater reduction in side forces than the configuration depicted and described with reference to
Moreover, it will be appreciated that in certain embodiments, any component of the logging tool 300 that does not form a surface of revolution may also be positioned symmetrically across the support element 302. For instance, the sensor housings 322A-322F may also be positioned symmetrically across the support element 302. As such, symmetrical placements of these components may facilitate the reduction of side forces and moments that may be experienced by the logging tool 300 during logging.
It will be appreciated that the logging tool 300 depicted in
In yet other implementations, the support element 302 may be adjustable in diameter. For example, while the logging tool 300 is entering or exiting a wellbore 116, the support element 302 may be adjusted to a relatively smaller diameter to facilitate ease of entry and/or exit. When the logging tool 300 begins taking measurements (e.g., resistivity measurements) in the wellbore 116, the support element 302 may be adjusted to a relatively larger diameter (e.g., relatively near to the diameter of the casing in the wellbore 116). As such, the logging tool 300 may be configured to dynamically adjust the diameter of the support element 302 depending on the position of the logging tool 300 within the wellbore 116.
Referring now to
Referring now to
The operations and processes described and shown above may be carried out or performed in any suitable order as desired in various implementations. Additionally, in certain implementations, at least a portion of the operations may be carried out in parallel. Furthermore, in certain implementations, less than or more than the operations described may be performed. It will be understood that some or all of the blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flow diagrams, respectively, can be implemented by computer-executable program instructions.
These computer-executable program instructions may be loaded onto a special-purpose computer or other particular machine, a processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particular machine, such that the instructions that execute on the computer, processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus create means for implementing one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage media or memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable storage media produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that implement one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. As an example, certain implementations may provide for a computer program product, comprising a computer-readable storage medium having a computer-readable program code or program instructions implemented therein, said computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational elements to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions that execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide elements or operations for implementing the functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks.
Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or “may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain implementations could include, while other implementations do not include, certain features, elements, and/or operations. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements, and/or operations are in any way used for one or more implementations or that one or more implementations necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without user input or prompting, whether these features, elements, and/or operations are included or are to be performed in any particular implementation.
Many modifications and other implementations of the disclosure set forth herein will be apparent having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not to be limited to the specific implementations disclosed and that modifications and other implementations are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense and not for purposes of limitation.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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14290161 | Jun 2014 | EP | regional |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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20080115575 | Meek et al. | May 2008 | A1 |
20080142215 | Pabon et al. | Jun 2008 | A1 |
20120273270 | Rasheed | Nov 2012 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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9812417 | Mar 1998 | WO |
Entry |
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Extended European Search Report issued in the related EP Application 14290161.0, dated Dec. 5, 2014 (7 pages). |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20150354340 A1 | Dec 2015 | US |