NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN REAL-TIME PROCESSING OF FULL WAVEFORM ACOUSTIC TELEVIEWER DATA

Abstract

The new full wave Acoustic Borehole Imager tool (ABI) is a multi-echo (amplitude and traveltime) system that gives optimum performance under a wide range of borehole conditions and is an improvement over existing single echo acoustic televiewer tools. The principle of the multi-echo system is the digital recording of each reflected acoustic wave train. Then, real-time processing of the acoustic data is made by a downhole Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to extract all valuable information, which is further compressed before transmission to the surface such that no special requirements are imposed on data transmission rates or on logging speed. Also, recording of the full acoustic waveform enables major improvements to the dynamic range of the system. Information about echoes from the tool's acoustic window provides the possibility to predict tool generated coherent noise and allows detection of echoes from the borehole wall, which are much smaller than coherent noise signals. When used in a PVC cased borehole, the system can be automatically adapted to record both the reflection at the casing and at the borehole wall. When used inside steel casing, the tool can detect echoes from the inner wall and the outer wall of the steel casing and the resulting data can used to calculate amount inner corrosion, outer corrosion, and remaining casing thickness. If the borehole casing was grouted with cement, information can be gathered about the presence and absence of cement and the quality of cement bonding.