Systems and methods for locating and imaging proppant in an induced fracture

Patent · Tue Mar 27 00:00:00 EDT 2018

OSTI ID:1532067

Aldridge, David F.; Bartel, Lewis C.

Born Scattering Inversion (BSI) systems and methods are disclosed. A BSI system may be incorporated in a well system for accessing natural gas, oil and geothermal reserves in a geologic formation beneath the surface of the Earth. The BSI system may be used to generate a three-dimensional image of a proppant-filled hydraulically-induced fracture in the geologic formation. The BSI system may include computing equipment and sensors for measuring electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of the fracture before and after the fracture is generated, adjusting the parameters of a first Born approximation model of a scattered component of the surface electromagnetic fields using the measured electromagnetic fields, and generating the image of the proppant-filled fracture using the adjusted parameters.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• Assignee: CARBO Ceramics Inc. (Houston, TX); Sandia Corporation (Albuquerque, NM)
• Patent Number(s): 9,927,549
• Application Number: 14/323,674
• OSTI ID: 1532067
• Resource Relation: Patent File Date: 2014-07-03
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English