skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Experimental study of an advanced three-component borehole seismic receiver

Conference ·
OSTI ID:5320672

An advanced three-component borehole seismic receiver has been designed, developed, and tested. This receiver was designed with the aid of finite element vibration modeling to be free of significant clamp resonances below 2000 Hz. This broad frequency range makes this sonde well suited for cross-well seismic imaging applications. State-of-the art piezoelectric accelerometers are used as the three-component sensors and provide signal enhancement relative to conventional geophones. The use of these accelerometers offer a signal-to-noise enhancement of approximately 20 dB at 1000 Hz over moving-coil seismic geophones. Additional features of the sonde include high temperature/pressure operation, small size, lightweight, field-durable construction, and multi-station expansion capability. A prototype accelerometer-based sonde was field tested at the Texaco Humble Field to determine its performance characteristics. A borehole explosive source was used to test the sonde in a cross-well configuration (815 ft well-to-well separation). For comparison purposes, similar cross-well tests were performed using a commercial VSP-type tool and buried/cemented geophones. The advanced sonde exhibited significantly improved coupling relative to the VSP tool as evidenced by increased bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio. Accordingly, the advanced sonde produced signals which rival those produced by the buried/cemented geophones. 5 refs., 6 figs.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-76DP00789
OSTI ID:
5320672
Report Number(s):
SAND-91-1265C; CONF-911156-1; ON: DE91014652
Resource Relation:
Conference: Society of Exploration Geophysicists annual meeting, Tulsa, OK (United States), Nov 1991
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English