Attenuation of sound waves in drill strings

Journal Article · Fri Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1993 · Journal of the Acoustical Society of America; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1121/1.407458· OSTI ID:5593646

Drumheller, D S ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Lab., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

During drilling of deep wells, digital data are often transmitted from sensors located near the drill bit to the surface. Development of a new communication system with increased data capacity is of paramount importance to the drilling industry. Since steel drill strings are used, transmission of these data by elastic carrier waves traveling within the drill pipe is possible, but the potential communication range is uncertain. The problem is complicated by the presence of heavy-threaded tool joints every 10 m, which form a periodic structure and produce classical patterns of passbands and stop bands in the wave spectra. In this article, field measurements of the attenuation characteristics of a drill string in the Long Valley Scientific Well in Mammoth Lakes, California are presented. Wave propagation distances approach 2 km. A theoretical model is discussed which predicts the location, width, and attenuation of the passbands. Mode conversion between extensional and bending waves, and spurious reflections due to deviations in the periodic spacings of the tool joints are believed to be the sources of this attenuation. It is estimated that attenuation levels can be dramatically reduced by rearranging the individual pipes in the drill string according to length. 7 refs., 20 figs., 4 tabs.

• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5593646
• Journal Information: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America; (United States), Vol. 94:4; ISSN 0001-4966
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
42 ENGINEERING
SOUND WAVES
ATTENUATION
SCATTERING
DRILLING EQUIPMENT
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FINITE DIFFERENCE METHOD
FOURIER TRANSFORMATION
WELL DRILLING
CALCULATION METHODS
DATA
DRILLING
EQUIPMENT
INFORMATION
INTEGRAL TRANSFORMATIONS
ITERATIVE METHODS
NUMERICAL DATA
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
TRANSFORMATIONS
020300* - Petroleum- Drilling & Production
422000 - Engineering- Mining & Underground Engineering- (1980-)