# US 11,029,434 B2 · Method for acquiring data of azimuthal acoustic logging while drilling > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,029,434 B2 - Document ID: US11029434B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/123,715 - Filed: 2018-09-06 - Published: 2019-05-02 - Granted: 2021-06-08 - Earliest claimed: 2017-11-02 - Assignees: Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences - Applicants: Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences - Inventors: Qingyun Di; Wenxiu Zhang; Wenxuan Chen; Zili Wang; Yuntao Sun; Jian Zheng; Yongyou Yang - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11029434B2 ## CPC - G01V 1/46: Data acquisition - E21B 47/022: of the borehole, e.g. using geomagnetism - E21B 49/00: Testing the nature of borehole walls; Formation testing; Methods or apparatus for obtaining samples of soil or well fluids, specially adapted to earth drilling or wells - G01V 1/52: Structural details - E21B 47/18: through the well fluid {, e.g. mud pressure pulse telemetry} - G01V 2200/16: Measure-while-drilling or logging-while-drilling - G01V: GEOPHYSICS; GRAVITATIONAL MEASUREMENTS; DETECTING MASSES OR OBJECTS; TAGS (means for indicating the location of accidentally buried, e.g. snow-buried, persons A63B29/02) - E21B: EARTH OR ROCK DRILLING; OBTAINING OIL, GAS, WATER, SOLUBLE OR MELTABLE MATERIALS OR A SLURRY OF MINERALS FROM WELLS ## Abstract In a method for acquiring data of azimuthal acoustic LWD, when an acoustic LWD instrument rotates with a drilling tool at a certain depth, data is acquired by adopting an azimuthal equal-interval mode: a well circumference is divided into m sectors by azimuthal intervals Δθ, when a toolface angle of the acoustic LWD instrument is located in the kth sector, an acoustic transmitting source is controlled to transmit an acoustic signal, and an acoustic receiver measures the acoustic signal, digitizes it and then stores it as data in the kth sector; and the data is acquired for each sector in turn, and after the data is acquired in each sector for N times, the data acquisition at the current depth is completed. Meanwhile, as the drilling tool rotates and drills, the instrument acquires acoustic data at different depths and processes it to achieve azimuthal acoustic imaging. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for acquiring data of azimuthal acoustic Logging While Drilling (LWD), comprising: rotating a drilling tool in a well in a subterranean formation, wherein the drilling tool comprises an acoustic instrument having an acoustic transmitter and an acoustic receiver installed thereon; performing an azimuthal equal-interval acquisition mode for acoustic logging using the acoustic instrument at a first depth in the well, wherein the step of performing an azimuthal equal-interval acquisition mode for acoustic logging comprises the sub-steps of: a. dividing a circumference of the well into m sectors, each sector has an azimuthal angle of 360°/m, wherein m is an integer larger than one; b. measuring a toolface angle θ of the acoustic instrument; c. determining the acoustic instrument is in a kth sector when the toolface angle θ is larger than (k−1)·360°/m and smaller than k·360°/m, wherein k is in a range from 1 to m; d. transmitting an acoustic signal from the acoustic transmitter into the subterranean formation when the acoustic instrument is in the kth sector; e. receiving the acoustic signal by the acoustic receiver from the subterranean formation; f. digitizing and storing the received acoustic signal as data in the kth sector, wherein data is waveform data; g. repeating sub-steps d, e, and f so that the kth sector receives N sets of data, wherein N is a positive integer; h. superimposing the N sets of data to obtain an superimposed data volume for the kth sector; and i. performing sub-steps c-h for a (kth+1) sector until (kth+1) equals m. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method for acquiring data of azimuthal acoustic LWD according to claim 1, comprising performing acoustic logging using the acoustic instrument at a second depth in the well. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method for acquiring data of azimuthal acoustic LWD according to claim 1, wherein the acoustic receiver comprises n sets of receiving transducer arrays, and the superimposed data volume for the kth sector is A(k, p), p=1, 2, . . . n, wherein p represents a serial number of the n sets of receiving transducer arrays and n is a positive integer. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method for acquiring data of azimuthal acoustic LWD according to claim 3, further comprising processing the superimposed data volume in each sector by a slowness-time correlation (STC) method to obtain a compressional wave velocity and a shear wave velocity for each of the sectors at the first depth. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method for acquiring data of azimuthal acoustic LWD according to claim 1, wherein the toolface angle is a gravity toolface angle measured by gravity accelerometers or a magnetic toolface angle measured by a magnetometer. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method for acquiring data of azimuthal acoustic LWD according to claim 1, wherein m=8 or 16. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method for acquiring data of azimuthal acoustic LWD according to claim 1, wherein the acoustic transmitter uses unipole transmission or dipole transmission. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The method for acquiring data of azimuthal acoustic LWD according to claim 7, wherein a transmission frequency of the unipole transmission is 10 kHz to 15 kHz. ### Claim 9 (depends on 7) The method for acquiring data of azimuthal acoustic LWD according to claim 7, wherein a transmission frequency of the dipole transmission is 2 kHz to 5 kHz.