Downhole vibration characterization

A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, including instructions configured to cause a data processing apparatus to perform operations including:

• generating vibration characterization data for a downhole component of a drilling system, the drilling system including equipment that is adjustable to control operational parameters of the drilling system based on settings, the vibration characterization data including information that characterizes vibrational intensity of the downhole component with respect to the settings over a range of the settings, wherein generating the vibration characterization data includes:
• selecting a target vibrational intensity for the downhole component;
• based on selecting the target vibrational intensity, determining a particular coordinate comprising a set of operational parameters of the settings that corresponds to the target vibrational intensity;
• and
• starting from the particular coordinate, iteratively identifying subsequent coordinates of the settings that correspond to the target vibrational intensity to generate a vibrational mapping of the set of operational parameters of the drilling system, wherein identifying a subsequent coordinate includes determining a change for each of the settings such that the subsequent coordinate corresponds to the target vibrational intensity;
• and
• controlling drilling operations of the drilling system using the vibrational mapping.

A system for optimizing a drilling operation, comprising:

• a drilling control module couplable to a drilling system having a downhole component to transmit control signals to equipment of the drilling system, the equipment being adjustable to control operational parameters of the drilling system based on settings, the drilling control module further couplable to the drilling system to receive a measurement signal containing information related to a measured value of vibrational intensity of the downhole component and to provide a reporting signal containing information related to current settings of the equipment, the drilling control module including a first processor to generate vibration characterization data, wherein generating the vibration characterization data includes:
• selecting a target vibrational intensity for the downhole component;
• based on selecting the target vibrational intensity, determining a particular coordinate comprising a set of the operational parameters of the settings that corresponds to the target vibrational intensity of the downhole component;
• and
• starting from the particular coordinate, iteratively identifying subsequent coordinates of the settings that correspond to the target vibrational intensity to generate a vibrational mapping of the set of the operational parameters of the drilling system, wherein identifying a subsequent coordinate includes determining a change for each of the settings such that the subsequent coordinate corresponds to the target vibrational intensity;
• and
• a calibration module couplable to the drilling system or the drilling control module to receive the measurement signal, the calibration module being coupled to the drilling control module to receive the reporting signal, the calibration module being coupled to memory containing calibration data and vibration characterization data, the vibration characterization data comprising the vibrational mapping that characterizes the vibrational intensity of the downhole component with respect to the settings for the equipment over a range of the coordinates of the settings, the calibration module including a second processor to determine an estimated value of the vibrational intensity using the vibration characterization data and the calibration data, the calibration module being further coupled to the memory to update the calibration data based on a comparison between the estimated value of the vibrational intensity and the information related to the measured value of the vibrational intensity from the measurement signal.