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US 11,815,638 B2Granted
Acoustic proppant for fracture diagnostic
AssigneeBattelle Memorial Institute
InventorsSteven Risser, Slawomir Winecki, Ramanathan Lalgudi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods of mapping a subterranean formation using imploding particles are described. In some cases, the particles contain a material that generated a gas which passes through a water-insoluble coating to create a void within the particle. In some aspects, the implosive particles have a coating that dissolves in the subterranean formation.
Claims4
A method of mapping a subterranean formation, comprising:
- injecting particles through a wellbore into a subterranean formation;
- allowing the particles to implode to create acoustic signals;
- and
- detecting the acoustic signals;
- wherein the particles that are injected are hollow glass spheres that are coated with a coating that dissolves in water;
- wherein the particles have at least a bimodal distribution of coating thicknesses with at least 20% of the particles (by volume as measured prior to injecting) having a thickness that is at least 25% different than the average thickness of at least 20% of other particles (by volume as measured prior to injecting) in a particle mixture.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.