Non-destructive inspection of downhole equipment
AssigneeSchlumberger Technology Corporation
InventorAnthony Frank Veneruso
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention provides non-destructive computed tomography (CT) methods of testing downhole equipment. The non-destructive CT methods enable both extrinsic and intrinsic testing to ensure the quality of downhole components in elements such as downhole packers.
Claims48
A non-destructive CT method of detecting extrinsic defects in downhole equipment, comprising:
- creating a digital image of one or more components of the ideal downhole equipment;
- determining acceptance criteria for one or more extrinsic properties of the digital image of the one or more components of the ideal downhole equipment;
- using a Computed Tomography (CT) scanner to create a digital image of one or more components of the actual downhole equipment;
- and
- comparing the digital image of the one or more components of the actual downhole equipment to the acceptance criteria for the one or more components of the ideal downhole equipment.
A non-destructive CT method of measuring intrinsic density defects in downhole equipment, comprising:
- performing a CT scan on a downhole component;
- recording the density for each voxel in the component;
- determining an acceptable range for the density values existing in the downhole component;
- and
- comparing the density values to the acceptable range.
A non-destructive CT method of measuring intrinsic void defects in downhole equipment, comprising:
- performing a CT scan on a downhole component;
- recording the voxels having densities below a pre-determined threshold;
- summing the recorded voxels;
- determining an acceptable measure of void volume existing in the downhole component;
- and
- comparing the summation of the recorded voxels to the acceptable measure.
A non-destructive CT method of measuring contiguous intrinsic void defects in downhole equipment, comprising:
- performing a CT scan on a downhole component;
- recording the voxels having densities below a pre-determined threshold;
- assigning unique addresses for the recorded voxels;
- summing the contiguous recorded voxels;
- determining an acceptable measure of contiguous void volume existing in the downhole component;
- and
- comparing the summation of the recorded contiguous voxels to the acceptable measure.
A non-destructive method of certifying the quality of downhole components, comprising:
- performing a CT scan on the downhole components;
- retrieving density measurement for each voxel;
- perform a density test for each voxel;
- perform a void volume test for each voxel;
- perform a contiguous void volume test for each voxel;
- and
- provide certification of the results.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.