Determining A Characteristic Of A Material Surrounding A Wellbore Based On Count Rates Of Scattered Photons
AssigneeHalliburton Energy Services, Inc.
InventorsYike Hu, Weijun Guo
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Abstract
A system and method to determine a characteristic of a wellbore based on count rates of scattered photons. The system and method can include determining at least one characteristic of a material surrounding a wellbore by, emitting photons from a photon source at a location in the wellbore, detecting, via one or more detectors, photons scattered by the material, counting the scattered photons based on an energy level, producing count rates of the detected photons for various energy ranges, and calculating a value of the characteristic based on the count rates. The material can be at least one of mud, mud cake, and earth formation.
Claims28
A method of determining at least one characteristic of a material surrounding a wellbore, the method comprising:
- positioning a photon source at a location in the wellbore;
- positioning at least one detector in the wellbore;
- emitting photons from the photon source;
- detecting, via the detector, photons scattered by the material;
- the detector counting the detected photons based on an energy level of the detected photons;
- grouping the detected photons in at least first and second energy ranges, with a first count rate representing a number of photons detected in the first energy range, and a second count rate representing a number of photons detected in the second energy range;
- and
- calculating a value of the characteristic based on at least one of the first and second count rates.
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17-18. (canceled)
A method of determining at least one characteristic of a material surrounding a wellbore, the method comprising:
- positioning a photon source at a location in the wellbore;
- positioning at least a near detector and a far detector in the wellbore;
- emitting photons from the photon source;
- detecting, via the near and far detectors, photons scattered by the material;
- the near and far detectors counting the detected photons based on an energy level of the detected photons;
- grouping the detected photons in at least first and second energy ranges, with a first count rate representing a number of photons detected by the near detector in the first energy range, a second count rate representing a number of photons detected by the far detector in the first energy range, a third count rate representing a number of photons detected by the near detector in the second energy range, a fourth count rate representing a number of photons detected by the far detector in the second energy range;
- and
- calculating a first value of the characteristic based on at least one of a first logarithmic ratio of the first and second count rates and a second logarithmic ratio of the third and fourth count rates.
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A system for determining at least one characteristic of a material surrounding a wellbore, the system comprising:
- a photon source positioned at a location in the wellbore;
- at least one detector positioned in the wellbore;
- and
- processing circuitry that performs operations comprising:
- emitting photons from the photon source;
- detecting, via the detector, photons scattered by the material;
- the detector counting the detected photons based on an energy level of the detected photons;
- grouping the detected photons in at least first and second energy ranges, with a first count rate representing a number of photons detected in the first energy range, and a second count rate representing a number of photons detected in the second energy range;
- and
- calculating a value of the characteristic based on at least one of the first and second count rates.
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29-30. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.