Method and apparatus for determining flow rates
AssigneeSensor Highway Limited
InventorGeorge Albert Brown
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fiber optic sensor system provides sufficient thermal information to determine the mass flow rates of produced fluids within a well bore, using an optical fiber placed within or adjacent to the well bore without interference with production or prejudicing the integrity of the well. Mass flow rates of fluid in a conduit (20) located in a heat sink differing in temperature from the fluid are determined by obtaining a distributed temperature profile (32) of fluid flowing along a length of conduit (15) by using optical data obtained from a length of optical fiber in thermal contact therewith, obtaining a profile of the heat sink temperature external to the conduit, and deriving mass flow rates of fluids in the conduit from the said profiles and from measured thermal transfer parameters.
Claims36
A method for determining a flow parameter of a fluid stream within a conduit that extends into a well bore, comprising:
- deploying an optical fiber to measure a temperature at a location along the conduit, the temperature being representative of the fluid temperature at the location;
- and
- deriving a flow rate for the fluid based on the temperature at the location.
A system for determining a mass flow rate of a fluid, comprising:
- a conduit extending through a surrounding heat sink;
- an optical distributed temperature sensing device disposed along the conduit;
- and
- an instrumentation device coupled to the distributed temperature sensing device to determine a temperature profile of the fluid for derivation of the mass flow rate of the fluid.
A method for determining a parameter related to fluid flow, comprising:
- providing a fluid flow path through a heat sink;
- determining a natural thermal profile along the heat sink;
- measuring temperature at a plurality of locations along the fluid flow path with a distributed temperature sensing system;
- and
- deriving a mass flow rate of a fluid flowing along the fluid flow path based on the natural thermal profile of the heat sink and the temperature measurements at the plurality of locations.
A method for determining a parameter related to fluid flow in an underground formation, comprising:
- obtaining distributed temperature profiles with an optical fiber deployed along a fluid flow path through the underground formation;
- and
- using the distributed temperature profiles to determine mass flow rates of fluid flowing along the fluid flow path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.