Method for measuring particle concentration during injection pumping operations
AssigneeILI Technologies Corp.
InventorRobin Tudor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a well bore operation in which a particulate is added to a fluid stream, a method of determining the concentration of said particulate in said fluid stream comprising the steps of measuring the rate of flow of the fluid stream, determining the rate of particulate flow in the fluid stream using an acoustic sensor and calculating the concentration of particulate in the fluid stream using results from the measuring and determining steps.
Claims18
In a well bore operation in which a particulate is added to a fluid stream in a conduit, a method of determining the concentration of said particulate in said fluid stream comprising the steps of:
- measuring the rate of flow of said fluid stream in said conduit;
- determining the rate of particulate flow in said fluid stream using an output of an acoustic sensor operatively connected to said conduit, said output varying in response to the amount of particulate in said fluid stream and being adjusted to filter out acoustic noise unrelated to said particulate and for some or all of fluid, fluid flow, particulate, conduit and sensor characteristics;
- calculating the concentration of particulate in said fluid stream using the results from said measuring and determining steps;
- and
- using a digital signal processor means to produce a digital signal raw output (DSRO), said DSRO being a first digital number representative of said output from said acoustic sensor.
In a fluid conveying operation having a fluid line for carrying a fluid mixed with a particulate, an apparatus for measuring the concentration of the particulate in the fluid comprising:
- a fluid flow meter located within the fluid line for measuring the rate of flow of the fluid before or after said fluid is mixed with said particulate;
- an acoustic sensor located outside the fluid line at a bend in the fluid line for measuring the noise of particulate impacting said fluid line at said bend and producing a signal reflecting the amount of said noise;
- a calculating means for determining the concentration of the particulate using data from said fluid flow meter and said acoustic sensor;
- and
- a digital signal processor for producing a digital signal raw output (DSRO), said DSRO being a first digital number representative of said signal from said acoustic sensor.
In a well bore operation having a clean fluid line leading to a blender, the blender mixing a particulate with a clean fluid to create a slurry, a slurry line from said blender to a high pressure pump, the high pressure pump pumping the slurry to a wellhead using a high pressure line, a system for measuring the concentration of the particulate within the fluid comprising:
- a fluid flow meter affixed within the clean fluid line for measuring the rate of fluid flowing;
- an acoustic sensor affixed to the exterior of the high pressure line at a bend in the high pressure line, the acoustic sensor measuring acoustical noise from particulate hitting said high pressure line at said bend and producing a signal that varies in response to the amount of said noise;
- and
- a calculating means for calculating the concentration of said particulate in said slurry at said bend using data from said fluid flow meter and said acoustic sensor;
- and
- a digital signal processor for producing a digital signal raw output (DSRO), said DSRO being a first digital number representative of said signal from said acoustic sensor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.