# US 9,519,865 B2 · Apparatus and methods of analysis of pipe and annulus in a wellbore > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 9,519,865 B2 - Document ID: US9519865B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 14/125,271 - Filed: 2011-06-24 - Published: 2014-04-24 - Granted: 2016-12-13 - Earliest claimed: 2011-06-24 - Assignees: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. - Applicants: John Quirein; Philip Edmund Fox; Jerome Allen Truax; Dingding Chen - Inventors: John Quirein; Philip Edmund Fox; Jerome Allen Truax; Dingding Chen - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US9519865B2 ## CPC - G06N 5/047: Pattern matching networks; Rete networks - E21B 47/005: Monitoring or checking of cementation quality or level - G01V 11/002: {Details, e.g. power supply systems for logging instruments, transmitting or recording data, specially adapted for well logging, also if the prospecting method is irrelevant (means for transmitting well survey signals E21B47/12; signal transmission systems in general G08C; transmission in general H04B)} - G06N: COMPUTING ARRANGEMENTS BASED ON SPECIFIC COMPUTATIONAL MODELS - E21B: EARTH OR ROCK DRILLING; OBTAINING OIL, GAS, WATER, SOLUBLE OR MELTABLE MATERIALS OR A SLURRY OF MINERALS FROM WELLS - G01V: GEOPHYSICS; GRAVITATIONAL MEASUREMENTS; DETECTING MASSES OR OBJECTS; TAGS (means for indicating the location of accidentally buried, e.g. snow-buried, persons A63B29/02) ## Abstract Various embodiments include apparatus and methods to provide pipe analysis, annulus analysis, or one or more combinations of pipe analysis and annulus analysis with respect to one or more pipes in a wellbore. The analysis can include application of clustering and classification methods with respect to the status and the environment of the one or more pipes in the wellbore. In various embodiments, the clustering and classification can be used in characterizing borehole annular material including cement bond quality evaluation. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method comprising: acquiring waveforms and/or other sensor responses under the control of a processor unit, the acquired waveforms and/or other sensor responses being associated with a plurality of tools operating with respect to a pipe or multiple pipes in a borehole, each acquired waveform and/or other sensor responses being collected data collected from a respective tool; transforming each acquired waveform and/or sensor response to an attribute correlated to the respective tool from which each acquired waveform and/or sensor response is generated; extracting values of each attribute in selected intervals of each respective acquired waveform and/or sensor response by the processor unit operating on the acquired waveform and/or sensor response and storing the extracted values in a memory device; performing clustering and classification analysis by the processor unit operating on the attributes as variables and the extracted values of the associated acquired waveforms and/or sensor responses; generating data, from the clustering and classification analysis, that characterizes status of the pipe or multiple pipes, characterizes annular material within the borehole surrounding the pipe or multiple pipes in the borehole, or characterizes the status of the pipe or multiple pipes and characterizes the annular material within the borehole surrounding the pipe or multiple pipes in the borehole; and outputting the data to a memory. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein outputting, to the memory, the data includes outputting data correlated to status of cement bonding of the pipe or multiple pipes in the borehole. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein outputting, to the memory, the data includes outputting data correlated to characterization of annular materials surrounding the pipe or multiple pipes in the borehole. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein outputting the data includes outputting cement bond and/or annular material characterization classes to the memory. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein extracting values of each attribute in selected intervals of each respective acquired waveform and/or other sensor responses includes extracting values in a time domain or a frequency domain. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, the method includes normalizing the extracted values of each attribute prior to performing the clustering and classification analysis. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, wherein normalizing the extracted values of each attribute includes generating a ratio of a difference between the extracted value and an expected value of a bound pipe response for the respective attribute to a difference between an expected value of a free pipe response for the respective attribute and the expected value of a bound pipe response for the respective attribute. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring waveforms and/or other sensor responses includes acquiring the waveforms from one or more source data files. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, wherein outputting the data includes outputting cement bonding and/or annular material characterization classes to the one or more source data files. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein performing clustering and classification analysis includes processing the attributes and the extracted values of the associated acquired waveforms and/or other sensor responses by the processor unit arranged to generate one or more of a self organized feature map, hierarchical clustering, or weighted response function classification. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The method of claim 10, wherein processing the attributes and the extracted values includes using stored default settings or settings generated from user preferences. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein performing clustering and classification analysis includes quantitatively evaluating cluster quality of a cluster based on a centroid vector generated by the processor unit correlated to the cluster. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The method of claim 12, wherein the method includes generating cluster centroid vectors from weighting vectors of each neuron in a self organized feature map analysis or generating an average of the values of attributes in each cluster to form a cluster centroid vector of the respective cluster in a hierarchical clustering analysis. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes identifying patterns of cement bond and/or annular material characterization using a material signature at a specified depth. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes performing clustering analysis using a first analysis technique, performing clustering analysis using a second analysis technique, and comparing results of the first analysis technique with results of the second analysis technique. ### Claim 16 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein performing the clustering classification analysis includes performing the clustering classification analysis using a weighted response function analysis such that weights of the weighted response function analysis are adjusted to determine a best match with respect to one or more of an expected bound pipe response, an expected free pipe response, or a transitional condition between the expected bound pipe response and the expected free pipe response. ### Claim 17 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein performing the clustering and classification analysis includes merging clusters to form classes based upon a service requirement. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The method of claim 17, wherein merging clusters includes merging clusters with a number of classes specified by a user or merging clusters with the classes derived from natural grouping. ### Claim 19 (depends on 17) The method of claim 17, wherein merging clusters includes merging the cluster based on a probability index of each class, the probability index calculated from a weighted response function analysis. ### Claim 20 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes refining results from performing clustering and classification analysis such that the refining includes using information in addition the extracting values and associated acquired waveforms and/or other sensor responses and/or using knowledge based criteria. ### Claim 21 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes: validating a classification resulting from performing clustering and classification analysis, the validation using one or more cross plots on a selected training well and a well being tested, each cross plot being a plot of one of the attributes with respect to another one of the attributes; and if validity on the well being tested meets a threshold level, storing cluster weights derived from the training well in a memory such that the stored cluster weights can be used directly to classify data of a new well without re-clustering. ### Claim 22 (depends on 21) The method of claim 21, wherein the method includes, if validity on the well being tested meets the threshold level, storing rules for cluster merger derived from the training well in a memory such that the stored rules for cluster merger can be used directly to classify data of the new well without re-clustering. ### Claim 23 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes displaying, on a display unit, cement bond/annular material classification classes and/or one or more log views correlated to conducting one or more of acquiring the waveforms and/or other sensor responses, extracting the values of each attribute, performing the clustering and classification analysis, or outputting the cement bond/annular material classes. ### Claim 24 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the attributes include a refracted acoustic amplitude, a filtered cement bond index, a sum of magnitude at a selected frequency band of an acoustic waveform of a micro seismogram, a far detector count rate from a dual-spaced pulsed neutron logging tool, a ultrasonic average impedance, or combinations thereof. ### Claim 25 A non-transitory machine-readable storage device having instructions stored thereon, which, when performed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations, the operations comprising: acquiring waveforms and/or other sensor responses under the control of a processor unit, the acquired waveforms and/or other sensor responses being associated with a plurality of tools operating with respect to a pipe or multiple pipes in a borehole, each acquired waveform and/or other sensor responses being collected data collected from a respective tool; transforming each acquired waveform and/or sensor response to an attribute correlated to the respective tool from which each acquired waveform and/or sensor response is generated; extracting values of each attribute in selected intervals of each respective acquired waveform and/or sensor response by the processor unit operating on the acquired waveform and/or sensor response and storing the extracted values in a memory device; performing clustering and classification analysis by the processor unit operating on the attributes as variables and the extracted values of the associated acquired waveforms and/or sensor responses; generating data, from the clustering and classification analysis, that characterizes status of the pipe or multiple pipes, characterizes annular material within the borehole surrounding the pipe or multiple pipes in the borehole, or characterizes the status of the pipe or multiple pipes and characterizes the annular material within the borehole surrounding the pipe or multiple pipes in the borehole; and outputting the data to a memory. ### Claim 26 (depends on 25) The non-transitory machine-readable storage device of claim 25, wherein the operations include: validating a classification resulting from performing clustering and classification analysis, the validation using one or more cross plots on a selected training well and a well being tested, each cross plot being a plot of one of the attributes with respect to another one of the attributes; and if validity on the well being tested meets a threshold level, storing cluster weights derived from the training well in a memory such that the stored cluster weights can be used directly to classify data of a new well without re-clustering. ### Claim 27 (depends on 26) The non-transitory machine-readable storage device of claim 26, wherein the operations include, if validity on the well being tested meets the threshold level, storing rules for cluster merger derived from the training well in a memory such that the stored rules for cluster merger can be used directly to classify data of the new well without re-clustering. ### Claim 28 (depends on 25) The non-transitory machine-readable storage device of claim 25, wherein performing clustering and classification analysis includes quantitatively evaluating cluster quality of a cluster based on a centroid vector generated by the processor unit correlated to the cluster. ### Claim 29 (depends on 28) The non-transitory machine-readable storage device of claim 28, wherein the operations include generating cluster centroid vectors from weighting vectors of each neuron in a self organized feature map analysis or generating an average of the values of attributes in each cluster to form a cluster centroid vector of the respective cluster in a hierarchical clustering analysis. ### Claim 30 A system comprising: a processor unit; a memory unit operably coupled to the processor unit; and an analysis unit, wherein the processor unit, the memory unit, and the analysis unit are configured to operate to: acquire waveforms and/or other sensor responses under the control of the processor unit, the acquired waveforms and/or other sensor responses being associated with a plurality of tools operating with respect to a pipe or multiple pipes in a borehole, each acquired waveform and/or other sensor responses being collected data collected from a respective tool of the plurality of tools transform each acquired waveform and/or sensor response to an attribute correlated to the respective tool from which each acquired waveform and/or sensor response is generated; extract values of each attribute in selected intervals of each respective acquired waveform and/or sensor response by the processor unit operating on the acquired waveform and/or sensor response and storing the extracted values in a memory device; perform clustering and classification analysis by the processor unit operating on the attributes as variables and the extracted values of the associated acquired waveforms and/or sensor responses; generate data, from the clustering and classification analysis, that characterizes status of the pipe or multiple pipes, characterizes annular material within the borehole surrounding the pipe or multiple pipes in the borehole, or characterizes the status of the pipe or multiple pipes and characterizes the annular material within the borehole surrounding the pipe or multiple pipes in the borehole; and output the data to a memory. ### Claim 31 (depends on 30) The system of claim 30, wherein the analysis unit includes memory in addition to the memory unit, the memory unit located on a network. ### Claim 32 (depends on 30) The system of claim 30, wherein the memory unit includes electronic source files arranged to store waveform and/or other sensor response data from measurement tools operating with respect to the pipe or multiple pipes within the measurement volume. ### Claim 33 (depends on 30) The system of claim 30, wherein the processor unit includes a plurality of processors. ### Claim 34 (depends on 30) The system of claim 30, wherein the system includes the plurality of tools.