Numerical study of dispersion characteristics of dipole flexural waves in a cased hole with different cement conditions

Crossed-dipole acoustic logging technology is mainly used to measure shear wave and determine the anisotropy or fractures of formation in the fi eld of acoustic logging.Based on the propagation characteristics of dipole flexural waves in cased holes,and the wavefi eld of fundamental flexural mode at three bonding conditions:good cement bonding,poorly bonded interface I,and poorly bonded interface II.The dispersion curves of flexural waves are calculated,and the eff ects of cement parameters(elastic parameters and geometric dimensions)on dispersion curves are investigated.The RAI method is used to calculate the dipole full waveforms in a cased hole with conventional or ultralight cement surrounded by a soft formation.Then,the weighted spectral semblance is used to conduct the dispersion analysis of the full waves.The numerical results show that the cutoff frequency of flexural waves exceeds the frequency band of the current dipole logging tools in the well-bonded cased hole with conventional cement in soft formations.However,when ultralight cement is used,the cutoff frequency shifts toward low values,and the ultralight cement bonding is conducive to measuring flexural waves in soft formations.When interface I is poorly bonded,the cutoff frequency shifts toward low values,and the change is evident in soft formations.The cutoff frequency in the case of ultralight cement bonding is more evident than that of conventional cement bonding.If only interface II is poorly bonded,regardless of the cement used,the cutoff frequencies are all below 2 kHz.The dipole full-wave analysis of diff erent bonding conditions further illustrates that the dispersion characteristics of flexural waves are sensitive to the cement bonding quality of cased holes.

Azimuthal cement evaluation with an acoustic phased-arc array transmitter:numerical simulations and field tests

We developed a novel cement evaluation logging tool,named the azimuthally acoustic bond tool（AABT）,which uses a phased-arc array transmitter with azimuthal detection capability.We combined numerical simulations and field tests to verify the AABT tool.The numerical simulation results showed that the radiation direction of the subarray corresponding to the maximum amplitude of the first arrival matches the azimuth of the channeling when it is behind the casing.With larger channeling size in the circumferential direction,the amplitude difference of the casing wave at different azimuths becomes more evident.The test results showed that the AABT can accurately locate the casing collars and evaluate the cement bond quality with azimuthal resolution at the casing-cement interface,and can visualize the size,depth,and azimuth of channeling.In the case of good casingcement bonding,the AABT can further evaluate the cement bond quality at the cementformation interface with azimuthal resolution by using the amplitude map and the velocity of the formation wave.

Experimental Investigation of Second Interface Cement Bond Evaluation

Cement bond model wells （1：10 scaled-down） were made with a gradually degrading cement annulus for cement bond evaluation of the first interface （between the casing and the cement annulus） and the second interface （between the cement annulus and the formation）. Experimental simulation on cement bond logging was carried out with these model wells. The correlation of acoustic waveforms, casing wave energy and flee casing area before and after cement bonding of the second interface was established. The experimental results showed that the arrival of the casing waves had no relationship with the cement bonding of the second interface, but the amplitude of the casing head wave decreased obviously after the second interface was bonded. So, cement bonding of the second interface had little effect on the evaluation of the cement bond quality of the first interface by using casing head wave arrivals. Strong cement annulus waves with early arrivals were observed before the second interface was bonded, while obvious ＂formation waves＂ instead of cement annulus waves were observed after the second interface was bonded.

Assessing Leak Paths in the Cement Sheath of a Cased Borehole by Analysis of Monopole Wavefield Modes

Evaluation of possible leakage pathways of CO_(2) injected into geological formations for storage is essential for successful Carbon Capture and Storage(CCS).A channel in the borehole cement,which secures the borehole casing to the formation,may allow CO_(2) to escape.Risk assessment and remediation decisions about the pres-ence of such channels depend on channel parameters:radial position r from the center of the borehole;channel thickness d;azimuthal positionφof the channel;and az-imuthal extentθof the channel.Current state-of-the-art cement-bond logging technology,which uses only the first arrival at a centralized borehole receiver,can diagnose limited details about CO_(2) leak channels.To accurately characterize the possible leak paths in the cement,we use a 3-dimensional finite-difference method to investigate the use of the abundant data collected by a modernized monopole sonic tool that contains an array of azimuthally distributed receivers.We also investigate how to improve the tool design to acquire even more useful information.For cases where borehole fluid is either water or supercritical CO_(2),we investigate various receiver geometries,multi-modal analyses of multi-frequency data to discover the type of logging tool that provides the best information for CCS management.We find that an appropriate choice of wave modes,source frequencies,source polarities,and receiver locations and off-sets provides sensitivity to d,φ,θ.The amplitude of the first arrival from a monopole source is sensitive toθ.Amplitudes at receivers at different azimuths are sensitive toφ.The slow Stoneley mode(ST2)velocity is sensitive to d,but ST2 is not easy to pick whenθand d are small.Further improvement is necessary to provide comprehensive information about possible flow channels in casing cement.

Evaluation of the cement bond quality through filtering the reflected ultrasonic waves

High cement bond quality is required to keep an oil well from hydraulic commu- nication between zones. In the cement bond evaluation, the ultrasonic echo method is widely used for its capability of channeling azimuth detection. Full waveforms reflected from the cased hole are simulated for different bonding conditions by the generalized transfer matrix method. Because of the high acoustic impedance of casing, the amplitudes of the reflected waves from the cement and the formation are small and cannot easily be used to evaluate the cementing condition. The wave that can propagate into the cement and the formation through the casing concentrates closely on the casing resonant frequency. To reduce the amplitude of the reflected wave from the casing inner surface and highlight the part of the reflected wave which carries the cementing quality information, the reflected full wave is filtered according to the casing resonant frequency. There are several wave packets in the filtered waveform. When the amplitude of the second wave packet is low, the cement bonds well with the casing, otherwise poorly. A low amplitude third wave packet is an indication of a good bond of the cement with the formation, otherwise poor. To reveal the sensitivity of the reflection wave amplitudes to the incident angle, reflected full waveform is modeled when an acoustic beam with finite width is incident on the casing. It is shown that the bond evaluation method based on filtered wave packets is valid for incident angle less than 5 degrees.

Cementing Military Bonds

China and the United States incorporate military cooperation into their strategic dialogue The recently concluded fifth round of the China-U.S.Strategic Dialogue with its special focus on defense was an instrumental first step for the two countries to advance their mili- tary relations through formal discussions,

Leaky modes and the first arrivals in cased boreholes with poorly bonded conditions

The generation mechanism of the first arrivals in the cased boreholes for the poorly bonded conditions is investigated. Based on the analyses of the Riemann surface structure of the characteristic function, the dispersion features, excitation spectra and contributions of modes excited in the cased boreholes with different cementing types are studied. The phase velocity dispersion studies of leaky modes show that high-order modes form "plateau" regions with one approximate velocity denoted by v separated by their cutoff frequencies, in which the phase velocity changes little with a considerable frequency range, while the group velocity keeps a relatively constant high value. Usually, the operation frequency range of a specific cementing evaluation acoustic logging tool is covered by such a "plateau" region. Mode excitation and contribution analyses show that the first arrivals in the cased boreholes for the poorly bonded conditions are the contributions from leaky modes, where the traveling velocity of the first arrivals processed by slowness time coherence(STC) method is equal to the approximated velocity v. Analyses on generation of leaky modes in the cased boreholes supplement the understanding of the generation mechanism of the first arrivals.

An acoustic-wave theory for casing bond evaluation using viscoelastic slip boundary modeling

Slip boundary condition is commonly utilized to model elastic wave propagation through layered earth media. The same approach is used here to characterize acoustic wave propagation along a cased borehole with various cement bond conditions. By modeling the cement layer between casing and formation as a viscoelastic slip interface with complex coupling rigidity parameters, one can not only reduce the complexity in the classical elastic wave modeling of the problem, but also efficiently model various complicated wave phenomena that are difficult for the existing modeling. More specifically, the new theory can well describe the effect of the cement bond condition change and the location of the change(i.e., whether it is in the first interface between casing and cement, or the second interface between cement and formation) on the acoustic waves,demonstrating the good modeling capability and predicting power. Application of the theory to field data shows that the theory can correctly model the acoustic wave characteristics and interpret the cement bond condition, thus providing a useful fundament theory for casing bond evaluation using acoustic logging.