Numerical simulation of an acoustic field generated by a phased arc array in a fluid-filled borehole

The acoustic tools widely used in borehole well logging and being developed in borehole acoustic reflection imaging do not have the function of azimuthal measurement due to a symmetric source, so they can not be used to evaluate the azimuthal character of borehole formation. In this paper, a 3D finite difference method was used to simulate the acoustic fields in a fluid-filled borehole generated by a traditional monopole source and a phased arc array. Acoustic waveforms were presented for both cases. The analysis of the simulated waveforms showed that different from the monopole source, the acoustic energy generated by the phased arc array transmitter mainly radiated to the borehole in a narrow azimuthal range, which was the key technique to implement azimuthal acoustic well logging. Similar to the monopole source, the waveforms generated by the phased arc array in the fluid-filled borehole also contain compressional （P） waves and shear （S） waves refracted along the borehole, which is the theoretical foundation of phased arc array acoustic well logging.

Extraction method of component waves in full waveform acoustic data and its application

In conventional slowness-time coherence(STC)method,slowness and time need to be searched at the same time,which limits the precision and lowers the efficiency.The dichotomy method combined with slowness-time coherence algorithm aims to enhance the efficiency of data processing and to improve the precision.The algorithm changes the searching pattern of conventional slowness-time coherence method to acquire the slowness of component waves in array acoustic logging data.Based on energy ratio of short time window versus long time window and slowness-time coherence method,the algorithm first acquires the arrivals of the component waves using energy ratio of short time window versus long time window method.It then uses the calculated results as the arrivals in conventional slowness-time coherence method,so the slowness-time two-dimensional searching process is simplified to slowness searching process.Based on dichotomy method,the searching pattern is further optimized in replace of the ergodic searching pattern in conventional slowness-time coherence method,which means that as the iteration proceeds,the current searching interval is reduced to half of the former,so the number of searching times is decreased.The dichotomy method combined with slowness-time coherence algorithm is applied to well L in the data processing.Compared with conventional slowness-time coherence method,for compressional wave,the searching efficiency of the algorithm is 4.53 times better,while for Stoneley wave,the searching efficiency is 1.85 times better.Compared with conventional logging data,the average absolute error of the results of the dichotomy method combined with slowness-time coherence algorithm is 1.14μs/ft smaller than that of the conventional method,while the average relative error is 1.2 percent lower.The dichotomy method combined with slowness-time coherence algorithm shows good results in its application,which can enhance the processing efficiency remarkably while getting reliable results at the same time.