Introduction to

Open Hole Logging

Schlumberger Private
Sonic - BHC
 Learning Objectives
At the end of this training session, each participant
should be able to:

Schlumberger Private
• Explain Borehole Compensated Sonic principle
• Describe sonic hardware and different available
combination
• Explain TT detection and causes of incorrect
detection
• Perform Log Quality Control
 Basic Sonic Measurement
– An acoustic pulse is sent
into the formation

Schlumberger Private
– The time it takes to
reach each receiver is
measured 2 ft

– One path is 2ft longer

than the other.
– The extra time that
sound takes to travel
those 2ft is used to
5
determine rock’s
9/21/2019
acoustic velocity
 Basic Sonic Theory
• Sonic tools measure the transit time DT, or
slowness, of a wave propagating through the

Schlumberger Private
formation
– Slowness is the reciprocal of velocity
– DT = ms/ft
• The waveform contains compressional, shear,
stoneley and mud waves
 AMPLITUDE Applications
Firing Pulse
Transmitter

Schlumberger Private
Compressional Shear Mud Stoneley
Arrivals Arrivals Arrivals Arrivals

• OH: Porosity • Rock mechanical properties • Permeability

• CH: Cement bond Perforating stability, sanding
• Fractures
analysis, Hydraulic fracture height
• Seismic Depth to Time determination, Well bore stability
conversion
• Lithology
• Fractures
• Gas indication
 Schlumberger Private
Sonic BHC

BHC Theory
 Transit Time
– Transit time is:
• The time it takes sound to
travel from the transmitter

Schlumberger Private
to the receiver
– Measured in s
– It contains :
TTmud1+TTrock+TTmud2 TT3

TT4

Transit time depends on

the geometry of the tool.

12
9/21/2019
 Delta-T
– Inverse of the rock’s acoustic
velocity

Schlumberger Private
– The difference between two
transit times is the time it takes
for sound to travel through a 2ft
known distance of rock
– measured in s/m or s/ft

13
9/21/2019
 Borehole Compensated Sonic
Far Receivers
(TT1 & TT3)

Schlumberger Private
Near Receivers
TT2 (TT2 & TT4)
TT3

TT1
TT4
DTx2ft

DTLower  DTUpper
DT 
2
(TT1  TT2 )  (TT3  TT4 )
DT 
2  2ft
19
9/21/2019
 Sonde-Tilt
– TT’s, decreased and
separated

Schlumberger Private
– Zone of investigation is
larger than 2’
– Signal amplitude will be
dramatically smaller.
– Detection becomes
difficult

Deviated Well

20
9/21/2019
 Sonde-Eccentered
– TT’s, decreased.
– Signal amplitude will be

Schlumberger Private
dramatically smaller.
– Detection becomes
difficult.

21
9/21/2019
 Large Boreholes
– TT’s, Increased.
– Signal amplitude will be

Schlumberger Private
dramatically smaller.
– Detection becomes
difficult
– 16 in is the max. hole
size.

22
9/21/2019
 Borehole Compensation (BHC)
Limitation of BHC
Unconsolidated, shaly formations the altered zone close to the
borehole means the BHC can not accurately estimate formation

Schlumberger Private
slowness

Solution
Increase distance between transmitters and receivers to increase
depth of investigation

Problem
BHC tool would become too long and heavy
 DDBHC – Depth Derived BoreHole
Compensated
(TT3  TT4 )  (TT3'  TT1 )
DT 
2  2ft

Schlumberger Private
24
9/21/2019
 Depth of Investigation – BHC vs
DDBHC

Schlumberger Private
Depth of Inv: ½” Depth of Inv: : ¾”
DT measured at 3ft-5ft DT measured at 8ft-10ft or
25
10ft-12ft
9/21/2019
 Schlumberger Private
Sonic BHC

Hardware
 Tool Mechanics

• Sound is generated and received using

transducers
• A transducer converts one form

Schlumberger Private
of energy to another, in our case
mechanical and electrical
 Producing Sound

• Magnetostrictive transducer
– A high current is passed through a coil

Schlumberger Private
surrounding a magnetic material introducing a
strain and causes a ticking sound (Joule effect)

DL / L

I
 Receiving Sound

• Piezoelectric transducer
– Polarized ceramic crystals in the BHC produces a

Schlumberger Private
voltage when exposed to strain (Villari effect)

strain
- - - -
Unstrained crystal
Voltage

+ + + +
 Steered Beam Sondes

• The BHC actually focuses the sound at the

detectors

Schlumberger Private
– Uses 2 transmitters which fire 17 sec apart
– This is called a steered beam sonde

2 Transmitter fire 17 sec

apart focussing the sound
energy towards the upper
receivers
DSLT/HSLT

Schlumberger Private
Combination
Sonic BHC

Schlumberger Private
Acquisition
 Detection
– The transit time is “detected” where the waveform
amplitude becomes larger than some threshold. This is
called the “First Arrival”

Schlumberger Private
Threshold

E1 E2

Transit Time For Open-Hole Logging, we look

for the second peak (E2), since it
is usually larger than the first (E1)
34
9/21/2019
 How are TTs and Borehole Size
related?
Is DT affected
Far Receivers
by Borehole Size?
TTfar

Schlumberger Private
Near Receivers

TTnear

DTsmall hole 2ft

TTs are proportional
to borehole size DT Larger hole
2ft

DT is not affected
By Borehole Size

35
9/21/2019
 Incorrect Detection

E2 E4
Cycle Skip

Schlumberger Private
Transit Time

E2
Noise Peak
Noise

Transit Time

37
9/21/2019
 Noise - Reduction
• Road Noise
• Position CME-Z’s and standoffs correctly
• Slow Down

Schlumberger Private
• Reverberation
• Reduce firing rate (from 15 per sec to to 5 per sec)
• Tool Noise
• Electrical failure
• Housing damage
 Incorrect Detection - Cycle Skip

• If the amplitude of E2 falls below the threshold, the next positive peak
(E4) will be detected as the first arrival.

Schlumberger Private
E4
E2

E1
E3

Transit Time
Sonic BHC

Schlumberger Private
Log Quality Control
 Log Quality Control

• Sonic tools are used to determine secondary

porosity

Schlumberger Private
– Sonic tools tend to ignore secondary
porosity while nuclear tools see total
porosity, so
Fsec = FN - FS
• Curves tend to mirror the GR curve
• Relates well to resistivity curves
• Logs correlate well to offsets
 Log Quality Control
• DT reads correctly in known lithology
• Free Casing -57 msec / ft

Schlumberger Private
• Anhydrite -50 msec / ft
• Salt -60 msec / ft
• Dolomite - 43.5 us/ft
• Limestone - 47.5 us/ft
• Repeatability - 1 msec / ft

• Fs compares well to FD and FN in clean, wet zones in the

absence of Fsec
• No Noise Spikes or Cycle Skipping
What is the basic LQC for a BHC
Log?
• The general trend of formation Δt should match the
nuclear porosity data.

Schlumberger Private
• Changes in the Δt value dues to change in formation
will be reflected on other logs such as the GR.
• The transit times should be generally parallel or
overlaying.
(With SLS-E(W), TT1 and TT3 should overlay, and TT2
and TT4 should also overlay. In addition, the two pairs
should be parallel to each other.)
LQC Formats: DSLT_LogQuality

Schlumberger Private
Loading...

1: Upper transmitter, Far Receiver 3: Lower transmitter, Far Receiver

2: Upper transmitter, Near Receiver 4: Lower transmitter, Near Receiver
Note: Some of these scales have been changed to better suit the next example
 LQC Flags & Insert

IOMonitor

Schlumberger Private
Loading...

– These tracks represent the

IOMonitor channels: (SNRn,
DSTT, DSTn)