Acoustic wave Propogation

Compressional waves (P waves) move in the

direction of particles displacement
In elastic medium shear waves (S waves) move
perpendicular to direction of particles
P & S (“body waves”), at interface (formation
boundary or fracture), are reflected away from or
refracted into the new medium
direction of The energy reflected = f (reflection coefficient)
propagation
which, at normal incidence is
R1-2 = ( Z2 – Z1 ) / ( Z2 + Z1 )
& varies with • incidence angle
• velocities V1 & Vs2
particle
displacement Shear Z = acoustic impedance = [ density * velocity
© 2004 NExT – All Rights Reserved
Compressional
 In a fast formation both compressional and shear waves are created.

 The head waves in the borehole are the signals seen by the receivers.

 The array of receivers see the signal at different times as they are at
different distances from the trans
 Monopole source sonic waves
Fast (Hard) Formation Slow (Soft) Formation
Wellbore Compressional Wellbore Formation
wave

Headwaves Compressional
Formation wave
Headwave

Fluid wave Shear

wave Fluid wave
Omnidirectional source Omnidirectional source
Shear
wave

Compressional Stoneley
Compressional Shear Stoneley wave wave
wave wave wave

© 2004 NExT – All Rights Reserved 67

Monopole sonic tools in Open Hole

Reflected angle = incident angle

Refracted ray angle is such that

Critical angle = incidence angle

c
Sin 𝜽c = C1 / C2 C1 < C2
 6/12/2006

Propagation in a borehole - guided waves

mud Headwave created by
P or S wavefront
Transmitter  mud pressure pulse

@ borehole wall critical refraction

 P & S body waves in rock
-3t -2t -t t  headwaves in fluid  

VP or Vs Vp , Vs > V mud
formation

Monopole Sonic tools detect P,& S headwaves

as long as Vp or Vs is greater than velocity in mud

4
 Basic Sonic Theory - What & Why Sonic
E1 Est
AMPLITUDE

mitter Firing

tp ts tst
Pulse
Tran

Mud Arrivals Stonely

Compressional Shear
Arrivals Arrivals Arrivals

tp=1 / Vp= f ( rock properties & quantity, gas saturation)

Geophysical interpretation
ts = 1 / Vs = f ( rock properties ) T vs Depth, Seismogram, AVO

tst = 1 / Vst = f ( permeability ) Formation evaluation

Porosity, lithology, Sgas, Cement

Vp/Vs  lithology, gas, Elastic Ct. Permeability, fractures

Mechanical properties
Sanding, fracture, BH stability
Definition

 The sonic log is a porosity log that measures interval transit time
(Δt) of a compressional sound wave traveling through one foot of
formation.
 The sonic log device consists of one or more sound transmitters,
and two or more receivers.
 Interval transit time is recorded in tracks #2 and #3. The interval
transit time is dependent upon both lithology and porosity.
 Units and presentation
 Curves recorded on acoustic logs may include the interval transit
time, and integrated travel time. The primary measurement of
interest will be the interval transit time (Δt), measured in
microseconds per foot (µsec/ft) which is the reciprocal of the
velocity of a compressional sound wave in feet per second.

 Integrated travel time is presented as a series of pips located

immediately to the right of the depth track. Short pips represent 1
ms of travel time, with a large pip every 10 ms. Integrated travel
time is used to help tie well depth to seismic sections. Travel time
between two depths is obtained by counting the pips in the interval
between the two points .
 Sonic Tools Types

Tools used to acquire this measurement include the borehole-

compensated tool, a slim tool version that can be run through tubing;
and the long-spacing sonic tool. These tools include transmitter that
convert electrical energy into mechanical energy and receiver that do
the reverse. In its simplest form
The BHC sonic tool uses multiple transmitters and receivers to obtain
two values of Δt, which were then averaged. The net result of this
system was the elimination of errors in Δt due to sonde tilt and hole size
variation. Even so, there were practical limits to the working range of the
tool (e.g., in large holes).
The long-spacing sonic tool was next introduced in an attempt to
overcome borehole environmental problems by reading acoustic
travel time deeper within the formation and further from the
borehole. Deeper investigation requires a longer transmitter-
receiver spacing, so long-spacing sonic tools typically have a
transmitter-receiver spacing of 8, 10, or 12 ft.
 Sonic -BHC
A simple tool that uses a pair of transmitters and four receivers to
compensate for caves and sonde tilt.

The normal spacing between the transmitters and receivers is 3' - 5'.

Used for:
Correlation.
Porosity.
Lithology.
Seismic tie in / time-to-
depth conversion.
 Long Spacing Sonic
The BHC tool is affected by near borehole altered zones hence a
longer spacing is needed with a larger depth of investigation.

The tool spacings are 8' - 10', 10' - 12'.

The tool cannot be built with transmitters at each end like a BHC sonde,
hence there are two transmitters at the bottom.

A system called DDBHC - depth derived borehole compensation, is used

to compute the transmit time.

The uses of this tool are the same as the BHC tool.
 Array Sonic
• Multi-spacing digital tool.

• First to use STC processing.

• Able to measure shear waves

and Stoneley waves in hard formations.

Used for:
• Porosity.
• Lithology.
• Seismic tie in / time-to-depth conversion.
• Mechanical properties (from shear and compressional).
• Fracture identification (from shear and Stoneley).
• Permeability (from Stoneley).
 DSI General
In a slow formation the shear wave from a monopole source never
creates a head wave.

The fluid wave is the first arrival after the compressional.

A dipole source is directional.

It creates a flexural wave on the borehole wall and shear and

compressional in the formation.

The shear wave is recorded whether the formation is soft or hard.

Dipole source sonic waves
Propagation
Wellbore Formation
Formation
Wellbore Compressional
Compressional
wave
wave
Borehole
Head wave
Head wave
Shear
Shear
Flexural
Flexural wave
wave wave
wave
Directionalsource
Directional source

Mud Mud

Compressional Shear
Shear Flexural
Flexural
Compressional wave wave
wave wave wave
wave

© 2004 NExT – All Rights Reserved 68

Transmitter Flexural Wave Displacement
 DSI tool
Generates both monopole and dipole signals.
Generates different frequencies for measuring a
range of waves.
Application:

• Seismic.

• Fracture identification (shear and Stoneley).

• Mechanical properties (from shear compressional).

• Permeability computation (Stoneley).

• Porosity / Lithology.

• Gas shows.
 DSI tool, modes & applications
Cartridge
Acoustic bandwidth 1 : Lower Dipole LD (slow & fast rocks)
13 ft - Dipole, Stoneley ts lower dipole plane->AVO,Mechpro
80 Hz to 5 kHz
2 : Upper Dipole UD (slow & fast rocks)
- High Freq.Monopole
ts upper dipole plane-AVO,Mechpro
8 kHz to 30 kHz
18 ft
11 ft to 3 : Stoneley, low Frequency Monopole
upper dipole
transmitte r 6 tst : permeability index Est : fracture
Receiver section 4 : P & S (fast) high frequency Monopole
42 in.

6 in.
tp & ts average : porosity,lithology
gas, Mechpro (Frachite, Sanding, …),
Isolation joint 11 ft to
3.5 ft
9 ft to upper dipole
monopole transmitter 11.5 ft to 5 : First motion detection FMD
dip ole6 tp : porosity, lithology
transmitter 11.5 ft to
lower dipole
lower
transmitter er
transmitt
6 : Expert (Both CRoss Dipole)  GPIT
Transmitter section
16.5 ft
6ts both dipole planes  Anisotropy
 STC Processing
This type of processing is necessary to extract the shear and Stoneley
information from the waveform.

The processing applies a "semblance algorithm" to the recorded set of

traces.

This means looking for the same part of the wave (e.g. shear) on each
wavetrain.

Once this has been done the transit time can be computed.
 STC Computation
Varying moveout

© 2004 NExT – All Rights Reserved 69

Varying time
 STC Map
At a given depth, the
slowness can be plotted
against time.

Regions of large coherence

appear as contours

These correspond to the compressional (fastest), shear (close to the

compressional) and Stoneley (furthest away).
 Poisson's Ratio Delta-T Comp.

Log Quality .25

0
Gamma Ray

Caliper
100
.50 100

100
Dtc
Delta-T Shear

Coherence
200

500
Dts Slowness Time Plane

Indicators 6 16 0 1. 1. 0 Projection

10200

10250

10300

© 2004 NExT – All Rights Reserved 71

10350
12
 Borehole Effects 1
As the sonic tool is measuring the time for the signal to go from the
transmitter to the receiver there are two types of erroneous responses.

Cycle skipping

If the signal strength is too low the

detection goes to the next peak.
This means that the final transmit
time will be wrong.

Road noise

This is noise at the receivers that is due to borehole environment and has
nothing to do with the signal being measured.
 Borehole Effects 2
There are a number of borehole phenomena
which cause these effects:

 Borehole rugosity - causes the tool motion to be erratic, the signal

may be distorted and give road noise or cycle skipping.

 Large holes - if the borehole diameter is very large the mud signal
may arrive at a receiver before the formation signal. The proper tool
set- up for each condition has to be picked before the job.

This means choosing whether to centralise or excentralise the tool and

the equipment to be used.
 Borehole Effects3
Gas in the well
The acoustic impedance of gas is very low, hence
the signal will be strongly attenuated. There may be skipping.
Altered zone

This is largely overcome by using a long spacing tool to

read deeper into the formation.

Caves

Can create problems in spite of compensation as they will also reduce

signal amplitude.
Fractures
Reduce the signal amplitude especially the shear and Stoneley waves.
 Crossplots

The sonic measurements can be cross-plotted with the density or the

neutron readings to give porosity and lithology information as with the

density-neutron crossplot, however:

 Sonic Tools & Applications Summary
Measurements: BHC LSS Array Dipole
Sonic Sonic
Compressional X X X X
Shear/Stoneley :
Hard Rock X X
Soft Rock X
Computations :
Porosity X X X X
Lithology X X X X
Seismic tie in X X X X

Mechanical properties:
Hard rock X X
Soft rock X
Fracture detection X X
Permeability X
 Mechanical properties
A combination of compressional, shear and density measurements gives
the rocks' dynamic elastic moduli.
&applications

Sanding analysis

fracture height,

wellbore stability
 6/12/2006

Vp / Vs as lithology indicator

19

© 2004 NExT – All Rights Reserved 76

14
 6/12/2006

vp/vs versus 6tc Shales

Gas indicator 3.0

Unconsolidated
sediments

40

2.5

35

Vp / Vs

30 90
2.0
Wet
Dry
ø 80
S xo
Limestone gas
70
Anhydrite Gas
60
20
Dolomite 50

Salt 10
40

Quartz Dry (or gas sandstones

1.5
© 2004 NExT – All Rights Reserved 77
50 100 6 tp 150

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