Experimental verification of acoustic communication along metallic drill pipes

• Main Author: Ho, Leong Chee
• Other Authors: Guan Yong Liang
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/64889
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This project focuses on the realization of acoustic communication along scaled-down metallic drill pipes to provide transmission of down-hole measurements to the surface while the oil well is being drilled. The experiment test bed comprises of 9 constant length drill pipes measuring 400mm each. BFSK signals and OFDM signals are encoded as acoustic signals which traverse along the drill pipes and are subsequently received and converted back to electric signals for data recovery at the surface receiver. Based on transmitting two pairs of BFSK signals in parallel and OFDM signals, data throughput rates of 432 bits per second (bps) and 4429 bps have been observed respectively. Higher data throughput rate allows the oil rig industry to utilize more sophisticated sensors for their drilling operations. This brings better safety, efficiency and ultimately cost savings. Before acoustic telemetry, the oil rig industry has relied on low rate transmission methods such as mud pulse telemetry, which can only support less than 100 bps even on real drill pipes. Therefore, this project demonstrates the feasibility of faster transmission rate through drill pipes based on acoustic telemetry technology.