Computer Method to Detect and Correct Cycle Skipping on Sonic Logs

摘要

A simple but effective computer method has been developed to detect cycle skipping on sonic logs and to replace cycle skips with estimates of correct traveltimes. The method can be used to correct observed traveltime pairs from the transmitter to both receivers. The basis of the method is the linearity of a plot of theoretical traveltime from the transmitter to the first receiver versus theoretical traveltime from the transmitter to the second receiver. Theoretical traveltime pairs are calculated assuming that the sonic logging tool is centered in the borehole, that the borehole diameter is constant, that the borehole fluid velocity is constant, and that the formation is homogeneous. The plot is linear for the full range of possible formation-rock velocity. Plots of observed traveltime pairs from a sonic logging tool are also linear but have a large degree of scatter due to borehole rugosity, sharp boundaries exhibiting large velocity contrasts, and system measurement uncertainties. However, this scatter can be reduced to a level that is less than scatter due to cycle skipping, so that cycle skips may be detected and discarded or replaced with estimated values of traveltime. Advantages of the method are that it can be applied in real time, that it can be used with data collected by existing tools, that it only affects data that exhibit cycle skipping and leaves other data unchanged, and that a correction trace can be generated which shows where cycle skipping occurs and the amount of correction applied. The method has been successfully tested on sonic log data taken in two holes drilled at the Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada. (ERA citation 11:030746)