Method and apparatus for acoustic well logging

Claim 1

A method of determining the travel time of acoustic energy in subsurface earth materials traversed by a borehole, comprising: generating acoustic energy at a location within said borehole, detecting acoustic energy at a preselected distance from said location of acoustic energy generation, producing an electrical representation of the detected acoustic energy, relative to a preselected voltage level, transmitting said electrical representation to a surface location, deriving from said electrical representation a plurality of digital representation correlative to said detected acoustic energy, at preselected discrete time sampling intervals, determining from said digital representation a first point functionally related to said generating of acoustic energy and a second point functionally related to the first coincidence of said electrical representation of acoustic energy and said preselected voltage level, wherein said determining said second point further comprises selecting the first digital representation from said plurality having a value less than said preselected voltage level, selecting a second digital representation from said plurality derived next in time to said first digital representation, comparing said second digital representation to said preselected voltage level, repeating the above steps wherein said second digital representation becomes said first digital representation until said second digital representation, when compared to said preselected voltage level, has a value larger than said preselected voltage level, and storing said second digital representation, deriving an indication of the velocity of said acoustic energy over said preselected distance of said earth materials relative to the portion of said digital representation between said first and second points, generating a synchronization pulse as a function of the time of said generation of acoustic energy, generating from said pulse a constant negative slope waveform a predetermined time after said pulse generation having an initial value greater than said preselected voltage level and a final value less than said preselected voltage level prior to said coincidence, selecting the first digital representation from said representation having a value greater than said preselected voltage level, selecting a second digital representation from said representation generated next in time to said first representation, comparing said first and second digital representations.

Claim 2

A method of determining the travel time of acoustic energy in subsurface earth materials traversed by a borehole, comprising: generating acoustic energy at a location within said borehole, detecting acoustic energy at a preselected distance from said location of acoustic energy generation, producing an electrical representation of the detected acoustic energy, relative to a preselected voltage level, transmitting said electrical representation to a surface location, deriving from said electrical representation a plurality of digital representation correlative to said detected acoustic energy, at preselected discrete time sampling intervals, determining from said digital representation a first point functionally related to said generating of acoustic energy and a second point functionally related to the first coincidence of said electrical representation of acoustic energy and said preselected voltage level, wherein said determining said second point further comprises selecting the first digital representation from said plurality having a value less than said preselected voltage level, selecting a second digital representation from said plurality derived next in time to said first digital representation, comparing said second digital representation to said preselected voltage level, repeating the above steps wherein said second digital representation becomes said first digital representation until said second digital representation, when compared to said preselected voltage level, has a value larger than said preselected voltage level, and storing said second digital representation, deriving an indication of the velocity of said acoustic energy over said preselected distance of said earth materials relative to the portion of said digital representation between said first and second points, generating a synchronization pulse as a function of the time of said generation of acoustic energy, generating from said pulse a constant negative slope waveform a predetermined time after said pulse generation having an initial value greater than said preselected voltage level and a final value less than said preselected voltage level prior to said coincidence, selecting the first digital representation from said representation having a value greater than said preselected voltage level, selecting a second digital representation from said representation generated next in time to said first representation, comparing said first and second digital representations.