Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 9
Claim 1
Independent Claim
144 words
Method of monitoring the drilling of a borehole through an earth formation with a rotating drill bit fixed at the lower end of a drillstring comprising the following steps: detecting with at least one transducer at least one physical quantity associated with the vibrations resulting from the interaction of the rotating drill bit with the earth formation; generating an oscillatory signal in response thereto; determining filter coefficients a k of a filter model having an input signal Un and an output signal Xn by fitting the filter output signal Xn with the oscillatory signal; from said filter coefficients, deriving reflection coefficients of the vibrations propagating along the drill string and being reflected by a mis-match of impedance of two successive elements of the system earth formation/drillstring; and determining from said reflection coefficients at least one physical characteristic related to the drilling of the borehole.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
144 words
Method of monitoring the drilling of a borehole through an earth formation with a rotating drill bit fixed at the lower end of a drillstring comprising the following steps: detecting with at least one transducer at least one physical quantity associated with the vibrations resulting from the interaction of the rotating drill bit with the earth formation; generating an oscillatory signal in response thereto; determining filter coefficients a k of a filter model having an input signal Un and an output signal Xn by fitting the filter output signal Xn with the oscillatory signal; from said filter coefficients, deriving reflection coefficients of the vibrations propagating along the drill string and being reflected by a mis-match of impedance of two successive elements of the system earth formation/drillstring; and determining from said reflection coefficients at least one physical characteristic related to the drilling of the borehole.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
13 words
Method according to claim 1, wherein said filter model is an auto-regressive filter.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
31 words
Method according to claim 2, wherein said auto-regressive filter is driven by an input noise signal comprising a substantially white noise signal whose frequency band is estimated from the oscillatory signal.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
27 words
Method according to claim 2, wherein the filter coefficients of the auto-regressive filter are converted into the coefficients of a lattice filter which represent said reflection coefficients.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
33 words
Method according to claim 1, wherein the reflection coefficient at the interface between the drill bit and the formation being drilled is determined, said reflection coefficient characterising the mechanical property of the formation.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
34 words
Method according to claim 1, wherein the reflection coefficients occurring at depths not related to the geometry of the drillstring are determined, these reflection coefficients characterising interactions between the borehole wall and the drillstring.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
40 words
Method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of determining the amplitude of the filter input signal and deriving the vibration level occurring in the drillstring at particular points in the drillstring from said amplitude and said reflection coefficients.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
29 words
Method according to claim 1, wherein the derived filter coefficients may be used to remove drillstring resonances from vibrations and thereby determine the vibrations generated by the rotating drillbit.