FORMATION

EVALUATION:

SONIC AND ACOUSTIC TECHNIQUES

SONIC OVERVIEW
In this section, the words sonic and acoustic are used interchangeably. Within the last few years
acoustic logs have been run through cased hole with increasing frequency. This has occurred
because of the development of new tools capable of determining reliable information regarding
the propagation of both the compressive and shear waves in the formation and a better
understanding of the information available from such data. Tra­ditionally, the sonic logs provided a
compressive wave velocity in an open hole environ­ment, and this velocity is used to compute a
formation porosity. Such measurements are now accurately available through casing, both for the
compressive and shear wave, as well as information on pore fluid in high porosity unconsolidated
elastic formations. These parameters also provide a mechanism for computing formation rock
mechanical properties necessary for fracturing operations. Sonics are also used to tie in to seismic
sec­tions with density logs and to view deeper in to the earth with downhole geophones arrays.
Types of Waves
There are three main types of waves
of interest to acoustic logging at this
time. These are the compressional,
shear, and Stoneley waves.
Compressional waves, sometimes
called primary or "P-waves,"
propagate along the wellbore
parallel to the direction of particle
dis­placement.
Shear waves, also called secondary
or "S-waves," propagate in a
direction perpendicular to the particle
motion.
APPLICATIONS OF SONIC
MEASUREMENTS
Porosity
Acoustic porosity measurements respond to well distributed porosity, but
miss such things as water filled vugs or fractures. As a result, and especially in
carbonates, the esti­mates of porosity from sonic logs may be lower than true
porosity. If porosity, Is the true porosity, then the sonic porosity differs from
true porosity by the contribution of such water filled fractures and vugs. Their
contribution is called secondary porosity.

If gas is present in the pore space, its effect is to slow the sonic signal as it
passes through the rock. As a result, the computation of sonic porosity may
be too large over a gas zone.
Effects of Cement Coverage
The log example of the Figure shows
the open hole (dashed line) and
cased hole (solid line) interval transit
times for the compressive wave
overlaying each other over an
interval with varying amounts of
cement coverage. The cement
coverage is presented as a cement
map from a Schlumberger Cement
Evaluation Tool (CET). The black
indicates cement, white no cement.
Clearly, where the cement coverage
is good, both acoustic signals overlay.
Vertical Seismic Profiles:
Vertical seismic profiling (VSP) is a technique in
which a single or an array of geophones is placed
downhole to detect acoustic reflections from
formation interfaces in the vicinity of and below the
measure depth. Such reflections provide
information on deeper formations, possible fluid
content, faults, salt domes, and other large
reservoir features. Seismic sections are routinely
run from the surface, but frequently leave
questions unanswered. The down­hole VSP
technique puts the geophones close to the features
to be measured and therefore provides locally more
accurate and deeper information. A schematic of
such an operation is shown on the Figure Here the
tool is comprised of a number of geophones spaced
along the wellbore, each recording the waves
arriving from the source at the surface.
POINTS TO REMEMBER
• There are three main types of waves in sonic logging, the compressional,
shear, and Stoneley.
• Acoustic waves propagate from the transmitter to receiver by being
refracted at the for­mation interface in a direction parallel to the
wellbore.
• The transit time is also called slowness.
• Formation porosity can be evaluated from the compressional and shear
travel times.
• Both the compressional and shear transit times are required to evaluate
formation mechanical properties.
CASED HOLE WIRELINE FORMATION TESTER
Overview
Cased hole wireline formation testers are used
for taking and retrieving formation fluid samples
to the surface. During this process,
measurements of formation pressures and
permeability are also made. The procedure
entails perforating the casing, taking the sample,
performing the measurements, and returning the
sample to the surface. One major prob­lem with
this type of tool is that the perforation hole
remains after the test.
The cased hole testers are typically equipped
with one or two shaped charges, and there­fore
can perform only one or two tests per trip in the
hole.
POINTS TO REMEMBER
• The cased hole formation tester takes formation sample by perforating through
casing and producing the formation fluid into a sample jug.
• The sample jug may be evaluated at the surface or sent to a lab for PVT analysis.
• The tester can also measure formation pressure with great accuracy.
• Testers can evaluate permeability, but this is a highly questionable calculation in
terms of accuracy.
• When a sample is taken, a hole is left in the casing.
• Good cement isolation is necessary for accurate measurements and
representative samples.
• Casing condition should be good to assure good sealing by the packer.