C ey Sonic Log + The sonic or acoustic log measures the travel time of an elastic wave through the formation. This information can also be used to derive the velocity of elastic waves through the formation. * Sonic Log gives primary porosity. + The data of interest is the time taken for the P-wave to travel from the transmitter to the receiver. This is measured by circuitry that starts timing at the pulse transmission and has a threshold on the receiver. When the first P-wave arrival appears the threshold is exceeded and the timer stops. Ampitucie Rayleigh ‘news edC ey Sonic Log + Every formation has. the capacity to transmit sound waves. This capacity depends on the lithology and rock texture of the formation and fluid contained in the pore spaces. The basic measurement in a sonic log is the time taken for a Sound wave to travel across oné foot for formation adjacent to the well bore ‘This time is called the Interval transit time or Interval travel time. The sonic curve is @ recording of the interval transit time versus the depth and itis recorded in see/foot, sually high travel time imply high porosity while low travel time indicate low porosity. edC ey Sonic Log : Uses + Its main use is to provide information to support and calibrate seismic data and to derive the porosity of a formation, ‘The main uses are: Provision ofa record of “seismic” velocity and travel time throughout a borehole. This information can be used to calibrate a seismic data set (ie., tie it in to measured values of seismie velocity), xeating synthetic seismograms. Determination of porosity (together with the FDC and CNL tools) Siratigraphic comelation. denttication of lithologies Facies recognition, Fracture identification + Identification of over-pressures.C ey Sonic Log : Tool Operation + The tool measures the time it takes for‘ pulse of sound (i.e an elastic wave) to travel from a transmitter to a receiver, which are both mounted on the tool The acoustic energy transmitters used in acoustic logging tool are originally made of magnetostrictive material which deforms in the presence of magnetic field. If this material is placed in an induction coil and an alternating current is passed through the coil, the material will alternately deform and regain its shape producing an acoustic wave in the surrounding medium. This sources are called tansducer since they = I convert electrical energy to acoustic energy a Most modern acoustical logging tool use electric ceramic crystal as transmitting ee The receiver is also a transducer which in case p converts acoustic energy into electrical energy. Daa ene sonie tools v edC ey Sonic Log : Tools Borehole Compensated Sonic (BHC) Tool * This tool compensates automatically for problems with tool misalignment and the vai the hole that were encountered with the dual receiver tools. + It has two transmitters and four receivers, arranged in two dual receiver sets, but with one set inverted (ie, in the opposite direction), + Each of the transmitters is pulsed alternately, and Dt values are measured from alternate pairs of receivers. + These two values of Dt are ged to compensate for tool misalignment, at to some extent for changes in the borehole size + Several versions of the BHC are available with different TRX distances (3 fi. and 5 ft. being typical), and the Rx-Rx distance between pairs of receivers is usually 2 ft. edC ey Sonic Log : Tools Long Spacing Sonic (LSS) Tool + It was recognized that in some logging conditions a longer Tx-Rx distance could help. + Hence Schlumberger developed the long spacing sonic (LSS), which has two Tx two feet apart and two Tx also two feet apart but separated from the Tx by 8 feet + This tool gives two readings: a near reading with a 8-10 £. spacing, and a far reading with a 10-12 f. spacing. a) edC ey Sonic Log Log presentation, Units and scales + In sedimentary rocks the transit times commonly range between 40/8/40 thicroseconds/f. + The log is presented on Track2.and’3 when sonic log is run alone. When it run in combination with other tools, it appears on Track3, . Depth of Investigation + In theory, the refracted wave travels along the borehole wall, and hence the depth of penetration is small (2.5 to 25 em). + It is independent of TX-Rx spacing, but depends upon the wavelength of the elastic wave, with larger wavelengths giving larger penetrations. Day Vertical and Bed Resolution + The vertical resolution is equal to the RX-Rx spacing, and hence is 2C ey Sonic Log : Logging Problems Noise + Noise from stray electrical fields, the electronics package or derived from mechanically generated noise in rough holes can trigger the detection circuitry before the first arrival, causing a false (shorter) apparent first arrival + To limit this effect, all receiver circuits are disabled for 120 microseconds after the pulse. At Stretch, onan xc yam + Inlligavilylattenuating formations the value of At can be ? ne slightly too large due to the thresholding method employed be by the detection circuitry. L However, this problem is rarely significant, and is E a) impossible to detect from the log. edC ey Sonic Log : Logging Problems Cycle Skipping + This is the occurrence of a failure in the thresholding to detect the first eyele of the wave's first arrival + Tr may then occur at the second or even third cycle. + This causes a marked and sudden shift to higher Dt Values, followed by a shift back again to the correct value. Mud Arrivals + P wave should arrive from the formation, Sometimes P wave travelled through mud arsives first + This occurs ifthe TX:RX is smaller than a critical distance SdC ey Sonic Log : Logging Problems Altered Zone Arrivals The formation next to the borehole may not be typical of the rock. For example, it may be filled with’ solid mud and have a high formation, or it may be fractured or altered and have a lower velocity. This is an analogous problem to the mud arrival problem. Ifa low velocity altered zone exists, the TX-Rx spacing must be large to etisure that the P-wave from the virgin formation arrives before that from the altered zone. In this case an LSS should provide better data than a BHC type log. If a high’ velocity altered zone exists, there is no solution whatever type of log is used. The measured log value will be that for the altered zone. ed jet velocity than the virgin y a)C ey Sonic Log : Uses Seismic Data Calibration + The log data can be used to calibrate and check the seismic data, + As the resolution of the sonic log is about 61 cm and that of the seismic technique is 10 m to 50 1m, the sonic data must be averaged for the comparison to be made, Porosity Determination + The sonic log is commonly used to calculate the porosity of formations, however the values from the FDC and CNL logs are superior + Asa quality check on the FDC and CNL Jog determinations. + Asa robust method in boreholes of variable size (since the sonic log is relatively insensitive to caving and wash-outs ete) + To calculate secondary porosity in carbonates. + To calculate fracture porosity. edC ey Sonic Log : Uses Porosity Determination + The Wyllie Time Average Equation + The velocity of clastic: waves through a given lithology is a function Of porosity. Wyllie proposed a simple mixing equation to describe this behaviour and called it the time average equation, ‘e-the wansit ime in the formation of interest Ay + the transit time through 100% ofthe pore fluid ‘Ana the transit time through 100% ofthe rock matix + The Raymer-Hunt Eq + method for caleulatin the porosity from the sonic log was proposed by Raymer. 2 Oo? ‘tna edC ey Sonic Log : Uses The Effect of Shale on the Sonic Derived Porosity + The effect of shales is very variable + This is because is depends upon the density of the shales, which varies a lot. + Young shales are generally under-compacted and low density, tending to increase the transit times and hence give slightly higher sonic derived porosities. ‘The Effect of Gas on the Sonic Derived Porosity * Gas has a low density, and hence decreases the apparent density of a formation if present. * This causes an increase im the sonic transit time, and hefice a porosity that is overestimated. + However, the sonic tool penetrates to shallow levels, and senses the flushed zone Midst gas, even in high porosity gas-bearing foriiations willbe replaced by mud filtrate. edC ey Sonic Log : Uses Stratigraphic Correlation + The sonic log is sensitive to small changes in graif Size, texture mineralogy; carbonate “content, quartz content as well as porosity, | + This makes it very useful log for using for correlation and § | facies analysis Compaction + Asa sediment becomes compacted, the velocity of elastic waves through it increases. + If one plots the interval transit time on_a logarithmig, scale against depth on a linear scale, a straight line relationship emerges. ed eu)C ey Sonic Log : Uses Identification of Lithologies + The velocity or interval travel time is rarely diagnostic of a particular rock type However, high velocities usually indicate carbonates, middle velocities indicate sands and low velocities, shales. The sonic log data is diagnostic fateoals which have very low velocities, and evapotites, which have a constant, well recognized velocity and transit time It is best to use the sonic log with other logs if lithological identification is important.