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AcousticVelocitiesinPetroleumOilsOnePetro

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AcousticVelocitiesinPetroleumOils

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Authors

ZhijingWang(StanfordU.)|AmosM.Nur(StanfordU.)|MichaelL.Batzle(ArcoOil&GasCo.)

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/18163PA

DocumentID

SPE18163PA

Publisher

SocietyofPetroleumEngineers

Source

JournalofPetroleumTechnology

Volume

42

Issue

02

PublicationDate

February1990
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Summary
Resultsoflaboratoryexperimentsonacousticwavevelocitiesinoilsshowthatthemeasuredacousticvelocitiesarestrongfunctionsofboth
temperatureandpressure.Theexperimentalresultsarediscussedinlightofexistingliquidstatetheoriesandmodelstointerpretandunderstand
theacousticvelocitybehaviorsofoils.Correlationsaremadebetweenacousticvelocityandtemperature,pressure,APIgravity,andmolecular
weight.EmpiricalequationsareestablishedtocalculateacousticvelocitiesinoilswithknownAPIgravities.Variousapplicationsorpotential
applicationsoftheexperimentalresultsarealsodiscussed.
Introduction
Withtherapiddevelopmentsinseismicandwellloggingtechnologies,detailedstudiesonhydrocarbonresrvoirsaregettingmoreattention.In
recentyears,seismicboreholetoboreholetomography,3Dseismicreservoirimaging,seismicdelineationofreservoirfluidsaturations,seismic
evaluationandcharacterizationofhydrocarbonreservoirs,seismicmonitoringofproductionandEORprocessesintime,anddetailedborehole
soniclogginghaveallbeguntoemerge.Thesetechnologieswillbecomeroutineinthenearfuture.Usingthesenewmethodsandinterpreting
theirresults,however,requirethatweunderstandtheacousticpropertiesofreservoirfluidsandrocks.Unfortunately,theimportanceofthe
acousticpropertiesofreservoirliquidshasnotyetbeenrecognizedi.e.,thereareveryfewexperimentaldataonacousticvelocitiesincrudeoils
https://www.onepetro.org/journalpaper/SPE18163PA

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7/29/2015

AcousticVelocitiesinPetroleumOilsOnePetro

andnosystematicstudies.Therefore,themainpurposeofthispaperistoprovideacousticwavevelocityinformationondifferentoils.
Wemeasuredacousticvelocitiesattheultrasonicfrequencyof800,000cycles/sec[800kHz]ineightdeadoilsandtworefinedpetroleum
hydrocarbonswithgravityrangingfrom5to62API[1.037to0.73g/cm3].Wealsomeasuredacousticvelocitiesinaliveorgassaturatedoil.The
experimentalresultsshowthatallvelocitiesinoilsstronglydependontemperatureandpressureandthatdissolvedgasessubstantiallyreduce
theacousticvelocitiesinliveoils.
Inthispaper,webrieflydescribetheexperimentalmethodandthepropertiesoftheoilsamplesusedintheexperiments,andweshow
theexperimentalresultsofacousticvelocitiesindeadandliveoils.Tounderstandandinterprettheacousticvelocitybehaviorsoftheoilsbetter,
wediscussvariousliquidstatetheoriesandmodelsandtherelationshipbetweenacousticvelocitiesandPVTmeasurements.Wecorrelate
acousticvelocitiesindeadoilswithtemperature,pressure,APIgravities,andmolecularweightsoftheoilsandestablishempiricalequationsto
calculateortoestimateacousticvelocitiesinoilsiftheAPIgravitiesareknown.Finally,wediscusspotentialapplicationsofourvelocityresultsin
bothgeophysicalandpetroleumengineeringaspectsandpresentconclusionsfromthisstudy.
Experiments
Fortheexperiments,weusedthepulsetransmissionmethodwithanapparatusconsistingofapulsegenerator/receiver,adigitaloscilloscope,
twoacoustictransducers,andapressurevessel.Electricalpulsesgeneratedbythepulsegenerator/receiverweresenttotheemitting
piezoelectrictransducer,whichconvertselectricalenergyintomechanicalvibrations.Aftertravelingthroughthefluidsample,theultrasonicwaves
wereconvertedbacktoelectricalsignalsbythereceivingtransducerandrecordedbythedigitaloscilloscope.Traveltimesoftheultrasonic
wavesthroughtheoilsampleweremeasuredwithaprecisionof0.05sec.Ultrasonicvelocitieswerecalculatedbyv(p,T)=L(p,T)/?t(p,T),
whereL(p,T)=distancebetweenthetwotransducerscorrectedforpressureandtemperatureand?t(p,T)=traveltimeoftheultrasonicwaves,which
isafunctionofpressureandtemperature.
Temperatureswerecontrolledbyaheatingcoilandatemperaturecontrollerandweremeasuredbytwothermocouplesconnectedtoadigital
meter.Theaccuracyofthetemperaturemeasurementswasabout1F[0.5C].Pressuresintheexperimentswerecontrolledbyanautomatic
fluidpumpandwerereadthroughadigitalpressuregaugewithanaccuracyofabout10psi[0.07Mpa].

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