Method for determining a health condition of wellsite equipment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10613003-B2
Application number	US-201214125987-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 9, 2012
Priority date	Jul 8, 2011
Publication date	Apr 7, 2020
Grant date	Apr 7, 2020

Abstract

A system and method for determining a health condition of wellsite equipment is presented herein. The method includes thermally analyzing at least a portion of one of the wellsite equipment units with a thermal imaging device capable of detecting infrared light to determine a temperature of the analyzed portion of the wellsite equipment unit. The temperature of the analyzed portion of the wellsite equipment unit may be used to indicate the health condition of the wellsite equipment unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for determining a health condition of wellsite equipment, comprising:
operating a plurality of wellsite equipment units at or nearby a wellsite;
thermally analyzing at least a portion of at least one wellsite equipment unit of the plurality of wellsite equipment units with a thermal imaging device capable of detecting infrared light to determine a temperature of the analyzed at least a portion of the at least one wellsite equipment unit;
calculating a theoretical reference temperature of the analyzed at least a portion of the at least one wellsite equipment unit utilizing a theoretical reference model, wherein the theoretical reference model is based on one or more operating parameters of the at least one wellsite equipment unit;
determining a health condition of the at least one wellsite equipment unit with an oilfield thermal imaging tool comprising a processing unit using the determined temperature and the theoretical reference temperature of the analyzed at least a portion of the at least one wellsite equipment unit; and
if the determined health condition is an unhealthy condition, prompting a user to perform maintenance on the at least one wellsite equipment unit, wherein prompting the user is determined by the determined health condition.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the thermal imaging device is a thermal infrared camera.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein operating comprises operating the at least one wellsite equipment unit at a predetermined flow rate and pressure.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein determining comprises comparing the temperature of the analyzed at least a portion of the at least one wellsite equipment unit with the theoretical reference temperature and wherein calculating comprises calculating the theoretical reference temperature as a function of the predetermined flow rate and pressure.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising comparing the temperature of the analyzed at least a portion of the at least one wellsite equipment unit with a reference temperature of the analyzed at least a portion of the at least one wellsite equipment unit determined by the thermal imaging device during normal operation of the at least one wellsite equipment unit.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the temperature of the analyzed at least a portion of the at least one wellsite equipment unit comprises identifying a group of pixels on a thermal image that correspond to a thermal value.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein determining comprises further comparing the temperature of the analyzed at least a portion of the at least one wellsite equipment unit with another theoretical reference temperature calculated as a function of the predetermined flow rate and pressure.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the health condition of the at least one wellsite equipment unit is indicated by comparing a thermal value associated with at least one pixel on a thermal image that corresponds to the analyzed at least a portion of the at least one wellsite equipment unit against other pixels on the thermal image.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the health condition of the at least one wellsite equipment unit is indicated by comparing a thermal value associated with at least one pixel on a thermal image that corresponds to the analyzed at least a portion of the at least one wellsite equipment unit against at least one other pixel on another thermal image that corresponds to the analyzed at least a portion of the at least one wellsite equipment unit.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one wellsite equipment unit is a positive displacement pump comprising a power end and a fluid end, the power end having a first side and second side, and comprising at least two bearings.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the health condition of the at least one wellsite equipment unit is indicated by comparing a ratio of a first temperature and a second temperature to a theoretical reference ratio.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first temperature is selected from a thermal image as a maximum localized thermal value at or near a first known bearing location and wherein the second temperature is selected from the thermal image as a maximum localized thermal value at or near a second known bearing location.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first temperature is selected from a thermal image as a localized mean thermal value at or near a first known bearing location and wherein the second temperature is selected from the thermal image as a localized mean thermal value at or near a second known bearing location.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the health condition of the at least one wellsite equipment unit is indicated by comparing a ratio of a first temperature and a second temperature of the analyzed at least a portion of the at least one wellsite equipment unit with a limiting value based on test data.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a health condition of the at least one wellsite equipment unit comprises identifying a failure of a particular component of the at least one wellsite equipment unit.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a health condition of the at least one wellsite equipment unit comprises predicting a failure of a particular component of the at least one wellsite equipment unit.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a health condition of the at least one wellsite equipment unit comprises validating a design of a particular component of the at least one wellsite equipment unit.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein a type of the prompted maintenance to be performed comprises at least one of a further analysis and an inspection.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the maintenance to be performed comprises at least applying additional grease to a portion of the at least one wellsite equipment unit.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more operating parameters comprise flow rate through the at least one wellsite equipment unit, a pressure of the at least one wellsite equipment unit, an operating speed of the at least one wellsite equipment unit, or some combination thereof.

Assignees

• Luharuka Rajesh
• Joseph Jijo
• Schlumberger Technology Corp

Inventors

• Luharuka Rajesh
• Joseph Jijo

Classifications

• G01J5/0066

  for hot spots detection · CPC title

• E21B47/103

  using thermal measurements · CPC title

• E21B12/02 Primary

  Wear indicators · CPC title

• G01J2005/0077

  Imaging · CPC title

• G01J5/025

  Interfacing a pyrometer to an external device or network; User interface · CPC title