Pumping unit engine speed oscillation detection and mitigation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12196196-B2
Application number	US-202117182516-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 23, 2021
Priority date	Feb 23, 2021
Publication date	Jan 14, 2025
Grant date	Jan 14, 2025

Abstract

An oscillation controller operates on engine speed or RPM data from a pump or pumping unit associated with a wellbore operation. The oscillation controller determines a measure of variability, such as a bandwidth, for the engine speed over a rolling time window and compares the measure of variability to an oscillation bandwidth threshold. The oscillation controller determines that erratic behavior or oscillation is present when the measure of variability exceeds the oscillation bandwidth threshold, and for such instances measures a duration of erratic behavior with a variability timer. If the oscillation controller determines that the erratic behavior has subsided, the variability timer is cleared. The oscillation controller generates at least one warning whenever the variability timer exceeds an oscillation warning threshold. The oscillation controller mitigates erratic behavior by downshifting (or shifting to neutral) at least one gear of the pump or pumping unit if the variability timer exceeds an oscillation mitigation time threshold.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for execution by one or more processors communicatively coupled to a non-transitory computer-readable media, the method comprising:
determining a first measure of engine speed variability over a first time period based, at least in part, on engine speed data associated with one or more pumping units of a wellbore operation, wherein each of the one or more pumping units includes a transmission that operates at one or more gear settings;
comparing the first measure of engine speed variability to an oscillation bandwidth threshold;
detecting erratic behavior in engine speed corresponding to the first time period based, at least in part, on a determination that the first measure of engine speed variability exceeds the oscillation bandwidth threshold over the first time period; and
in response to detecting the erratic behavior in engine speed over the first time period, initiating a timer for a second time period greater than the first time period;
determining whether the erratic behavior continues through both the first time period and the second time period; and
in response to determining that the erratic behavior continues through both the first time period and the second time period, mitigating engine speed oscillation, wherein mitigating engine speed oscillation includes:
determining whether a current gear setting of the one or more gear settings is a lowest gear setting;
in response to determining that the current gear setting is not the lowest gear setting, shifting the current gear setting to a lower gear setting; and
in response to determining that the current gear setting is the lowest gear setting, shifting the current gear setting to neutral.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein in response to detecting the erratic behavior in engine speed over the first time period, performing at least one of generating a first warning and logging the detected erratic behavior as an event.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein mitigating the engine speed oscillation based, at least partly, on detecting the erratic behavior comprises:
generating a warning for the one or more pumping units.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the first measure of engine speed variability comprises determining at least one of a bandwidth of engine speed, a variance of engine speed, and a standard deviation of engine speed.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein engine speed data comprises rotations per minute (RPM) data.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first time period includes one or more rolling time windows and determining whether the erratic behavior continues across the first time period comprises:
determining a measure of engine speed variability in each instance of each rolling time window; and
comparing each measure of engine speed variability to the oscillation bandwidth threshold to detect erratic behavior within the corresponding instance of the rolling time window, wherein comparing each measure of engine speed variability includes comparing the first measure of engine speed variability to the oscillation bandwidth threshold.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining whether a change in rate of engine speed or gear ratio of a transmission occurred within the first time period, wherein detecting the erratic behavior is also based on a determination that a change in the rate of engine speed or the gear ratio of the transmission did not occur within the first time period.

8. A non-transitory, machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by a computing device, the instructions comprising instructions to:
determine a first measure of engine speed variability over a first time period based, at least in part, on engine speed data associated with one or more pumping units of a wellbore operation, wherein each of the one or more pumping units includes a transmission that operates at one or more gear settings;
compare the first measure of engine speed variability to an oscillation bandwidth threshold;
determine that erratic behavior in engine speed is detected if the first measure of engine speed variability exceeds the oscillation bandwidth threshold over the first time period;
in response to detecting the erratic behavior in engine speed over the first time period, initiate a timer for a second time period greater than the first time period;
determine whether the erratic behavior continues through both the first time period and the second time period; and
in response to determining that the erratic behavior continues through both the first time period and the second time period, mitigate engine speed oscillation, wherein mitigating engine speed oscillation includes:
determining whether a current gear setting of the one or more gear settings is a lowest gear setting;
in response to determining that the current gear setting is not the lowest gear setting, shifting the current gear setting to a lower gear setting; and
in response to determining that the current gear setting is the lowest gear setting, shifting the current gear setting to neutral.

9. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions comprise instructions to:
in response to detecting the erratic behavior in engine speed over the first time period, perform at least one of generate a first warning and log the detected erratic behavior as an event.

10. An apparatus comprising:
a processor; and
a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to,
determine a first measure of engine speed variability over a first time period based, at least in part, on engine speed data associated with one or more pumping units of a wellbore operation, wherein each of the one or more pumping units operates at one or more gear settings;
compare the first measure of variability to an oscillation bandwidth threshold;
determine that erratic behavior in engine speed is detected when the first measure of engine speed variability exceeds the oscillation bandwidth threshold over the first time period; in response to detecting the erratic behavior in engine speed over the first time period,
initiate a timer for a second time period greater than the first time period;
determine whether the erratic behavior continues through both the first time period and the second time period; and

in response to determining that the erratic behavior in engine speed continues through both the first time period and the second time period, mitigate engine speed oscillation, wherein mitigating engine speed oscillation includes:
determining whether a current gear setting of the one or more gear settings is a lowest gear setting;
in response to determining that the current gear setting is not the lowest gear setting, shifting the current gear setting to a lower gear setting; and
in response to determining that the current gear setting is the lowest gear setting, shifting the current gear setting to neutral.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising instructions to:
based on a determination that the erratic behavior has exceeded the first time period, generate a warning for the one or more pumping units; and
wherein the instructions to indicate detected erratic behavior comprise instructions to log the detected erratic behavior as an event.

Assignees

• Halliburton Energy Services Inc

Inventors

• Ralls Corey Gene

Classifications

• F04B47/00

  Pumps or pumping installations specially adapted for raising fluids from great depths, e.g. well pumps (by using positive or negative pressurised fluid medium acting directly on the liquid to be pumped F04F1/00) · CPC title

• F04B2207/043

  of time · CPC title

• F04B2203/0605

  Rotational speed · CPC title

• F04B17/05

  driven by internal-combustion engines · CPC title

• F04B49/103

  Responsive to speed · CPC title