THE USE OF AIRGUN PRESSURE PULSES FOR CALIBRATING A LOW-FREQUENCY STANDARD HYDROPHONE*

A new technique is developed for calibrating a low-frequency hydrophone. The technique involves the use of pressure pulses radiated by the Par 0.65 liter airgun when fired at a fixed depth but with various values of initial chamber pressure. The sensitivity of a low-frequency hydrophone, when determined by the proposed technique, is found to be in agreement with that obtained by using the so-called “impulse method”.     

COMPUTATION OF SIGNATURES OF LINEAR AIRGUN ARRAYS*

Far-field signatures from an airgun array are usually obtained by carrying out extensive field measurements. In order to decrease the need for such measurements, we have developed a method for computing signatures from linear airgun arrays where the distances between the airguns are such that the non-linear interaction among the airguns is negligible. The signature from a single airgun of a given type is computed from the following airgun parameters: airgun chamber volume, chamber pressure, airgun depth and position of the waveshape plate within the chamber. For calibration purposes, a recorded signature for one set of airgun parameters has to be provided for each type of airgun. The signatures are computed by using empirical relations between signature properties and the airgun parameters, and by treating the primary and bubble pulses separately. The far-field signature from a linear airgun array can now be computed by summation of the delayed signatures from the airguns in the array. Practical results are shown for an array with different PAR (Bolt) 1500 C airguns.     

INTERACTION BETWEEN AIRGUNS*

In the design of linear airgun arrays the interaction between the airguns is usually neglected. We review the different formulae which have been proposed for the minimum separation between airguns at which the interaction is negligible. These formulae can all be approximated by a linear function of a single variable. We have analyzed a large number of measurements in order to establish the amount of interaction between two airguns of various volumes at different pressures and depths. The resulting far-field signature has been measured and compared with the sum of the signatures from the two airguns measured in the same experimental situation. The changes in primary pulse amplitude, bubble period and primary/bubble peak-to-peak amplitude ratio were computed from the measurement data as a function of airgun separation, chamber volume, chamber pressure and airgun depth. The influence of a waveshape kit was investigated, and the effects of interaction and the effects of using a waveshape kit were compared.     

THE SCALING OF AIRGUN ARRAYS,INCLUDING DEPTH DEPENDENCE AND INTERACTIONS*

The article provides a theoretical basis for the extension of the method of scaling law deconvolution to three dimensions using airgun arrays as a sound source. Earlier papers by the author required the dimensions of the scaled sources to be different while the depths and firing pressures were maintained the same in order to preserve the same dynamics of the scaled sources at scaled time. However, this forces the source ghost to be considered as part of the impulse response of the earth rather than as part of the downgoing source wave. And, in fact, the dynamics of the scaled sources are not the same at the same depth because the ghost reflection modulates the behaviour of the oscillating bubbles generated by the airguns, and this modulation does not scale. To force the sources to scale properly, including the ghost interaction, the larger source must be put at greater depth, where hydrostatic pressure is greater, and the initial firing pressure must be adjusted accordingly. Thus, the depth, initial firing pressure and gun volume are all variables. The interaction among guns in scaled airgun arrays also scales exactly if the geometry of an array and the depth of its deployment are scaled by the same factor.     

SIGNATURES FROM SINGLE AIRGUNS*

The far-field signatures from a comprehensive and systematic airgun pulse test have been analyzed. Empirical relations between the characteristic signature parameters and depth (5–12 m), pressure (100–137 bar = 10–13.7 MPa) and total chamber volume (0.65–9.5 l) have been derived. Also, the influence of using waveshape kits in different positions within the chamber has been tested. The results indicate that:

• 1 The amplitude is proportional to chamber pressure to the power 3/4.
• 2 The bubble period is nearly independent of the position of the waveshape plate.
• 3 The increase in primary/bubble amplitude ratio is inversely proportional to the chamber volume above the waveshape plate.
• 4 The amplitude is independent of airgun depth.

Suggestions and comments regarding this work from Dr B. Ursin and Dr A. Ziolkowski are appreciated. The field work was supported by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate through the Continental Shelf Project at the Seismological Observatory, University of Bergen. An airgun allowing for continuous variation of the chamber volumes was supplied by GECO (Geophysical Company of Norway). The purchase of two airguns was financed by Norske Getty Exploration A/S.     

SIGNATURE AND AMPLITUDE OF LINEAR AIRGUN ARRAYS *

During the last few years many airgun arrays have been designed with the objective of generating a short signature of high amplitude. For linear arrays of non-interacting airguns two rules have been derived that may help in the design or evaluation of airgun arrays. To achieve a short pressure pulse, the total available air volume has to be distributed over the individual guns in such a way that the tail of the signal, owing to the added bubble signals, becomes as flat as possible. When we think of ordering airguns according to volume, this flat signal tail can be achieved by designing the volumes such that the difference in bubble times of two adjacent guns is proportional to their volume to the power 2/3. The amplitude expected from a linear array of non-interacting airguns is limited by the physical length of the array. A graph of measured values tends to confirm this relation. No relation has been found between the total volume of an array and its amplitude. The graph also detects inefficient use of available array length of existing arrays.     

AN EFFICIENT METHOD OF OPERATING THE AIR-GUN*

A new technique is developed for generating a short seismic pulse from the bubble pulses which are radiated by an air-gun. The new technique, which is useful in well velocity surveys and vertical seismic profiling, can be implemented by firing a single air-gun several times at the same depth but with different chamber pressures. A record obtained by this procedure from a well-geophone clamped at a depth of 2450 m gave a maximum peak-to-peak amplitude within the first 100 ms of the effective seismic pulse at least ten times any later peak-to-peak amplitude.     

Using an airgun array in a land reservoir as the seismic source for seismotectonic studies in northern China: experiments and preliminary results

This paper reports the field setup and preliminary results of experiments utilizing an airgun array in a reservoir in north China for a seismotectonic study. Commonly used in offshore petroleum resource exploration, the airgun source was found to be more useful than a traditional explosive source for large‐scale and long offset land seismic surveys. The airgun array, formed by four 1,500 in³ airguns (a total of 6,000 in³ in volume) was placed at a depth of 6–9 m into the reservoir to generate the pressure impulse. No direct evidence was found that the airgun source adversely affected the fish in the reservoir. The peak ground acceleration recorded on the top of the reservoir dam 100 m away was 17.8 gal in the horizontal direction; this is much less than the designed earthquake‐resistance threshold of 125 gal for this dam. The energy for one shot of this airgun array is about 6.68 MJ, equivalent to firing a 1.7 kg explosive. The seismic waves generated by the airgun source were recorded by receivers of the regional seismic networks and a temporary wide‐angle reflection and refraction profile formed by 100 short‐period seismometers with the maximum source‐receiver offset of 206 km. The seismic wave signature at these long‐offset stations is equivalent to that generated by a traditional blast source in a borehole with a 1,000–2,000 kg explosive. Preliminary results showed clear seismic phases from refractions from the multi‐layer crustal structures in the north China region. Forward modelling using numerical simulation confirms that the seismic arrivals are indeed from lower crustal interfaces. The airgun source is efficient, economical, environmentally friendly and suitable for being used in urbanized areas. It has many advantages over an explosive source for seismotectonic studies such as the high repeatability that is supreme for stacking to improve signal qualities. The disadvantage is that the source is limited to existing lakes or reservoirs, which may restrict experimental geometry.     

THE RADIATION OF ACOUSTIC WAVES FROM AN AIR-GUN*

A theoretical model is developed for predicting three important parameters of the pressure pulse radiated by an air-gun, namely the rise time, the amplitude of the initial pulse, and the period of the bubble pulse. A knowledge of these three parameters is essential for the efficient design of air-guns arrays. The prediction of the amplitude of the initial pulse is based on the assumption that the initial pulse is radiated by a spherical source with surface area equal to that of the air-gun ports and not by a spherical source with initial volume equal to that of the air-gun chamber, as has been assumed previously. A simple equation is obtained for predicting the period of the bubble pulsation, taking into account the effect of the air-gun body, boundaries such as the sea-surface and seabed and the presence of a number of identical air-guns placed at the same depth and fired simultaneously.     

An Experimental Study on Modulating the Large Volume Airgun Array Signals through Asynchronous Excitation

Large volume airgun arrays have been widely used in exploring and monitoring underground structures for nearly a decade. Nowadays, large volume airgun arrays adopt the synchronous excitation mode, and source characteristics are controlled by the source signal of a single airgun, which to some extent limits its application. In order to realize the asynchronous excitation of the airgun array, we developed a new firing system for the airgun array, and carried out a field experiment in the Binchuan Fixed Airgun Signal Transmission station to study the influences of the asynchronous excitation on the source signal. The experimental results show that:the newly developed airgun array firing system can ignite the airguns according to the setting time series with high precision. By designing the excitation time series, the asynchronous excitation can enhance the energy of airgun source signal at 3-5Hz, and reduce the energy of pressure pulse wave at 6-18Hz. The signal detection capability of the asynchronous excitation with time series mode is equivalent to the synchronous excitation.     

ATTENUATION OF COHERENT NOISE IN MARINE SEISMIC EXPLORATION USING VERY LONG ARRAYS *

The use of arrays to separate primary reflections from unwanted coherent seismic events is common practice in land seismic surveys. Very long source and receiver arrays have been used recently to reduce the effects of waterbottom multiples on marine seismic data. The source array consists of five uniformly spaced identical subarrays, each with five different airguns, where the distance between the subarrays may vary from 20 m56 m. The volume of each subarray is 10.3 1 (630 cu.in.) which gives a total volume of the array of 51.5 1 (3150 cu.in.) operated at a pressure of 14 MPa (2000 psi). In order to have a flexible receiver system it was decided to implement the extended receiver array in data processing by computing a weighted sum of two to five traces. The hydrophone cable consists of fifty-four channels with a group length of 50 m. Data shot with the superlong airgun array are processed by a combination of standard techniques and special procedures. In particular, the quality of the stack section is improved by using a weighted stack. The stack weights are computed by a program which takes into account the primary-to-multiple ratio. Comparisons with conventional data show significant improvements in data quality obtained by using the superlong airgun array. Examples show that the waterbottom multiples have been strongly attenuated and the deep seismic events have been enhanced. The combined array response function for dipping events is given in an appendix.     

TEMPERATURE EFFECTS ON AIRGUN SIGNATURES1

Experiments in an 850 litre water tank were performed in order to study temperature effects on airgun signatures, and to achieve a better understanding of the physical processes that influence an airgun signature. The source was a bolt airgun with a chamber volume of 1.6 cu.in. The pressure used was 100 bar and the gun depth was 0.5 m. The water temperature in the tank was varied between 5°C and 45°C. Near-field signatures were recorded at different water temperatures. Typical signature characteristics such as the primary-to-bubble ratio and the bubble time period increased with increasing water temperature. For comparison and in order to check whether this is valid for larger guns, computer modelling of airguns with chamber volumes of 1.6 and 40 cu.in. was performed. In the modelling the same behaviour of the signatures with increasing water temperature can be observed. The increase in the primary-to-bubble ratio and the bubble time period with increasing water temperature can be explained by an increased mass transfer across the bubble wall.     

CALIBRATION OF MARINE SEISMIC SOURCES USING A HYDROPHONE OF UNKNOWN SENSITIVITY*

The absolute amplitude of the pressure pulse radiated by a marine seismic source is one of the prime criteria used in evaluating its performance. A technique for this measurement is proposed which is applicable to all sources which radiate a bubble pulse. The technique is described with reference to an air-gun array in which the pulse radiated from a single gun is compared with that radiated by the full array. The advantage of the method is that absolute values of pressure are obtained without any need for a calibrated hydrophone. In theory this may seem a trivial advantage but in practice sensitivity factors for the hydrophone channel cannot always be relied upon. The proposed technique is illustrated by an example.     

A comparison between airguns and explosives as wide-angle seismic sources

The relative merits of a 48-gun, 9324 cu. in. (153 litre) airgun array and a 200 kg explosive source are considered for the purposes of long-range (0–400 km) refraction seismic work, with particular reference to traveltime modelling. Theoretical source calculations indicate that in the frequency range 2.5–12.0 Hz, the airgun source will produce an RMS pressure ∼ 8% of that produced by the explosive source and an initial burst pressure ∼17% of that produced by the explosive source. Observed data support these calculations at short ranges and illustrate the greater attenuation of the airgun signal with range due to its lack of very low frequency (< 5 Hz) content. At short offsets, the airgun array provides a preferable seismic source to the explosives, due to densely spaced shots and a consistent waveform resulting in excellent trace-to-trace coherence. With increasing offsets, it may be necessary to stack the airgun data to enhance its signal-to-noise ratio: here we use a 4-fold stack. Large explosive shots, although more powerful, produce a less consistent waveform and are more widely spaced due to operational constraints. The offset at which airguns provide a preferable source is dependent on the ambient noise. This practical comparison of real sources demonstrates that, even without advanced processing, a well-tuned airgun array may provide a preferable source to explosives at offsets up to 160 km, under favourable experimental conditions.     

Influencing factors of seismic signals generated by un-tuned large volume airgun array in a land reservoir

Un-tuned large volume airgun array in a water reservoir is recently proposed as a new way to generate seismic waves on land. It can be used to explore the earth velocity structure and its temporal variations as well. However, the characteristics of seismic signals (especially far-field signals) from an airgun array in a reservoir and its affecting factors (firing pressure, airgun towing depth, water level of the reservoir, etc.) has not been adequately studied. We analyzed the seismic data collected from field experiments at Binchuan Transmitting Seismic Station in 2011 and 2013 and found that (1) The similarity of seismic signals decrease with distance, which is most likely induced by the decay of signal amplitude and signal to noise ratio (SNR); (2) The amplitudes of far-field airgun signals are almost linearly proportional to the firing pressure; (3) The towing depth of airgun has less effects on the far-field signals; (4) The amplitudes of far-field airgun signals are proportional to the water level of the reservoir.     

ON THE CALIBRATION OF THE WATER GUN PRESSURE SIGNATURE*

A simple field method was proposed by the author in 1976 for measuring the absolute amplitude of the pressure pulse radiated by marine seismic sources which radiate a bubble pulse. The proposed method involves the recording of the near-field pressure signature radiated by the water gun using a wide-band hydrophone. The key feature of the proposed method is that a knowledge of the hydrophone sensitivity and its distance from the water gun are not required. It is shown that the absolute amplitudes of the pressure pulses radiated by the S80 and P400 water guns obtained using the proposed method are in agreement with those obtained using a Ref-Tek hydrophone.     

DEVELOPMENT OF MORE EFFICIENT AIRGUN ARRAYS: THEORY AND EXPERIMENT*

Source strength of an airgun array may be increased by:

• — utilizing higher pressure,
• — increasing total array volume,
• — employing more guns,
• — improving gun efficiency.

One measure of gun efficiency is “specific source strength”, P_a*, defined as source strength per unit quantity of air used. Typical units are MPa m/l. Most developments are directed toward increasing gun pressure and/or gun volume to increase source strength of the array. These efforts require that more air compressors be installed onboard the ship. Consequently, a larger ship may be needed for the additional compressors, guns, and auxiliary equipment. A development program was initiated in 1976 to increase source strength of the array without using a larger ship. New guns were designed and built—one for 41.4 MPa and 7.37 liter (6000 p.s.i./450 in³) operation and another with 13.8 MPa and 4.92 liter (2000 p.s.i./300 in³) capability. Experiments were conducted with these new guns (and existing guns) over a range of pressures from 13.8 to 41.4 MPa (2000 to 6000 p.s.i.). Design of the new guns was aided by a mathematical model. The model relates physical dimensions of the airgun to acoustic pressure in the water. It consists of four nonlinear differential equations relating

• — shuttle motion,
• — bubble pressure,
• — chamber pressure,
• — bubble radius.

The last equation is the “free-bubble-oscillation equation” and represents the ideal case of a pressurized bubble released instantaneously in water. The three other equations modify this ideal case; the four equations together model an airgun of the type manufactured by Bolt Associates, Inc.     

水库气枪震源产生的S波及其分裂

人工气枪震源在陆地水库可以有效激发S波,S波能量较强,与ML1.6天然地震相当。气枪可用于S波分裂研究,对布置在燕山隆起带的流动地震台的气枪信号进行了S波分裂参数分析,结果表明,快剪切波偏振优势方向为NWW和NNE向,偏振方向和断裂的性质密切相关。气枪是高度可重复性人工震源,利用气枪定点激发和定点接收有可能精确获取S波分裂参数随时间的变化规律,为地震预测探索实践提供可靠的物理途径     

EFFICIENT DESIGN OF AIR-GUN ARRAYS*

A new technique is developed for shaping the pressure bubble pulse radiated by an array of air-guns. It involves the proper spacing of identical units. It is shown that considerable shortening of the pressure bubble pulse can be achieved provided there is sufficient mutual coupling between all the air-guns. The existing air-gun array technique for reducing the bubble pulse involves the redistribution of the energy of the bubble pulses which are produced by an array of variable sized air-guns such that no energy of the bubble pulses is radiated along the perpendicular to the array axis and only the sum of the initial pulses produced by the air-guns forming the array is radiated along that direction. However, the new air-guns array technique involves the damping of the bubble pulses which are produced by an array of identical air-guns by means of mutual interaction and the effective pressure pulse radiated by the array is given by the sum of the damped bubble pulses produced by the mutually coupled identical air-guns. Preliminary field trials gave results consistent with the theoretical predictions. A comparison between the waveforms of the pressure bubble pulses radiated by a single air-gun and by an array of four identical air-guns shows that, due to the presence of mutual coupling between the four air-guns, effective damping of the bubble pulse radiated by the array is about 50% greater than that of the bubble pulse radiated by the single air-gun.