Developments in vibrator control

Hydraulic limitations, non-rigidity of the baseplate as well as variable characteristics of the ground constantly distort the downgoing energy output by vibrators. Therefore, a real time feedback control must be performed to continuously adjust the emitted force to the reference pilot signal. This ground force is represented by the weighted sum of the reaction mass and the baseplate accelerations. It was first controlled with an amplitude and phase locked loop system, poorly reactive and sensitive to noise. Later on, new vibrator electronics based on a digital model of the vibrator were introduced. This model is based on the physical equations of the vibrator and of the ground. During an 'identification' process, the model is adjusted to each particular vibrator. Completed by a Kalman adaptive filter to remove the noise, it computes ten estimated states via a linear quadratic estimator. These states are used by a linear quadratic control to compute the torque motor input and to compare the ground force estimated from the states with the pilot signal. Test results using downhole geophones demonstrate the benefit of filtered mode operation.     

Review of vibroseis data acquisition and processing for better amplitudes: adjusting the sweep and deconvolving for the time-derivative of the true groundforce

The goal of vibroseis data acquisition and processing is to produce seismic reflection data with a known spatially-invariant wavelet, preferably zero phase, such that any variations in the data can be attributed to variations in geology. In current practice the vibrator control system is designed to make the estimated groundforce equal to the sweep and the resulting particle velocity data are cross-correlated with the sweep. Since the downgoing far-field particle velocity signal is proportional to the time-derivative of the groundforce, it makes more sense to cross-correlate with the time-derivative of the sweep. It also follows that the ideal amplitude spectrum of the groundforce should be inversely proportional to frequency. Because of non-linearities in the vibrator, bending of the baseplate and variable coupling of the baseplate to the ground, the true groundforce is not equal to the pre-determined sweep and varies not only from vibrator point to vibrator point but also from sweep to sweep at each vibrator point. To achieve the goal of a spatially-invariant wavelet, these variations should be removed by signature deconvolution, converting the wavelet to a much shorter zero-phase wavelet but with the same bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio as the original data. This can be done only if the true groundforce is known. The principle may be applied to an array of vibrators by employing pulse coding techniques and separating responses to individual vibrators in the frequency domain. Various approaches to improve the estimate of the true groundforce have been proposed or are under development; current methods are at best approximate.     

THE AMPLITUDE AND PHASE RESPONSE OF A SEISMIC VIBRATOR*

The amplitude and phase response of a simple model is compared with the performance of a real vibrator working in the field. The field results show a characteristic phase response which confirms that the real drive force applied to the baseplate and its load impedance is faithfully represented by the acceleration of the reaction mass. It follows that all the parameters necessary to calculate the load impedance and the true power dissipated in the earth can be measured at the output of the vibrator. It also follows that the current method of baseplate phase compensation should be reconsidered.     

Simulation of improved pure P-wave equation in transversely isotropic media with a horizontal symmetry axis

Characterizing the expressions of seismic waves in elastic anisotropic media depends on multiparameters. To reduce the complexity, decomposing the P-mode wave from elastic seismic data is an effective way to describe the considerably accurate kinematics with fewer parameters. The acoustic approximation for transversely isotropic media is widely used to obtain P-mode wave by setting the axial S-wave phase velocity to zero. However, the separated pure P-wave of this approach is coupled with undesired S-wave in anisotropic media called S-wave artefacts. To eliminate the S-wave artefacts in acoustic waves for anisotropic media, we set the vertical S-wave phase velocity as a function related to propagation directions. Then, we derive a pure P-wave equation in transversely isotropic media with a horizontal symmetry axis by introducing the expression of vertical S-wave phase velocity. The differential form of new expression for pure P-wave is reduced to second-order by inserting the expression of S-wave phase velocity as an auxiliary operator. The results of numerical simulation examples by finite difference illustrate the stability and accuracy of the derived pure P-wave equation.     

Break through the limits of vibroseis data quality

The vibroseis method has become the principal data acquisition method in land seismic exploration. It seems that this method has been extended to its limits as the search for energy resources continues. Many practical issues arising from field operations have remained theoretically unexplained, for example, variations in wavelet arrival time, inaccurate wavelet estimation and harmonics in the wavelet itself. The focus of this paper is the proposal of a new model, which is referred to as the vibrator‐coupled ground model, to simulate the filtering effects of a complex coupling system consisting of the coupling between the baseplate and the ground as well as the coupling between the captured ground mass near the vibrator baseplate and the surrounding earth. With this vibrator‐coupled ground model many of the practical issues mentioned above were reasonably addressed. Furthermore, it was demonstrated from experimental tests that both the pilot sweep and the weighted‐sum groundforce, when filtered by the vibrator‐coupled ground model, are proportional to the far‐field particle velocity whereas the unfiltered signals are not. The harmonics on the filtered weighted‐sum groundforce successfully maintain a proportional relationship with the harmonics seen in the far‐field signal.     

Modelling and modal analysis of seismic vibrator baseplate

The vibroseis method must be extended to its limits as the search for oil and gas continues on land. To successfully improve vibroseis data quality, it is crucial to evaluate each element in the vibroseis data acquisition system and ensure that the contribution from each element is successful. Vibroseis systems depend greatly upon the ability of vibrators to generate synchronous, repeatable ground-force sweeps over a broad frequency range. This requires that the reaction mass and the baseplate of the vibrator move as rigid bodies. However, rigid-body motion is not completely true for high- frequency vibrations, especially for the vibrator baseplate. In order to accurately understand the motion of the vibrator baseplate, a finite element analysis model of the vibrator baseplate and the coupled ground has been developed. This model is useful for simulating the vibrator baseplate dynamics, evaluating the impact of the baseplate on the coupled ground and vibrator baseplate design. Model data demonstrate that the vibrator baseplate and its stilt structure are subject to six significant resonant frequencies in the range of 10–80 Hz. Due to the low rigidity of the baseplate, the baseplate stilt structure experiences severe rocking motions at lower frequencies and the baseplate pad experiences severe flexing motions at higher frequencies. Flexing motions cause partial decoupling, which gives rise to increased levels of harmonic distortion and less useable signal energy. In general, the baseplate pad suffers more bending and flexing motions at high frequencies than low frequencies, leading less efficiency in transmitting the useable energy into the ground.     

MEASUREMENTS OF EARTH ATTENUATION FROM DOWNHOLE AND SURFACE SEISMIC RECORDINGS*

Frequency-dependent attenuation of compressional waves within the earth has been estimated in the vicinity of wells from

• 1 spectral power ratios of the coherent events in separate time gates on the seismic section
• 2 matching a broadband synthetic trace with seismic data at the well, and
• 3 determining the operator that transforms one down(up) going pulse recorded in the well into another recorded at a deeper (shallower) level.

The accuracy of estimation of all three methods was insufficient to estimate attenuation over small depth intervals, and it was not possible to distinguish between the contribution due to internal multiples and that of genuine absorption with much confidence. Spectral ratios from (1) showed a smoother variation with frequency—and one more consistent with other estimates—when they were compensated for the spectra of the reflectivities over the time gates employed, but they did not provide more than a broad indication of attenuation over a substantial depth interval. Approach (2) was hampered by the restricted durations over which synthetic trace and seismic data can be reliably matched; approach (3) gave the best results. Here matching is a much more powerful tool than the spectral-ratio techniques that are commonly applied since it can yield the form of the attenuation operator, i.e., both its amplitude and phase response, together with properly defined measures of its accuracy, while at the same time it minimizes the influence of noise and local interference effects at each recording level. For seismic target depths where internal multiple activity was low the logarithms of the amplitude responses of the estimated attenuation operators decreased approximately linearly with frequency and the phase responses showed no significant dispersion. Application of approach (3) to downgoing and upgoing waves estimated from a vertical seismic profile revealed the importance of changes in frequency-dependent geophone coupling and their effect on values of Q determined from downgoing pulses only.     

ENHANCED SERVOVALVE TECHNOLOGY FOR SEISMIC VIBRATORS1

The Pelton DR^TM Servovalve Enhancement causes the natural output of a vibrator to resemble the desired output more closely. This simplifies the control problem and reduces harmonic distortion. The traditional type of servovalve used on seismic vibrators is a flow-control servovalve. Flow is proportional to a vibrator's baseplate velocity, with respect to its reaction mass. The new servovalve control parameter is pressure rather than flow. The differential pressure applied to a vibrator's actuator piston, multiplied by the area of the piston, equals the force applied to the vibrator's baseplate structure. This may be defined as actuator force. There is a simpler and more linear relationship between actuator force and ground force than between actuator velocity and ground force. Thus, it is better for the servovalve to control pressure into the actuator rather than flow. A flow-control servovalve can be made to control pressure by sensing the differential pressure across a vibrator's actuator piston and applying it as a negative feedback around the servovalve main stage. This has been carried out and tested. The result is more accurate vibrator control and reduced harmonic distortion.     

Joint viscoacoustic waveform inversion with the separated upgoing and downgoing wavefields in zero-offset vertical seismic profile data

The attenuation of seismic waves propagating in reservoirs can be obtained accurately from the data analysis of vertical seismic profile in terms of the quality-factor Q. The common methods usually use the downgoing wavefields in vertical seismic profile data. However, the downgoing wavefields consist of more than 90% energy of the spectrum of the vertical seismic profile data, making it difficult to estimate the viscoacoustic parameters accurately. Thus, a joint viscoacoustic waveform inversion of velocity and quality-factor is proposed based on the multi-objective functions and analysis of the difference between the results inverted from the separated upgoing and downgoing wavefields. A simple separating step is accomplished by the reflectivity method to obtain the individual wavefields in vertical seismic profile data, and then a joint inversion is carried out to make full use of the information of the individual wavefields and improve the convergence of viscoacoustic full-waveform inversion. The sensitivity analysis of the different wavefields to the velocity and quality-factor shows that the upgoing and downgoing wavefields contribute differently to the viscoacoustic parameters. A numerical example validates our method can improve the accuracy of viscoacoustic parameters compared with the direct inversion using full wavefield and the separate inversion using upgoing or downgoing wavefield. The application on real field data indicates our method can recover a reliable viscoacoustic model, which helps reservoir appraisal.     

地震勘探中相控阵震源的方向特性研究

电磁驱动式可控震源在城市浅层地震勘探中所面临的最突出的困难是微弱的反射信号常常淹没在很强的背景噪声之中.为了提高地震记录的信噪比,可以利用多台可控震源阵列实施相位控制形成定向地震波束以增强地震波的能量.本文讨论这种相控阵震源的波束形成机制.引入了地震波场的边际能量密度的概念,利用地震波场的时间切片技术,对模型空间各个方向上的能量强度进行了定量分析.用有限差分法对相控阵震源Chirp信号扫描的地震响应进行了数值模拟.当定向地震波束的汇聚带与观测排列的空间范围相一致时,相控阵震源合成地震记录的能量强度要显著高于单个可控震源情形的能量强度,波形振幅的均匀性要明显优于常规组合激发震源情形波形振幅的均匀性.     

云南地区地震序列早期地震波动力学特征

研究了云南地区各类型地震序列的早期地震波动力学特征——地震波垂直分量P波初动和P、S波最大振幅比,结果表明:前震序列振幅比为过原点的直线,比值稳定,P波初动一致;双震型地震序列在第一主震后P波初动出现一组时,仍有一类波形(“大头波”或“小头波”)的振幅比保持为过原点的直线,第一主震后P波初动出现两组时,仍有初动相同的一组地震振幅比保持为过原点的直线,或者两组初动的地震振幅比分别、共同成过原点的直线;主余震地震序列在非大震孕育期间,地震振幅比离散,与大震孕育有关的主余震地震序列振幅比仍可为过原点的直线。地震波动力学特征在上述三类地震序列的早期判断能力分别为75％、55％—73％、90％。     

晋冀鲁豫相邻地区中小地震震源机制特征分析

采用从震源向上射出的直达P波和直达S波引起的地动位移振幅比,结合P波初动方向来求解震源机制的方法,得到晋冀鲁豫相邻地区102个地震的震源机制解。并进行系统聚类分析,发现中小地震显示散乱,表明强震是大范围应力积累释放的表现形式;小地震具有随机性,受局部因素影响较大,对华北构造应力场的控制作用较弱。     

陆上纵波源VSP资料中的纯横波

常规陆上VSP(Vertical Seismic Profiling)勘探普遍采用纵波震源激发,三分量检波器接收,主要利用的是纵波和转换横波信息。已有的研究表明,炸药震源在井下激发、可控震源在地面垂向振动,均会产生较强的纯纵波和一定强度的纯横波;泊松比差别较大的分界面有利于形成较强的透射转换横波。本文通过对激发形成的纯横波和下行转换形成的横波进行对比分析,认为纯横波的主频往往低于纯纵波的主频,而下行转换横波的主频通常接近纵波的主频。本文分别对两个陆上纵波源零偏和非零偏VSP资料进行分析,结果表明这些资料中普遍存在纯横波,只是横波的强弱存在不同程度的变化。利用纵波源零偏VSP资料,可以获得横波速度信。最后对VSP纵波和横波联合应用前景进行了分析,应该充分利用纵波源VSP资料中的横波信息。     

关于一种新型横波震源（SH型）的探讨

实现横波（SH波）勘探的关键问题是震源。现有的SH波震源--扭力振动器的缺点是辐射方向性不好,能量集中在水平方向,而在垂直方向辐射的能量几乎为零,这样的震源对于反射波勘探是不利的。 本文从理论上提出用垂直力矩构成横波震源。理论推导结果（高频渐近解）表明,该震源在方位角θ=90°方向上辐射纯SH波,SH波能量辐射集中在垂直方向,而在水平方向几乎为零。显然,这样的震源对于反射波勘探十分有利。 文中还采用Cagniard-deHoop回路积分技术计算了波场的精确解及最大振幅随离源角的变化,结果与解析解一致.     

Nonlinear analysis on the coupling process of electromagnetic vibrator and earth

Vibrator is an excitation equipment of the vibratory source in the seismic exploration[1―3]. In order to ap-proach the δ function, dynamite can be used to release high energy in an instantaneous explosion and form the seismic wavelet. On the other hand, a portable vi-brator sweeps a low energy signal for a long time to simulate the function of an explosion source. The re-flection signal of the portable vibrator is estimated for time-delay by digital cross correlation technology, and the disp…     

Imaging of offset VSP data acquired in complex areas with modified reverse-time migration

A modified reverse-time migration algorithm for offset vertical seismic profiling data is proposed. This algorithm performs depth imaging of target areas in the borehole vicinity without taking into account the overburden. Originally recorded seismograms are used; reliable results can be obtained using only the velocity profile obtained along the well. The downgoing wavefield emitted from a surface source is approximated in the target area using the transmitted P-wave, recorded by the receivers deployed in the well. This is achieved through a reverse-time extrapolation of the direct transmitted P-wave into the target area after its separation in offset vertical seismic profiling seismograms generated using a finite-difference scheme for the solution of the scalar wave equation.
The proposed approach produces 'kinematically' reliable images from reflected PP- and PS-waves and, furthermore, can be applied as a salt proximity tool for salt body flank imaging based on the transmitted PS-waves. Our experiments on synthetic data demonstrate that the modified reverse-time migration provides reliable depth images based on offset vertical seismic profiling data even if only the velocity profile obtained along the borehole is used.     

WAVE FIELD EXTRAPOLATION TECHNIQUES FOR INHOMOGENEOUS MEDIA WHICH INCLUDE CRITICAL ANGLE EVENTS. PART I: METHODS USING THE ONE-WAY WAVE EQUATIONS*

Part I of this series starts with a brief review of the fundamental principles underlying wave field extrapolation. Next, the total wave field is split into downgoing and upgoing waves, described by a set of coupled one-way wave equations. In cases of limited propagation angles and weak inhomogeneities these one-way wave equations can be decoupled, describing primary waves only. For large propagation angles (up to and including 90°) an alternative choice of sub-division into downgoing and upgoing waves is presented. It is shown that this approach is well suited for modeling as well as migration and inversion schemes for seismic data which include critical angle events.     

Modelling S-wave radiation for SP-waves in isotropic and anisotropic media

Utilizing shear-wave (S-wave) data acquired with compressional waves (P-waves) is becoming more common as joint imaging and inversion techniques improve. Interest in S-waves radiated from vertical sources and buried explosives exploits conversion to P-waves as primary reflections (SP-waves) for reducing acquisition costs and for application to legacy data. However, recent investigations overstate the extent of SP-wave illumination and show isotropic processing results with narrow bandwidth frequency and wavenumber data. I demonstrate that illumination with SP-waves is limited in general to near vertical polar angles up to around 30° or 35° for V_P/V_S of 2 or 3, respectively. At greater angles, S-waves are typically in the P-wave evanescent range and cannot excite SP-wave reflections. Contrary to recent claims, these sources for P-wave do not radiate S_H-waves polarized in horizontal planes in all azimuths. I show these properties for isotropic media with radiation expressions for amplitude derived in vector slowness coordinates. Also, I extend these expressions to transversely isotropic media with a vertical symmetry axis to show agreement with synthetic seismic data that only quasi S_V-waves are radiated and become more narrowly focused towards 45°. Furthermore, in orthorhombic media, synthetic data show that fast S₁- and slow S₂-waves polarized parallel and perpendicular to fractures may appear as S_V- and S_H-waves. For the partially saturated fracture model studied here, S₁-wave radiation has broader azimuthal illumination than slow S₂-waves, which are more narrowly focused in azimuth. These produce SP-wave splitting signatures on vertical component reflection data that are nearly identical to PS-wave signatures on radial horizontal component data. Separating these fast and slow SP-waves is an additional processing challenge.     

基于重构激发信号的电磁式可控震源相关检测参考信号方法研究

针对电磁式可控震源地震数据的相关检测,研究发现,在地下结构复杂、基板-大地耦合不佳时,常规方法——基于震源控制信号或基板附近信号作为参考信号检测得到的地震记录中,存在子波到时误差和虚假多次波问题.本文分析了上述问题的理论原因,并提出基于重构激发信号的相关检测参考信号方法(Correlation Detection Reference Signal Based on the Reconstructed Excitation Signal,CDRSBRES).首先,利用直达波与其他地震波到时不一致的特点,从震源基板附近信号中分离、提取直达波.然后,利用直达波重构震源激发信号并作为参考信号对地震数据进行相关检测.最后,应用谱白化技术提高检测结果质量.数值模拟研究表明,重构激发信号与理想激发信号的相关系数为0.9869,达到高度线性相关,CDRSBRES方法检测的地震记录在子波到时和波形特征上均与模型相符.随后,在某金属矿区开展了可控震源对比实验.与液压式可控震源MiniVib T15000检测结果相比,电磁式可控震源PHVS 500的检测结果中:基于震源控制信号的检测结果存在子波到时误差约0.012 s,对应垂向精度误差约11.16 m;基于基板附近信号的检测结果部分区域出现虚假多次波,信噪比降低;而CDRSBRES方法的检测结果子波到时误差约0.001 s,对应垂向精度误差约0.93 m,波形特征一致,相同区域无虚假多次波.综上,本方法适用于电磁式可控震源地震数据的高精度检测,尤其对于地下结构复杂区域的高分辨率地震勘探具有重要意义.     

含粗糙面断层的远场体波辐射

本文用位错模式研究了含粗糙面断层的远场地震体波辐射。假设粗糙面大小和整个错动面大小的比值为C,并假设破裂从中心开始,计算了不同C值对远场地震波谱的影响。结果表明,与均匀圆盘状断层的远场振幅谱相比,不同之处是,由于粗糙面的存在,当裂纹前端传播至粗糙面的边缘处时,引起波谱开始部分的分裂,表现在谱的第一个波谷处。粗糙面的大小对振幅谱的影响不显著。另外,比较P波和S波振幅谱,发现S波波谱的拐角频率比P波的低。