Simulation and Optimization of Transmitting Transducers for Well Logging

Abstract

Piezoelectric transducers are commonly used in acoustic well logging. However, the low frequency and narrow range of the acoustic waves limit the achievable detection accuracy. In addition, the low amplitude of the waves causes useful information to be easily masked by noise during detection, which affects the accuracy of geological identification and makes it difficult to detect formations tens of meters away. This paper proposes a microporous liquid–electric transmission transducer, in which the microporous electrode structure generates a powerful shock wave through a high-energy instantaneous discharge. First, a model of the liquid–electric microporous transmitting transducer was constructed by combining simulations with numerical calculations, and its electro-acoustic characteristics were analyzed. Then, based on the survey requirements, two innovative optimization schemes for the microporous electrode structure were proposed, namely a triangular pyramid microporous electrode structure and a rectangular microporous electrode structure, and their performances were compared. The results show that the newly optimized triangular pyramid microporous electrode liquid–electric transducer generates acoustic waves with higher amplitude and a wider frequency range than conventional piezoelectric transducers and other microporous structures. It maintains high energy while achieving high frequencies, enabling detection at distances of up to hundreds of meters and the precise characterization of small geological bodies. This has significant implications for applications in marine exploration, land exploration, clean energy, and new energy fields.

Keywords

• microporous electrode
• transmitting transducer
• liquid–electric