Wave propagation is central to all areas of petroleum engineering, e.g.,
drilling vibrations, MWD mud pulse telemetry, swab-surge, geophysical
ray tracing, ocean and current interactions, electromagnetic wave and
sonic applications in the borehole, but rarely treated rigorously or
described in truly scientific terms, even for a single discipline.
Wilson Chin, an MIT and Caltech educated scientist who has consulted
internationally, provides an integrated, comprehensive, yet readable
exposition covering all of the cited topics, offering insights,
algorithms and validated methods never before published. A must on
every petroleum engineering bookshelf! In particular, the book:
- Delivers drillstring vibrations models coupling axial, torsional and
lateral motions that predict rate-of-penetration, bit bounce and
stick-slip as they depend on rock-bit interaction and bottomhole
assembly properties,
- Explains why catastrophic lateral vibrations at the neutral point
cannot be observed from the surface even in vertical wells, but
providing a proven method to avoid them,
- Demonstrates why Fermat's "principle of least time" (used in
geophysics) applies to non-dissipative media only, but using the
"kinematic wave theory" developed at MIT, derives powerful methods
applicable to general attenuative inhomogeneous media,
- Develops new approaches to mud acoustics and applying them to MWD
telemetry modeling and strong transients in modern swab-surge
applicagtions,
- Derives new algorithms for borehole geophysics interpretation, e.g.,
Rh and Rv in electromagnetic wave and
permeability in Stoneley waveform analysis, and
- Outlines many more applications, e.g., wave loadings on offshore
platforms, classical problems in wave propagation, and extensions to
modern kinematic wave theory.
These disciplines, important to all field-oriented activities, are not
treated as finite element applications that are simply gridded,
"number-crunched" and displayed, but as scientific disciplines deserving
of clear explanation. General results are carefully motivated, derived
and applied to real-world problems, with results demonstrating the
importance and predictive capabilities of the new methods.
