Adaptive Compensation of the Mud Pump Noise in a Measurement-While-Drilling System

Abstract

Summary Mud pulse telemetry is one of the promising methods for transmission of valuable downhole information in measurement-while-drilling (MWD) processes. Quality, speed, and reliability of mud pulse telemetry are, however, drastically jeopardized by various powerful noise contributors. Among these the mud pump noise could be the most damaging artifact for the mud pulse information signal. The real-time monitoring requirement and the variable dynamic frequency characteristics of the mud pulse signals make the utilization of traditional noise filtering techniques very difficult if not impossible. In this study, two new methods for real-time adaptive compensation in the specific noise environment of MWD are suggested. The methods are designed and tested assuming the worst case scenario of about 50% of the information signal present in the reference channel. Successful real-time compensation in such harsh noise environments is reported.