Applications of piezoelectric materials in oilfield services

Abstract

We have described four important applications for piezoelectric materials in the oilfield services industry. High piezoelectric coupling materials are always sought after in developing our devices. However the high coupling materials invariably are ceramics-based and they tend to operate at a disadvantage into a liquid medium in terms of efficiency and bandwidth. Solutions exist to address these problems, such as matching layers and composite materials. But they pose extra complications in a harsh operating environment. It would be desirable to have a high-coupling, low-impedance piezoelectric materials as additional choices. As the industry ventures into ever-deeper and hotter wells, new high-coupling, and higher Curie temperature materials would be required.