Measurement-While-Drilling Mud Pulse Detection Process: An Investigation of Matched Filter Responses to Simulated and Real Mud Pressure Pulses

Abstract

ABSTRACT A study was performed for the purpose of evaluating various methods of signal (MWD mud pulse) detection in the presence of simulated and real noise. The performance of rectangular and double exponential matched filter correlators was determined using simulated pulses in the presence of band limited gaussian noise and coherent noise. Actual field recordings of MWD pressure signals were then digitized and passed through the correlation process to determine the relative merit of various correlation schemes. Samples of recordings for both easy detection and difficult detection drilling situations were used for this evaluation. The results of this study show that the correlation detection process is a remarkably robust method of detection of MWD mud pressure signals in real and simulated noise. They also point out the relative insensitivity of the correlation detection process to variations in the shape of the replica of the pulse used in the matched filter.