Study on boundary reflection mechanism of continuous wave mud pulse in the flow loop

Abstract

Continuous wave (CW) mud pulse is one of the essential ways of high speed data transmission while drilling. The boundary reflection process and mechanism need to be clarified, which seriously affects the analog interpretation of pressure waves in flow loops and drilling conditions. In this paper, the boundary reflection of mass inlet and pressure outlet is studied by using traditional acoustic theory and numerical simulation methods, and mutual verification is carried out with flow loop. The results show that the pressure wave generated by the CW generator can be divided into compression wave and expansion wave and transmitted to the upstream and downstream pipelines. The inlet boundary reflection is the hard boundary reflection in acoustics. The phase of reflected wave is the same as that of the incident wave. The outlet boundary is the soft boundary, the reflected wave phase is 180° opposite to the incident wave. In particular, the process and mechanism of secondary reflection of stator and rotor structure on pressure wave are analyzed for the first time, which provides a theoretical basis for pressure wave amplitude. Finally, due to the possibility of cavitation phenomenon in the flow loop, it is different from the pressure environment of the bottom under drilling conditions and should to study further.