Advanced Monitoring Techniques Research Articles

Technology Focus: Heavy Oil (March 2017)

Technology Focus Over a 6-month time frame in 2016, I was able to attend three SPE conferences on heavy oil in different countries spanning three continents (Canada, Peru, and Kuwait). Despite regional differences in the applications, potentials, problems, and technological needs, the common theme in all conferences was “low cost.” Cost optimization in heavy-oil production was discussed from technical and economic perspectives, not only in the technical sessions but also in numerous panel discussions. Such optimization can be achieved through numerical modeling to suggest general optimal strategies and development plans or by using proper real-time data acquisition (production optimization) for prompt decisions while operations are ongoing. This requires continuous monitoring of the processes as seen in many steam-assisted-gravity-drainage operations or other types of steam-injection applications. I selected two papers about advanced monitoring techniques as suggested reading in this issue. Moreover, chemical and nanomaterial additives to water and steam have received a great deal of attention. Low-interfacial-tension (microemulsion) and low-salinity injection in heavy oils in sands and carbonates and wettability alteration in carbonates were common topics at conferences held over the past year. I selected one review paper for additional reading and one experimental work as a summary paper on this subject. Apparently, modeling efforts on advanced (but unconventional) technologies such as electromagnetic heating have continued. You will find a detailed mathematical analysis of the process in one of the papers summarized. Despite the recent economic downturn, we were able to hear the outcome of current field practices at pilot or demonstration scale. Papers detailing small-scale cyclic-steam-injection applications in Kuwait and Oman were worth reading, and one article on this specific subject is included here. Considering these activities in the Middle East, effective transfer of technologies from North America to that part of the world will become highly critical in the near future. Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. SPE 181160 State-of-the-Art Review of the Steam Foam Process by Eric Delamaide, IFP Technologies Canada, et al. SPE 180732 An Integrated Probabilistic Work Flow for Primary and Thermal Performance Prediction of a Large Extraheavy-Oil Field by Raushan Kumar, Chevron, et al. SPE 181431 Horizontal Steam-Injection Flow Profiling Using Fiber Optics by Mahdy Shirdel, Chevron Energy Technology Company, et al. SPE 180726 SAGD Production Observations Using Fiber-Optic Distributed Acoustic and Temperature Sensing: SAGD DAS—Listening to Wells To Improve Understanding of Inflow by Warren MacPhail, Devon, et al.

Reduction in diesel particulate matter through advanced filtration and monitoring techniques

Reduction in diesel particulate matter through advanced filtration and monitoring techniques

Current perioperative management of pheochromocytomas

Neuroendocrine tumors which have the potential to secrete catecholamines are either associated with sympathetic adrenal (pheochromocytoma) or nonadrenal (paraganglioma) tissue. Surgical removal of these tumors is always indicated to cure and prevent cardiovascular and other organ system complications associated with catecholamine excess. Some of these tumors have malignant potential as well. The diagnosis, localization and anatomical delineation of these tumors involve measurement of catecholamines and their metabolic end products in plasma and urine, 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy, computed tomography, and/or magnetic resonance imaging. Before surgical removal of the tumors, the optimization of blood pressure, as well as intravascular volume, is an important measure to avoid and suppress perioperative adverse hemodynamic events. Preoperative preparation includes the use of alpha-adrenergic antagonists, beta-adrenergic antagonists with or without other antihypertensive agents, fluid therapy as well as insulin therapy for hyperglycemia if required. Due attention should be given to type and dose of alpha-receptor antagonists to be used and the duration of this therapy to achieve an optimal level of preoperative “alpha-blockade.” Despite this preoperative preparation, many patients will have hypertensive crises intraoperatively which need to be promptly and carefully managed by the anesthesia team which requires intensive and advanced monitoring techniques. The most common complication after tumor removal is hypotension which may require fluid therapy and vasopressor support for a few hours. With advancement in surgical and anesthetic techniques, the incidence of severe morbidity and mortality associated with the surgery is low in high volume centers.

Application of fractal analysis for bioindication evaluation of the environmental assessment

The paper analyzes the currently existing methods of bioindication studies of the environment pollution as well as studies their characteristics and applications. Particular attention from this group of methods is given to lichen indication and assessing the degree of fluctuating asymmetry of the leaf and its irregularity, because they are based on a study of the geometric characteristics of biological samples by means of mathematical processing using special software. It proves the possibility and prospects of application of the measuring method of fractal dimension for the qualitative and quantitative assessment of environmental pollution. Presented data show that the inclusion of the fractal nature of biological systems allows discovering and exploring a completely new range of phenomena in biology. The coincident of this method is provided with the goals and objectives by the appropriate mathematical apparatus. Within the framework of this approach it is possible to design and use new advanced monitoring techniques. In the final part of the paper a new concept of bioindication, which is based on a synthesis of both classical and innovative approaches to the study and assessment of environmental quality in the conditions of technogenic pollution, is proposed.

Health monitoring of rail structures using guided waves and three-dimensional diagnostic imaging

With the rapid development of high-speed railway around the world, more advanced nondestructive evaluation (NDE) and structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques are required to detect structural damage in its forming stage before the damage jeopardizes the safety of the structures. In this aspect, guided-wave-based diagnostic imaging is a recent research focus, aimed at intuitionally showing the healthy status of the structure under inspection. However, the present diagnostic imaging techniques are mostly two-dimensional imaging methods, which fail to inspect complicated solid structures. In this study, a novel three-dimensional diagnostic imaging technique was developed in conjunction with an active sensor network, capable of real-time monitoring complex solid engineering structures. The ToF-based signal features were extracted from captured guided waves signals, and subsequently applied to define field values. The effectiveness of the approach was examined by identifying a crack introduced into a part of the real rail structure using both FE simulation and experiments. Results have revealed that the developed three-dimensional imaging approach is able to quantitatively visualizing structural damage in complicated solid engineering structures.

Advancement of an Infra-Red Technique for Whole-Field Concentration Measurements in Fluidized Beds.

For a better understanding and description of the mass transport phenomena in dense multiphase gas-solids systems such as fluidized bed reactors, detailed and quantitative experimental data on the concentration profiles is required, which demands advanced non-invasive concentration monitoring techniques with a high spatial and temporal resolution. A novel technique based on the selective detection of a gas component in a gas mixture using infra-red properties has been further developed. The first stage development was carried out using a very small sapphire reactor and CO2 as tracer gas. Although the measuring principle was demonstrated, the real application was hindered by the small reactor dimensions related to the high costs and difficult handling of large sapphire plates. In this study, a new system has been developed, that allows working at much larger scales and yet with higher resolution. In the new system, propane is used as tracer gas and quartz as reactor material. In this study, a thorough optimization and calibration of the technique is presented which is subsequently applied for whole-field measurements with high temporal resolution. The developed technique allows the use of a relatively inexpensive configuration for the measurement of detailed concentration fields and can be applied to a large variety of important chemical engineering topics.

The Magnetohydrodynamic Effect and its Associated Material Designs for Biomedical Applications: A State-of-the-Art Review.

The presented article discusses recent advances in biomedical applications of classical Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), with a focus on operating principles and associated material considerations. These applications address novel approaches to common biomedical problems from micro-particle sorting for lab-on-a-chip devices to advanced physiological monitoring techniques. 100 papers in the field of MHDs were reviewed with a focus on studies with direct biomedical applications. The body of literature was categorized into three primary areas of research including Material Considerations for MHD Applications, MHD Actuation Devices, and MHD Sensing Techniques. The state of the art in the field was examined and research topics were connected to provide a wide view of the field of biomedical MHDs. As this field develops, the need for advanced simulation and material design will continue to increase in importance in order to further expand its reach to maturity. As the field of biomedical MHDs continues to grow, advances towards micro-scale transitions will continue to be made, maintaining its clinically driven nature and moving towards real-world applications.

Physical model tests and numerical simulation for assessing the stability of brick-lined tunnels

Nowadays, numerical modelling is increasingly used to assess the stability of tunnels and underground caverns. However, an analysis of the mechanical behaviour of existing brick-lined tunnels remains challenging due to the complex material components. In order to study the mechanical behaviour of the masonry in brick-lined tunnels, this paper reports a series of small scale physical tunnel model tests to represent the true behaviour of a real tunnel under extreme loading. Advanced monitoring techniques of laser scanning and photogrammetry are used to record tunnel deformation and lining defects. This investigation shows how these techniques may substitute or supplement the conventional monitoring procedures. Moreover, numerical analyses based on continuum and discontinuum approaches are carried out. The numerical results are compared with physical model tests to assess the overall stability of these tunnels. Predictions using numerical models under various conditions have also been carried out to show the mechanical behaviour of masonry tunnel and to quantify the influence of the boundary and loading conditions.

Monitoring of Bainite Transformation Using in Situ Neutron Scattering

Bainite transformation behavior was monitored using simultaneous measurements of dilatometry and small angle neutron scattering (SANS). The volume fraction of bainitic ferrite was estimated from the SANS intensity, showing good agreement with the results of the dilatometry measurements. We propose a more advanced monitoring technique combining dilatometry, SANS and neutron diffraction.

Interactive Multiple-Model Application for Hydraulic Servovalve Health Monitoring


 
 
 Hydraulic systems are widely used as power source for several different applications. Servovalves are critical components and often subjected to failures. Estimating degradations from these components requires dynamic analysis of their behavior and consequently advanced monitoring techniques. This article proposes an online monitoring method to estimate a degradation parameter of the servovalve using an interactive multiple-model technique considering a bank of Extended Kalman Filters that models not only the valve itself but also the degradation trend. A single failure mode was considered related to the nozzle line clogging. The degradation estimates and the likelihood of the correctness of each model were analyzed in order to evaluate the proposed method.
 
 

Patient care report for the stabilisation of a cat with a traumatic diaphragmatic rupture

Diaphragmatic ruptures in cats are often seen following trauma and can cause severe respiratory distress. This article reflects on the author's experience of providing emergency nursing care to a 2-year-old, domestic short hair cat, with a traumatic diaphragmatic rupture. In order to provide effective nursing care it is essential for the veterinary nurse to understand the effects of shock in the feline patient. Creating a protocol for the management of the dyspnoeic trauma cat could facilitate a more efficient treatment plan, allowing for available monitoring equipment to be fully utilised. If advanced monitoring techniques are not available, a successful patient outcome is still achievable with basic nursing skills and a good underpinning knowledge of the emergency and critical patient.

Updated methods for assessing the impacts of nearby gas drilling and production on neighborhood air quality and human health

ABSTRACTAn explosive growth in natural gas production within the last decade has fueled concern over the public health impacts of air pollutant emissions from oil and gas sites in the Barnett and Eagle Ford shale regions of Texas. Commonly acknowledged sources of uncertainty are the lack of sustained monitoring of ambient concentrations of pollutants associated with gas mining, poor quantification of their emissions, and inability to correlate health symptoms with specific emission events. These uncertainties are best addressed not by conventional monitoring and modeling technology, but by increasingly available advanced techniques for real-time mobile monitoring, microscale modeling and source attribution, and real-time broadcasting of air quality and human health data over the World Wide Web. The combination of contemporary scientific and social media approaches can be used to develop a strategy to detect and quantify emission events from oil and gas facilities, alert nearby residents of these events, and collect associated human health data, all in real time or near-real time. The various technical elements of this strategy are demonstrated based on the results of past, current, and planned future monitoring studies in the Barnett and Eagle Ford shale regions.Implications: Resources should not be invested in expanding the conventional air quality monitoring network in the vicinity of oil and gas exploration and production sites. Rather, more contemporary monitoring and data analysis techniques should take the place of older methods to better protect the health of nearby residents and maintain the integrity of the surrounding environment.

Development of a rotary disc voltammetric sensor system for semi-continuous and on-site measurements of Pb(II)

Atomic absorption spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry are widely used for determination of heavy metals due to their low detection limits. However, they are not applicable to on-site measurements of heavy metals as bulky equipment, and highly skilled laboratory staffs are needed as well. In this study, a novel analytical method using a rotary disc voltammetric (RDV) sensor has been successfully designed, fabricated and characterized for semi-continuous and on-site measurements of trace levels of Pb(II) in non-deoxygenating solutions. The square wave anodic stripping voltammetry was used to improve the sensitivity of the Pb(II) detection level with less than 10nM (2μgL−1). The RDV sensor has 24-sensing holes to measure concentrations of Pb(II) semi-continuously at sampling sites. Each sensing hole consists of a silver working electrode, an integrated silver counter, and a quasi-reference electrode, which requires only a small amount of samples (<30μL) for measurement of Pb(II) without disturbing and/or clogging the sensing environment. In addition, the RDV sensor showed a correlation coefficient of 0.998 for the Pb(II) concentration range of 10nM–10μM at the deposition time of 180s and its low detection limit was 6.19nM (1.3μgL−1). These results indicated that the advanced monitoring technique using a RDV sensor might provide environmental engineers with a reliable way for semi-continuous and on-site measurements of Pb(II).

A New Soft-Sensor-Based Process Monitoring Scheme Incorporating Infrequent KPI Measurements

The development of advanced techniques for process monitoring and fault diagnosis using both model-based and data-driven approaches has led to many practical applications. One issue that has not been considered in such applications is the ability to deal with key performance indicators (KPIs) that are only sporadically measured and with significant time delay. Therefore, in this paper, the data-driven design of diagnostic-observer-based process monitoring schemes is extended to include the ability to detect changes given infrequently measured KPIs. The extended diagnostic observer is shown to be stable and hence able to converge to the true value. The proposed method is tested using both Monte Carlo simulations and the Tennessee-Eastman problem. It is shown that although time delay and sampling time increase the detection delay, the overall effect can be mitigated by using a soft sensor. Furthermore, it is shown that the results are not strongly dependent on the sampling time, but do depend on the time delay. Therefore, the proposed soft-sensor-based monitoring scheme can efficiently detect faults even in the absence of direct process information.

A NEW METHODOLOGY FOR BREAKWATER DAMAGE ASSESSMENT AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION ON A WEBGIS

In this paper a new methodology for breakwater damage assessment was developed to reflect the advances in monitoring techniques and to overcome some limitations in this process. The proposed methodology was implemented on a WebGIS called SIMOM - Monitoring System for Maritime Works. This system and the proposed methodology are presented using the Ericeira North breakwater (Portugal).

Raman spectroscopy for in-line water quality monitoring--instrumentation and potential.

Worldwide, the access to safe drinking water is a huge problem. In fact, the number of persons without safe drinking water is increasing, even though it is an essential ingredient for human health and development. The enormity of the problem also makes it a critical environmental and public health issue. Therefore, there is a critical need for easy-to-use, compact and sensitive techniques for water quality monitoring. Raman spectroscopy has been a very powerful technique to characterize chemical composition and has been applied to many areas, including chemistry, food, material science or pharmaceuticals. The development of advanced Raman techniques and improvements in instrumentation, has significantly improved the performance of modern Raman spectrometers so that it can now be used for detection of low concentrations of chemicals such as in-line monitoring of chemical and pharmaceutical contaminants in water. This paper briefly introduces the fundamentals of Raman spectroscopy, reviews the development of Raman instrumentations and discusses advanced and potential Raman techniques for in-line water quality monitoring.

Advances of FRP-based smart components and structures

Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites have been widely used in civil engineering for the past two decades. This paper presents an overview of the smart components and structures based on FRP. The basic principles of intelligent structures made of FRP and Optical fibre sensors are introduced. Some significant up-to-date smart elements used as reinforcing and health monitoring structures are also described in detail. Moreover, certain applications of smart FRP systems in civil engineering are briefly mentioned. Smart bars based on FRP are found to be very useful and could replace conventional steel. In addition, FRP-OF-OFBG is one of the most advanced techniques for local and global monitoring. However, interface strain for externally reinforcing systems requires specific characteristics to overcome debonding effects. Finally, analysis of the problems of existing applications based on carbon fibre composites are highlighted, followed by a description of some possibilities of new designs of smart FRPs.

The role of capnography during upper endoscopy in morbidly obese patients: a prospective study

BackgroundPulmonary depression remains a major concern when performing upper endoscopy in the morbidly obese patient. The aim of this prospective study is to determine the effects of sedation and role of capnography during preoperative upper endoscopy in obese patients. MethodsEighty-two consecutive diagnostic upper gastrointestinal endoscopies were performed in morbidly obese patients in an outpatient setting. Data on amount of drug administration and cardiorespiratory change were recorded. ResultsMean body mass index and duration of procedure was 46.4±8.2 kg/m2 and 9.4 ± 2.5 minutes, respectively. The mean dose of propofol was 139.5±45.1 mg. No clinically significant cardiorespiratory complications occurred. Respiratory depression (RD) was seen in 33/82 (40.2%) patients and included a mean absolute change in end-tidal carbon dioxide (EtCO2) of 7.1±8.5 mm Hg from baseline (P = .001). 54/82 (65.9%) patients had subclinical RD with 27/54 (50%) having RD. Abnormal EtCO2 detected all episodes of RD. The sensitivity and negative predictive value in determining RD by a change in EtCO2>10 mm Hg or an absent EtCO2 waveform during any point of the procedure was 81% and 78%, respectively. The relative risk was 2.3. ConclusionCapnography provided a real time assessment of changes in ventilation and can detect early phases of respiratory depression. Utilization of propofol as a means for sedation, with extended advanced monitoring technique, can allow for reduced adverse outcomes in morbidly obese patients undergoing upper endoscopy.

A Kalman filter powered by H2-matrices for quasi-continuous data assimilation problems

Continuously tracking the movement of a fluid or a plume in the subsurface is a challenge that is often encountered in applications, such as tracking a plume of injected CO$_2$ or of a hazardous substance. Advances in monitoring techniques have made it possible to collect measurements at a high frequency while the plume moves, which has the potential advantage of providing continuous high-resolution images of fluid flow with the aid of data processing. However, the applicability of this approach is limited by the high computational cost associated with having to analyze large data sets within the time constraints imposed by real-time monitoring. Existing data assimilation methods have computational requirements that increase super-linearly with the size of the unknowns $m$. In this paper, we present the HiKF, a new Kalman filter (KF) variant powered by the hierarchical matrix approach that dramatically reduces the computational and storage cost of the standard KF from $\mathcal{O}(m^2)$ to $\mathcal{O}(m)$, while producing practically the same results. The version of HiKF that is presented here takes advantage of the so-called random walk dynamical model, which is tailored to a class of data assimilation problems in which measurements are collected quasi-continuously. The proposed method has been applied to a realistic CO$_2$ injection model and compared with the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF). Numerical results show that HiKF can provide estimates that are more accurate than EnKF, and also demonstrate the usefulness of modeling the system dynamics as a random walk in this context.

Evolutionary strategies for ultra-large-scale autonomic systems

Ultra-large-scale (ULS) systems originate from the need to address social problems that are getting more and more complex, such as climatic monitoring, transportation, citizens protection and security. These factors imply a continuous increase of information systems, requiring digital communication networks allowing for communication between people, between machines, and machines and people. The aim of this paper is to present a novel approach for the design of highly adaptive ULS systems, with the focus on computer-supported evolution, adaptable structures, emergent behaviors as well as advanced monitoring and control techniques. We illustrate the Networked Autonomic Machine (NAM), a framework for the characterization of self-managing, highly reconfigurable ULS systems, and the Adaptive Evolutionary Framework (AEF), for the implementation of distributed evolutionary strategies. Finally, we show their effectiveness in the design of an ULS overlay network provided with evolutionary strategies for facing denial-of-service attacks.