A method, apparatus and system for locating external apparatus mounted to a tubular in a wellbore. The identification of apparatus, such as cable clamps, enables other tools in the string to operate more precisely. A computer model is used to locate the apparatus from acoustic images, which images are acquired using a downhole device having an acoustic sensor or acoustic array. The model may be a classifier, which may be machine trained to classify whether an apparatus is present, its location and its orientation. Automating this locating enables very long wellbores to be processed quickly.

An ultrasonic imaging method and an ultrasonic imaging system are provided herein. The ultrasonic imaging system includes: a scanning assembly having an ultrasonic transducer to send ultrasonic signals to a tissue to be scanned and acquire a plurality of ultrasonic echo signals at a plurality of positions; a processor to receive the plurality of ultrasonic echo signals acquired at the plurality of positions, and generate an ultrasonic image corresponding to each of the plurality of positions; a display to display the ultrasonic images; and a user input unit to select the ultrasonic image corresponding to any specific position and send an input signal that is configured to control movement of the ultrasonic transducer, driven by a driving device, to the specific position. Also provided in the present invention is an ultrasonic imaging method using the system.

A three-dimensional ultrasound tomography method and system based on spiral scanning are provided. The method includes the following. (1) Collecting raw data: an emission array element is switched while a probe maintains a uniform linear motion, so that changes in trajectory with time of a position of an equivalent emission array element in a three-dimensional space show a spiral or a partial spiral, and echo data is received. (2) Pre-processing data. (3) Calculating coordinates of each equivalent emission array element. (4) Calculating coordinates of an imaging focus point. (5) Performing synthetic aperture focusing on each imaging focus point. (6) Post-processing data. The disclosure improves the principle of the imaging method, the design of the overall process, etc. Volume data containing information of continuous tissue layers is obtained through spiral scanning. Applying the synthetic aperture focusing technique in the three-dimensional space improves the resolution between layers and shorten the scan time.

Techniques, systems, and devices are disclosed for synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging using spread-spectrum, wide instantaneous band, coherent, coded waveforms. In one aspect, a method includes synthesizing a composite waveform formed of a plurality of individual orthogonal coded waveforms that are mutually orthogonal to each other, correspond to different frequency bands and including a unique frequency with a corresponding phase; transmitting an acoustic wave based on the composite waveform toward a target from one or more transmitting positions; and receiving at one or more receiving positions acoustic energy returned from at least part of the target corresponding to the transmitted acoustic waveforms, in which the transmitting and receiving positions each include one or both of spatial positions of an array of transducer elements relative to the target and beam phase center positions of the array, and the transmitted acoustic waveforms and the returned acoustic waveforms produce an enlarged effective aperture.

A device and method used to image wells and other fluid-carrying tubulars having localized features of interest. The device scans large areas of the tubular first in a low-resolution mode, then identifies areas that contain those localized features with some probability. The device images the identified areas in a high-resolution mode and stores the images for further image processing. The device may comprise two sensors axially spaced-apart on the device, which sensors may be electromagnetic, acoustic, or cameras.

A device and method used to image wells and other fluid-carrying tubulars having localized features of interest. The device scans large areas of the tubular first in a low-resolution mode using an ultrasound sensor and in a high-resolution mode using a camera, then identifies areas that contain those localized features with some probability. The device images are stored for further image processing. The two sensors are axially spaced-apart on the device. A computer remote from the imaging device renders a visualization of the tubular and localized features using the optical and ultrasound images.

Methods including determining a measurement plan, having acoustic measurements, and lowering in a borehole penetrating a subsurface formation a toolstring having phased array modules. Each phased array module includes acoustic transducers operable to emit an acoustic excitation signal and receive an echo signal, as well as a programmable circuit for setting one or more variables of the phased array module. The phased array modules are configured, including programming the programmable circuit to set variables of the phased array modules according to the measurement plan. The acoustic measurements of the measurement plan are performed using the configured phased array modules. One or more of the formation, a casing disposed in the borehole, and/or an annulus between the casing and the formation are characterized using results of the performed acoustic measurements.

A three-dimensional ultrasound tomography method and system based on spiral scanning are provided. The method includes the following. (1) Collecting raw data: an emission array element is switched while a probe maintains a uniform linear motion, so that changes in trajectory with time of a position of an equivalent emission array element in a three-dimensional space show a spiral or a partial spiral, and echo data is received. (2) Pre-processing data. (3) Calculating coordinates of each equivalent emission array element. (4) Calculating coordinates of an imaging focus point. (5) Performing synthetic aperture focusing on each imaging focus point. (6) Post-processing data. The disclosure improves the principle of the imaging method, the design of the overall process, etc. Volume data containing information of continuous tissue layers is obtained through spiral scanning. Applying the synthetic aperture focusing technique in the three-dimensional space improves the resolution between layers and shorten the scan time.

Techniques, systems, and devices are disclosed for synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging using spread-spectrum, wide instantaneous band, coherent, coded waveforms. In one aspect, a method includes synthesizing a composite waveform formed of a plurality of individual orthogonal coded waveforms that are mutually orthogonal to each other, correspond to different frequency bands and including a unique frequency with a corresponding phase; transmitting an acoustic wave based on the composite waveform toward a target from one or more transmitting positions; and receiving at one or more receiving positions acoustic energy returned from at least part of the target corresponding to the transmitted acoustic waveforms, in which the transmitting and receiving positions each include one or both of spatial positions of an array of transducer elements relative to the target and beam phase center positions of the array, and the transmitted acoustic waveforms and the returned acoustic waveforms produce an enlarged effective aperture.

The invention is to provide an ultrasonic image with a clear tissue structure while reducing speckle noise of the ultrasonic image. An ultrasonic wave is transmitted from the transducer to the subject, and an echo generated in the subject is received. The first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image are generated using a reception signal. The second ultrasonic image is an image smoother than the first ultrasonic image. The image processing unit calculates filter coefficients using pixel values of corresponding pixels of the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image, and generates an output image by processing one of the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image using the filter coefficients.