A directional drilling-exploring-monitoring integrated method for guaranteeing safety of an underwater shield tunnel includes: drilling a small-diameter borehole below a water area, and establishing an initial geological model; reaming the small-diameter borehole into a large-diameter borehole, placing a parallel electrical method (PEM) power cable and a monitoring optical fiber cable into the large-diameter borehole, acquiring zero field data, primary field data and secondary field data through carbon rod measurement electrodes before tunnel excavation, and processing the data with an existing inversion method to form an inversion image, thereby obtaining a refined geological model of a stratum; starting the tunnel excavation, and respectively acquiring a disturbance condition of rock and soil and a sedimentation and deformation condition of rock and soil around the tunnel during the excavation, thereby implementing safety excavation of the tunnel; and continuously monitoring the tunnel and the surrounding rock and soil in later use of the tunnel.

A method comprises determining a measure of drilling efficiency, such as a friction factor or mechanical specific energy, of a drill bit used in a drilling operation of a wellbore and performing video analytics of at least one video that includes a substantially complete view of the wear surfaces of a drill bit to determine drill bit wear of the drill bit that is a result of the drilling operation of the wellbore. The method includes determining a cause of the drill bit wear based on the measure of drilling efficiency and the drill bit wear determined by performing video analytics. Based on correlation or modeling of drill bit wear and the measure of drilling efficiency, drill bit wear can be predicted and some types of drilling dysfunction mitigated in subsequent drilling runs.

Embodiments provide techniques for using data from a select set of wells to develop correlations between surface-measured properties, downhole coring parameters, and properties typically determined from subsurface measurements (e.g., from logging tool responses, core analysis, or other subsurface measurements). When new wells are drilled, the surface data acquired while drilling and coring parameters used downhole may be used as an input to these correlations in order to predict properties associated with subsurface measurements.

Systems and methods for producing controlled vibrations within a borehole. In one example, the system includes a movement mechanism and a controller. The movement mechanism is configured to enable translational movement of a first surface relative to a second surface to allow the first surface to impact the second surface to produce a plurality of beats. The frequency and amplitude of the beats may be selectively controlled by suppressing or dampening the beats. The controller is configured to selectively control an amplitude or frequency of the beats to encode information therein, where the amplitude of a beat may be selectively controlled by dampening or suppressing the impact of the first surface and the second surface.

A method may include obtaining power production and fuel consumption data of a first piece of rig equipment through a flow meter, where the rig equipment includes a plurality of pieces of equipment. The method further includes feeding the power production and fuel consumption data of the first piece of rig equipment into a real-time monitoring system of the rig via the flow meter. The method further includes determining an energy efficiency, based on real-time performance, of the first piece of rig equipment using a consumption efficiency model. The method further includes comparing the energy efficiency of the first piece of rig equipment against continuously updated historical data of the first piece of rig equipment by a real-time database monitoring system. The method further includes identifying deficiencies of the first piece of rig equipment in real-time and determining maintenance or replacement of the first piece of rig equipment.

Systems and methods for estimating a hardness of a rock mass during operation of an industrial machine. One system includes an electronic processor configured to receive a rock mass model and to receive live drilling data from the industrial machine. The electronic processor is also configured to update the rock mass model based on the live drilling data and to estimate a drilling index for a hole based on the updated rock mass model. After estimating a drilling index for the hole, the electronic processor is also configured to set a blasting parameter for the hole based on the estimated drilling index.

A sensor element for a cutting tool has a hard portion having a first sensing surface, first and second electrodes, and first and second sets of thermocouple wires, and an electrically insulating portion. The second electrode has a second sensing surface, The hard portion comprises hard and/or super-hard material and the first and second electrodes comprise electrically conductive hard and/or super-hard material, the hard portion isolating the first sensing surface from the second sensing surface. The second electrode is attached to or forms part of an electrically conductive region of the hard portion or a region attached thereto. Electric current flows between the first and second electrodes through external material when the sensing surfaces contact the material in response to the cutting tool engaging the material. The first and second electrodes are operable to indicate any one or more of a temperature of the first and second electrodes, and conductivity between the electrodes.

A method includes imaging, at an imaging resolution, a core of a subsurface formation to create a core image and iteratively performing the following operations until a defined feature of a rock of the subsurface formation exceeds a viewable image feature threshold: extracting a number of subsamples from the core for a first iteration and from each of the number of subsamples previously extracted for a subsequent iteration; increasing the imaging resolution; and imaging each subsample. The method includes performing the following operations for the subsamples last extracted: determining at least one formation property characteristic; determining a guiding rock property for each voxel of the core image and the number of subsample images; and determining a subsample that is a shortest distance to the voxel based on the number of guiding rock properties; and mapping, for each voxel, the at least one formation property characteristic that is the shortest distance.

An apparatus for generating pressure variances in a fluid flowing in a downhole tool having a longitudinal axis includes a flow section having an outer wall, a flow control member selectively blocking flow in the flow section, and an actuator moving the flow control member between a first position wherein the flow control member at least partially blocks flow in the flow section and a second position wherein the flow control member reduces the at least partial blockage of the flow in the flow section. The actuator may be disposed outside the outer wall of the flow section.

A sensor element for a cutting tool, the sensor element having a hard portion having a working surface and at least one diamond crystal at least partially embedded in the hard portion, the at least one diamond crystal being arranged to generate a piezoresistive signal in response to the working surface engaging external material in use.