DOWNHOLE POWER GENERATION AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS

The second quarter of the project was dedicated to convert the conceptual designs for the wireless tool and power generator into mechanical and electrical drawings as well as software code to create the new system. The tasks accomplished during this report period were: (1) Basic mechanical design for the wireless communications system was created and the detailed drawings were started. (2) Basic design for the power generator system was created and the detailed machining drawings were started. The generator design was modified to provide a direct action between the wellbore fluid flow and the piezoelectric stack to generate energy. The new design eliminates the inefficiencies related to picking up outside the tubing wall the pressure fluctuations occurring inside the tubing walls. (3) The new piezoelectric acoustic generator design was created and ordered from the manufacturer. The system will be composed of 40 ceramic wafers electrically connected in parallel and compressed into a single generator assembly. (4) The acoustic two-way communications requirements were also defined and the software and hardware development were started. (5) The electrical hardware development required to transmit information to the surface and to receive commands from the surface was started