Patent ID: 9574435
Date: 2017-02-21
CPC Classifications: E21B,G01L,G01P

Claim:
1. A method of real-time utilization of performance data by a processor, which is associated with a pump lifting well fluids above a liquid level in a casing of a subterranean well through a tube to a surface level, the pump having a chamber with a fluid inlet that is gated by a stationary valve, and having a plunger slidably engaged with the chamber, the plunger having a fluid outlet gated by a traveling valve that is coupled to deliver well fluids to the tube, the plunger reciprocated to vary the displacement of the chamber by a rod extending upward to a cyclical drive unit at the surface, the method comprising the steps of: clamping a transducer unit to the rod at the surface level and thereby gathering acceleration and strain data from movement of the rod; calculating, in real time, a sequence of rod position data samples and rod load data samples as a function of said acceleration and strain data; calculating, in real time, a sequence of plunger position data points and plunger load data points using wave equation modeling, which corresponds to cyclical operation of the rod at the plunger level; calculating, by the processor, an inlet pressure at the fluid inlet to the pump as a function of the pump depth and density of well fluids in the casing; calculating, by the processor, a discharge pressure at the fluid outlet from the pump as a function of the pump depth and density of well fluid in the tube; calculating, in real-time, a sequence of pump chamber pressure data points as a function of said sequence of plunger load data points; calculating, in real-time, stationary valve actuation events by comparing an inlet differential pressure between said pump inlet pressure and said camber pressure; calculating, in real-time, traveling valve actuation events by comparing an outlet differential pressure between said pump outlet pressure and said camber pressure, and delivering, in real-time, said stationary valve actuation events and said traveling valve actuation events to a valve actuation data output.