Patent ID: 9587481
Date: 2017-03-07
CPC Classifications: E21B,G01L,G01P

Claim:
1. A method of real-time utilization of performance data by a processor having a display, which is associated with a pump lifting well fluids of known physical properties 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 located below the liquid level that is gated by a stationary valve, and having a plunger slidably engaged with the chamber, the plunger having a known area and 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 from 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, and calculated in accordance with a set of structural data for the subterranean well; determining a discharge pressure at the fluid outlet from the pump; calculating, in real-time, a sequence of pump chamber pressure data points as a function of said sequence of plunger load data points; displaying, on the display, in real time, a pump card including a portion of said sequence of plunger position data points, a portion of said sequence of plunger rod load data points, and displaying said sequence of chamber pressure data points along an axis of said pump card, including an instant position cursor, thereby indicating real time chamber pressure.