Seismic transducer modeling using ABAQUS

A seismic transducer, known as an orbital vibrator, consists of a rotating imbalance driven by an electric motor. When suspended in a liquid-filled wellbore, vibrations of the device are coupled to the surrounding geologic media. In this mode, an orbital vibrator can be used as an efficient rotating dipole source for seismic imaging. Alternately, the motion of an orbital vibrator is affected by the physical properties of the surrounding media. From this point of view, an orbital vibrator can be used as a stand-alone sensor. The reaction to the surroundings can be sensed and recorded by geophones inside the orbital vibrator. These reactions are a function of the media’s physical properties such as modulus, damping, and density, thereby identifying the rock type. This presentation shows how the orbital vibrator and surroundings were modeled with an ABAQUS acoustic FEM. The FEM is found to compare favorably with theoretical predictions. A 2D FEM and analytical model are compared to an experimental data set. Each model compares favorably with the data set