Patents by Inventor Joseph Zemanek, Jr.

Joseph Zemanek, Jr. has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 4674067
    Abstract: An acoustic transmitter is employed in a borehole logging tool for generating low frequency acoustic energy waves. A tube of piezoelectric material is sealed at both ends and filled with liquid. A pliable boot surrounds such piezoelectric tube. At least one passageway communicates the inside of the piezoelectric tube with the inner surface of the boot. Differing electrical polarities are applied to the inner and outer surfaces of the piezoelectric tube. These electrical polarities are modulated to excite the piezoelectric tube to resonate at a frequency controlled by the inertia of the liquid in the passageway and the mass of the liquid inside the piezoelectric tube.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 1986
    Date of Patent: June 16, 1987
    Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation
    Inventor: Joseph Zemanek, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4649525
    Abstract: Acoustic well logging method and system employing a bender-type transducer as a point source of an acoustic shear wave. The bender-type transducer includes opposed unrestricted planar surfaces mounted within a liquid filled compartment within the tool. The unrestricted surfaces of the transducer are spaced longitudinally along the axis of the tool and exposed to the coupling liquid. One or more bender-type transducers may also be employed as acoustic receivers in the tools. The active surfaces of the receiving transducers are oriented in substantially the same direction as the active surfaces of the transmitting transducer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 1985
    Date of Patent: March 10, 1987
    Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation
    Inventors: Frank A. Angona, Joseph Zemanek, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4542488
    Abstract: A borehole logging tool employs an energy transmitter and receiver for scanning a borehole with energy pulses. An orientation pulse is produced each time the tool rotates past a predetermined orientation position. The time period between orientation pulses is measured and divided into a plurality of discrete intervals. Sine and cosine functions are generated for the measured time period having a sine and cosine value corresponding to each of the discrete intervals. The sine and cosine functions are used to produce sweep functions for controlling the outward sweep of the electron beam of a PPI display device so as to produce a circular rotating pattern in which each revolution corresponds in time to a measured time between orientation pulses. The output of the receiver modulates the electron beam sweep to generate a visual display of the azimuthal scan of the borehole.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 1982
    Date of Patent: September 17, 1985
    Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation
    Inventors: James A. Clishem, Charles L. Dennis, Joseph Zemanek, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4516228
    Abstract: A borehole logging system employs a compressional wave transmitter and a shear wave transmitter. The transmitters are alternately fired to impart compressional and shear waves into the formations surrounding the borehole. A bender-type receiver, spaced apart from the transmitter in the borehole is alternately gated so that the voltages across its pair of piezoelectric planar surfaces are subtracted during the expected time period of symmetrical motion of the receiver to provide a compressional wave output and added during the expected arrival time period of unsymmetrical motion of the receiver to provide a shear wave output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 1983
    Date of Patent: May 7, 1985
    Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation
    Inventor: Joseph Zemanek, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4506548
    Abstract: A method of identifying potential low water cut hydrocarbon producing zones in sandstone formations lacking significant cementation and having relatively high log-indicated water saturations, implying the presence of significant amounts of unbound water. A formation is logged in a conventional fashion to determine porosity and fractional water saturation along the formation. A linear relation between porosity and water saturation is then derived, preferably by linear regression on pairs of log-indicated porosity and fractional water saturation values, each pair being taken from a different depth along the formation. Irreducible water saturation at any point along the depth of the formation is estimatable from the derived linear function and the log-indicated porosity of a formation at that depth.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 1983
    Date of Patent: March 26, 1985
    Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation
    Inventor: Joseph Zemanek, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4432077
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method for determining the permeability of a formation which includes the steps of traversing a bore-hole with a tool having a means for transmitting low frequency acoustic energy. The transmitting means is pulsed and the acoustic energy is detected by a first wide band receiver having a frequency response of between at least 0.1k hertz and 30k hertz. The receiver is coupled to the transmitting means only by means of a cable which has a length exceeding about 5 feet and preferably a length of about 15 feet. The amplitude of tube waves detected by the receiver is determined at a plurality of locations in the bore-hole. The change of amplitude in tube waves at various of these locations provides a measure of permeability. The receiver employed preferably comprises a cylinder of piezoelectric material having end plates at the ends of the cylinder and a passageway through one of the end plates which transmits ambient but not dynamic pressure changes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 1981
    Date of Patent: February 14, 1984
    Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation
    Inventors: Khalid A. Alhilali, Joseph Zemanek, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4413512
    Abstract: A method of identifying potential low water cut hydrocarbon producing zones of a formation having significant water saturation (i.e. about 50% or more of the available pore space). The formation is logged to determine its water saturation. The formation rock is sampled at a level at which the log-indicated water saturation is significant. Sample rock is cleaned of hydrocarbons and saturated with brine. The spin-lattice relaxation time of hydrogen nuclei of the water molecules of the wetted sample is determined using nuclear magnetic resonance techniques and is used to determine the surface area of the sampled rock. An irreducible water saturation of the sampled formation rock is determined from the measured surface area and is plotted with the log-indicated formation water saturation at or at and about the level from which the rock sample was obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 1982
    Date of Patent: November 8, 1983
    Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation
    Inventor: Joseph Zemanek, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4071815
    Abstract: A borehole tool for logging the remanent magnetic field of the earth formations surrounding a borehole includes a coil system having transmitter, receiver, and nulling coils; a phase-sensitive detector connected across the receiver and nulling coils to provide signals representative of magnetic susceptibility; and a detector system having a pair of axially spaced magnetometers, a pair of counters, an oscillator, a comparator, and a transmitter to provide signals representative of the total magnetic field differential between the two magnetometers. An uphole receiver compares differentials in the magnetic susceptibility measurements between two positions in the borehole with the total magnetic field differential between the same two positions as an indication of the earth's remanent magnetic field.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 1976
    Date of Patent: January 31, 1978
    Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation
    Inventor: Joseph Zemanek, Jr.
  • Patent number: 3979714
    Abstract: An acoustic velocity logging tool employs a transmitter and a pair of receivers. Acoustic pulses from the transmitter pass through the formation surrounding the borehole to the receivers. The received signals, along with control signals, are transferred to an uphole recording system. A record unit operates to apply these receiver and control signals to a magnetic tape recorder. A playback unit transfers the recorded receiver signals to the intensity modulation input of a cathode-ray oscilloscope and, in response to the recorded control signals, applies a trigger pulse to the sweep input of the cathode-ray oscilloscope, successive sweeps of the cathode-ray oscilloscope being intensity modulated alternately by the recorded receiver signals of the pair of receivers. A film recorder makes a continuous film recording of the receiver signals as they appear as variable-density traces on the face of the cathode-ray oscilloscope to provide a two-receiver, variable-density recording. A .DELTA.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 1974
    Date of Patent: September 7, 1976
    Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation
    Inventor: Joseph Zemanek, Jr.
  • Patent number: 3967235
    Abstract: An acoustic velocity logging tool employs a transmitter and a pair of receivers. Acoustic pulses from the transmitter pass through the formation surrounding the borehole to the receivers. The received signals, along with control signals, are transferred to an uphole recording system. A record unit operates to apply these receiver and control signals to a magnetic tape recorder. A playback unit transfers the recorded receiver signals to the intensity modulation input of a cathode-ray oscilloscope and, in response to the recorded control signals, applies a trigger pulse to the sweep input of the cathode-ray oscilloscope. A film recorder makes a continuous film recording of the receiver signals as they appear as variable-density traces on the face of the cathode-ray oscilloscope.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 1974
    Date of Patent: June 29, 1976
    Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation
    Inventors: Charles L. Dennis, Joseph Zemanek, Jr.
  • Patent number: 3952282
    Abstract: An acoustic velocity logging tool employs a transmitter and a pair of receivers. Acoustic pulses from the transmitter pass through the formation surrounding the borehole to the receivers. The received signals, along with control signals, are transferred to an uphole recording system. A record unit operates to apply these receiver and control signals to a magnetic tape recorder. A playback unit transfers the recorded receiver signals to the intensity modulation input of a cathode-ray oscilloscope and, in response to the recorded control signals, applies a trigger pulse to the sweep input of the cathode-ray oscilloscope, successive sweeps of the cathode-ray oscilloscope being intensity modulated alternately by the recorded receiver signals of the pair of receivers. A film recorder makes a continuous film recording of the receiver signals as they appear as variable-density traces on the face of the cathode-ray oscilloscope to provide a continuous two-receiver, variable-density recording.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 1974
    Date of Patent: April 20, 1976
    Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation
    Inventor: Joseph Zemanek, Jr.