Application of RFID tags in tubing

The article introduces the current situation of oil pipe management in oilfield operation and production and the current application status and prospect of RFID tags, focusing on the technical research of special RFID tags that can be applied to the oilfield field environment, the discussion of the installation scheme of oil pipe tags and the application of RFID tag technology in the whole life cycle management of oil pipes.

The current situation of oilfield management mode

In recent years, the oil field to promote the “life span, equal life” management as the representative of the oil pipe management model, this management model still has many problems, on the one hand, this management model, the fine management of the said enhancements rely mainly on the refinement of the management chain, the actual operator still needs to be completed manually, on the other hand, this management model is still not fine enough.

RFID electronic tag application status

In the context of the government vigorously promoting the development of the Internet of Things industry, a series of national promotion policies have become a powerful source of motivation for the development of China’s radio frequency identification (Radio Frequency Identification, RFID) industry. Various ministries and commissions jointly
The number of key application projects such as smart grid, intelligent transportation, financial services, logistics and warehousing, medical health, food safety, etc. RFID has increased significantly and the scope has expanded rapidly; the market demand of commodity anti-counterfeiting, asset management, industrial management and other enterprises has begun to heat up. China RFID industry has formed a relatively mature business model, the future of RFID industry will usher in a period of rapid growth.

Oil pipeline special RFID electronic tag technology research

Specialized electronic tag research

Through the study of the basic theory of electronic tags, to explore the tag’s stable frequency spreading technology, from the oilfield use environment (especially downhole), the need to meet the antenna small size, substrate thermal shock resistance conditions.
In this condition, the substrate material selection and antenna design are carried out for the requirement of metal resistance. The substrate material is microwave dielectric ceramic (MWDC) with dielectric constant of 20-100 and low dielectric loss. The antenna design adopts microstrip antenna with minimum size and 80% band widening at the same distance, and good stability of reading distance. Increase the antenna bandwidth method research.
(1) Increase the dielectric thickness and reduce the relative dielectric constant of the substrate. This method is the basic way to expand the bandwidth of microstrip antenna, microstrip antenna bandwidth is:

When the standing wave ratio of microstrip antenna ρ When certain, the bandwidth is inversely proportional to the quality factor. Therefore, the microstrip antenna mainly widens the working bandwidth by reducing the Q value of the equivalent resonant reactance. The calculation formula of the quality factor Q of the microstrip antenna is:

W is the patch width, is the patch length (approximated as half of the wavelength), for the thickness of the dielectric plate, is the conductivity of copper, can be obtained, increase the thickness of the dielectric plate h, then Bw increase, reduce the substrate relative permittivity 0 then Bw increase, s, the minimum value of 1 (the case of using air dielectric), so reduce the range of rolling wide bandwidth is limited.
(2) Multimode technique. This method comes from the design experience of coupled resonators, coupled resonators generally have two or more resonators, adjusting the reference can work in the required frequency range. Antenna structure design using two or more resonant units with different resonant frequencies, control the distance between resonant units so that different resonant frequency points close coupling, effectively increase the antenna bandwidth, the more common structure used in RFID systems by the coplanar parasitic unit, multi-layer antenna unit, multi-stacked layer antenna unit of each radiation patch working frequency is different, the size is also different, the upper layer patch through the lower layer patch electromagnetic coupling feed, several resonant frequency is very close, effectively occupy the working frequency band.
(3) Antenna using loading structure. Loading original can be reactance elements, impedance original, set total parameter original or distribution parameter original, etc., generally placed in the antenna internal or feed end, such as in the folded oscillator feed at the loading of a suitable as shown in Figure 1, the middle part of the folded oscillator conductor 2 is open circuit, and the u-shaped short cut-off line of appropriate length is loaded at the feed end of the folded oscillator FF’, the U-shaped short cut-off line has a positive slope change with frequency, which can compensate for the negative slope change of the original folded oscillator input conductor, and the synthesized conductor effectively improves the frequency characteristics of the impedance.

Figure.1 Folded oscillator antenna loaded with U-shaped short cut-off line
When the antenna length is much less than half of the wavelength, the input impedance shows reactance, which can improve the current distribution and resonant frequency. The loading structure can not only widen the antenna bandwidth, but also reduce the antenna size and improve the antenna efficiency. Tag protective shell material preference: metal will shield the tag signal, combined with the oilfield environment, to choose a high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, hydrolysis resistance and has a very good
mechanical properties of the plastic production tag protective shell.

Exploration of oil pipe tag installation scheme

According to the different structures and materials, several feasible tag solutions are given, as shown in Table1.
Table.1 oil pipe tag installation program statistics

Oil pipe tag read-write technology research

(1) Tag read-write handheld machine terminal. Terminal equipment selection system stability, simple operation, data processing speed, read distance, small and easy to carry the handheld machine, support UHF, bar code, wifi, 3G, GPS, field camera image and other functional modules, module performance and high stability, is a portable electronic tag test equipment.
(2) Oil pipe operation site special read-write research. The read-write controller controls the ring antenna kernel senses the oil pipe electronic tag when the oil pipe goes up and down the well, collects the oil pipe up and down the well data, and carries on the filter of the data, then sends the data to the field
The field cache is used to ensure that the data collected at the site can still be effectively recorded and saved when the wireless connection at the site is not available. In the operation team to realize the automatic monitoring of the oil pipe up and down the well, the technical means taken is: install the fixed read-write at the wellhead of the operation team’s through-well machine to sense the oil pipe splice up and down the well in real time, and complete the record. Accurately record the up and down well data of the tubing coupling, and play the function of automatic depth calculation, in-well depth statistics and problematic tubing coupling wellhead warning.
Wellhead loop antenna technology research: In the process of tubing up and down the well, by using the customized operation team wellhead arrangement loop antenna array, to achieve no matter which direction the tubing tag is in, the antenna can collect the tag’s data. Multiple antennas form a loop antenna array to read tubing tags in a 360 degree circumferential direction to achieve automatic data collection of tubing up and down wells at the wellhead. Through the antenna management software adjustment set each antenna board input parameter, make the whole field type more uniform, ensure 360 degrees no blind area. For the response time of the reader, in the national standard [GB/T29272-2012 information technology radio frequency identification equipment performance test method system performance test method], there is no test reader response time test item. Usually, test read-write read rate method, generally is record read-write open 1 minute time within a single tag or multiple tag reading quantity, thus calculate the read-write reading response time. The actual measurement reads the tag number of times per second more than 160 times, after calculation, the response time is faster than 1/160S (6.25ms).

RFID electron tag technology in oil pipe management application

The establishment of the whole life cycle tracking management system based on the electronic tag technology, can install a unique “electronic ID card” for each oil pipe, and in the key business links using the collection equipment for oil pipe tags for automatic identification and application.
It collects logistics data of procurement, recovery data of supply wells, repair data, and well data of operation sites in real time, and combines with actual business applications to link the supply department, maintenance department and use department of oil pipe, realizing “full life cycle” management of oil pipe from storage, issuance, well entry, recovery, repair to scrapping. For the tubing management department, with the passage of time, through the data collection of the “whole life cycle” information of each tubing recovery, repair and scrapping, it can realize the real-time query of the total amount of tubing input, current intact quantity and scrapping quantity of the whole plant, and provide support to optimize the tubing input and deepen the value of tubing. For oil and gas production departments, with the help of the whole life cycle tracking file of oil pipes
It can link up previously incomplete and discontinuous information to provide data support for block and single well diagnostic analysis. By visually and effectively linking information about the well’s operations over the years, managers are able to take a longer view and accurately and comprehensively diagnose and analyze blocks and individual wells. By realizing the data collection and analysis of the causes of failure such as oil tubing corrosion, break off, and deviation wear for each oil and water well, the entire and accurate tracing of oil tubing with quality problems can be realized; at the same time, a complete and associated database of each tubing rod and each downhole tool from production to scrapping can be established, thus providing data support for extending the maintenance-free period of oil and water wells and optimizing the use of oil tubing tools, with outstanding guidance.
This provides outstanding guidance. At the same time, the data in the tubing “whole life cycle” management information system can assist the staff of the process laboratory to conduct deflection and wear analysis, quality tracking, as well as reservoir condition and operation effect analysis, and promote the refinement of reservoir management.
Author: Xu Yafei, Wang Qinghai, Yang Bingbing

Source: China RFID Tags Manufacturer – Actility Technologies Company Limited (www.tractility.com) Actility provides powerful security solutions for retail store management to prevent asset and property losses, improve transaction security, and provide intelligent analysis. We produce AM/EM/RFID systems, EAS tags, EAS soft tags, EAS safer, lanyards, detachers and all kinds EAS accessories products. Infrared people counter and camera people counter is available. If you want to have more information about the article or you want to share your opinion with us, contact us at [email protected]

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