LPLT Control System
Our client, a local engineering consulting firm, developed a research device that can accurately and repeatedly simulate a variety of extreme oil-well conditions and measure the effects on cement as it cures. This innovative oil exploration research and development tool simulates the temperature, pressure, and local permeability of rock formations miles below the surface in order to explore how cement hydrates in down-hole conditions.
Their customer, an oil field services company, was seeking a way to ensure wells drilled were as spill-proof as possible. Specifically, it wanted to better understand how cement, used to seal new wells, cures in extreme and varying underground conditions.
Eagle Lake designed, integrated, and demonstrated the LabVIEW Real-time measurement and control application, consisting of five major components:
- LabVIEW Real-time embedded control software, running on the cRIO dual-core processor
- LabVIEW FPGA Reconfigurable IO, deployed to run in hardware on the cRIO FPGA
- LabVIEW Remote Monitor & Control GUI, running on the remote PC Laptop HMI
- Isolation Scanner motor scripts, running on the 3-axis Motor Controller
- LabVIEW Settings Editor, which can be run on any PC
The LabVIEW Real-time embedded controller application coordinates and controls the data acquisition from all system sensor inputs, logs the results data, sequences the Isolation Scanner and six independent pressure controllers, configures and controls the pulse generator outputs implemented in the FPGA, communicates and controls the precision balance and strain gauge digital multimeter via RS-232 serial ports, communicates and controls the motor controller and high-speed scanner digitizer via the private TCP/IP network, and communicates with two remote monitor panel applications via the public network.
Our client developed and demonstrated the full system, including several scanning technologies to assess experimental results. This very successful project informed scientists on critical oil exploration and production processes that could not be understood in any other way.