First applications of DAS in geophysics were conducted a little more than 10 years ago. Initial uses of the technology focused on seismic imaging using VSP as the fundamental acquisition geometry. Shortly after the deployment of this geophysical use of the technology it was shown that the broad bandwidth that DAS records could be used for many other engineering applications. Nowadays fiber optic DAS has been deployed to analyze stimulation and production in different settings and diagnose different devices within instrumented assets. Advances in DAS monitoring — with increased sensitivity of the interrogator units and capability to sense longer distances — has enabled the adoption of the technology for near surface processes, ocean monitoring, as well as traditional infrastructure and seismological monitoring. The distributed nature of DAS with high-receiver density has enabled geophysicists to implement traditional analysis tools to a wide variety of disciplines. Here I discuss how skills that are second nature to geophysicists can have wide application in other areas that are adopting this technology. In this presentation I show examples of various applications of DAS sensing from traditional seismic, infrastructure monitoring, passive monitoring, and engineering applications.
Speaker Bio
Andres Chavarria
Andres Chavarria is OptaSense’s Oilfield Services technical director. His current focus is the use of distributed sensing fiber optic data for engineering and geoscience applications. He has a background in borehole seismology (MS and VSP) and was previously the geophysical processing manager at OptaSense, SR2020, and Paulsson. He has conducted work in other areas of geophysics including geothermal, mining, and groundwater. He holds an engineering degree in geophysics from the National University of Mexico and a PhD in Geophysics from Duke University.