Conoce qué aplicaciones existen actualmente para la extracción de pozos, así como herramientas de monitorización del trabajo en los mismos. Todo ello de la mano de nuestra empresa representada Crystal Group.

1. COTS Computing in Oil Well
Production and Monitoring
Applications
White Paper by:
Jim Shaw
Executive Vice President of Engineering
Crystal Group Inc. | 850 Kacena Road., Hiawatha, IA | 800.378.1636 | crystalrugged.com
Contact: leslie.george@crystalrugged.com

2. Page 2 of 11
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................................3
BACKGROUND..................................................................................................................................................3
INDUSTRY CHALLENGES...............................................................................................................................5
A STARTING POINT IS THE TRANSIT CASE ENCLOSURE SELECTION...............................................5
COMPUTING CHALLENGE FOR COTS COMPUTERS IN OIL PRODUCTION....................................7
CLEAN POWER IS A KEY ISSUE ON-SITE ...................................................................................................8
CONCLUSIONS ...............................................................................................................................................11
ABOUT THE AUTHOR ...................................................................................................................................11
ABOUT CRYSTAL GROUP INC....................................................................................................................11
COTS Computing in Oil Well Production and Monitoring Applications

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Lower than anticipated revenue, economic pressures, and geopolitical tensions have distorted the
petroleum exploration and production macro-cosmos. Trends in the regulatory environment and
the harsh conditions associated with well production have driven the need for improved computing
power in an austere oil production economy. The challenge for petroleum engineers revolves
around assembling a computationally dense system with excellent power conditioning in a
protective environment that mitigates potential revenue interruptions due to unforeseen
regulatory infractions while optimizing well production. This paper addresses high-end computer
integration associated with well head and down-hole monitoring and provides suggestions for
successful system integration for reliable jobsite operations.
Figure 1, Rugged Portable Data Collection System. Photo courtesy of Crystal Group.
INTRODUCTION
Optimal oil production and the necessary environmental safety have been tied to effectively
monitoring down-hole parameters of producing wells. The compute capability required for this
monitoring and measurement has become substantial in nature due to the types and volume of
sensor data. No longer is a laptop with a four-port switch a viable engineering toolset for
compliance and monitoring at the well site. This paper addresses the need for rugged, reliable,
server class computing in the oil field environment.
BACKGROUND
Current trends in technology allows for mapping a large array of parameters in order to optimize
the equipment utilization and anticipate or mitigate revenue impacting issues. With the advent of
advanced fiber optic measurements, Raman Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) and Brillouin

4. Page 4 of 11
Distributed Temperature and Strain Sensing (DTTS), precision down-hole measurements are
possible and practical. Analyzing the fiber optic rebound signals from these lines allows for
extraction crews to monitor temperature, flow rate, and pressure. This information is used to
evaluate the health and safety of well production, monitor aquifer transitions, indicate casement
breach, and find steam pockets within the well regardless of well orientation or directional drilling.
The base system is comprised of a series of fiber optic cables, usually double steel encased, with a
reflective mirror attached to the end of each of the fiber cables. Light is pumped down the fiber
using a pulsed laser diode. The energy travels to the bottom of the hole and is reflected back to a
photo diode acting as an optical receiver. Pressures, temperatures, flow rates, and proximal
changes in the hole can be monitored along the depth of the hole through Bragg, Raman, and
Brilliouin photopic (optical time domain reflectometer) modifications on the signal. An analog to
digital convertor circuit creates a digital profile which is processed through a signal analyzer. Data
is passed to the server via Ethernet channels which is used to process the data using several
advanced Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithms.
The resulting data which is now easily interpreted as temperature, pressure, flow, and position is
stored in a RAID array to monitor the well production performance as trend information. These
servers and switches are typically powered through an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) system
which is supplied by a conventional on-site generator-set. The UPS is required to supply regulated
power for the sensor, switch, and server.
A rugged 750W UPS with a 10 port 10/100MHz Ethernet switch, and a 2U server can be packaged in
a 95 lb. 4U transit case to provide the in-field data processing. The server utilized in a recent case
study was a dual LGA 2011 E5-2620 (Sandy Bridge 2.0GHz, 8 Core) server with 96GB RAM which is
Figure 2, Rugged 4U Transit Case with UPS, patch panel, switch, and rugged 2U server. Photo courtesy of Crystal
Group.

5. Page 5 of 11
capable of processing data at a rate of 120 GFLOPS1
. This system handles eight 10/100MHz digital
streams from the analog to digital (AD) convertors and can be modified to double this capability.
Data can be stored on-site or up-linked to a central monitoring station by the extraction team.
INDUSTRY CHALLENGES
The unique problem with monitoring oil wells with this technology is the level of computing
necessary to process the data into meaningful parameters is daunting. The effort is not possible
with aToughbook™ or laptop class appliance. Furthermore, standard servers (Dell, HP) are not made
for this type of application. Rig sites are dirty, dusty, inclement places where the electrical power is
typically unreliable. Fracking chemicals are highly caustic to electronics and cause premature
failures in untreated commercial off the shelf (COTS) class servers. The site monitoring schedule is
typically a few weeks to a month at one site, then off to the next well via the back of a pickup truck.
Transportation to the next well site is often via unmaintained roadways. The equipment needs to
be small enough to be manually carried and set up on a platform or well head but tough enough to
be transported from site to site without being damaged. This situation defines a challenge for a
new breed of rugged COTS computing, networking, and integration. Using COTS allows for leading
edge computation at a reasonable cost. Integrating and hardening the package provides a highly
reliable system in a small form factor. Performing at this level for the oil industry was an unmet
challenge.
A STARTING POINT IS THE TRANSIT CASE ENCLOSURE SELECTION
When selecting an enclosure, keep in mind a few considerations that may pay great dividends. First,
it is tempting to oversize the transit case for future expansion. Unless it is certain additional or
1
http://download.intel.com/support/processors/xeon/sb/xeon_E5-2600.pdf
Figure 3, Light-weight Carbon Fiber Transit Case. Photo courtesy of ECS Cases.

6. Page 6 of 11
deeper components are required later, resist the temptation to pick a 6U case when a 4U will solve
the problem. The case is a large portion of the weight, and weight is the focus in this application
Consider selecting a case that uses a removable inner frame. While this seems like an unnecessary
luxury, the first time maintenance is required, the feature will have paid for its self. Not to mention
the technicians/assemblers can work faster, and spend less time making modifications or routing
and re-routing cabling. Being able to get around the rack, perform wiring, assemble the system, and
perform trouble shooting is beneficial when the case is not in occluding progress.
The style and durability of the transit case is important. Consider a thermal formed or carbon fiber
case that has been designed to be stacked, locked, and dropped. Cases designed for the music
industry are light weight but not designed for this type of environment or service life. The material
needs to be rigid enough as well as tough enough to carry the load without damaging the internal
equipment or failing in an unanticipated incident.
Standard locking features for stacking and heavy-duty latches
should be seriously considered for durability, portability, and
extended life.
Keep in mind the cases can be “dynamically tuned” for the load
by the manufacturer making isolation a variable by working with
the transit case company. It is important that multi-axis isolation
techniques are used for this class of equipment and to be
effective, the correct dampening characteristics need to be
matched to the mass being protected. This isolation mass information is usually in the
manufacturer’s specification sheets but contact the case manufacturer for your unique situation2
.
Figure 5, Transit case integration made easy with removable rack.
2
Stephanie Quinn, ECS Cases, http://www.ecscase.com/
Figure 4, Rugged latches and thermo-
composite case.

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COMPUTING CHALLENGE FOR COTS COMPUTERS IN OIL PRODUCTION
The oil production trends in the computing industry relate to providing high performance COTS
computing in a rugged electronics package at a reasonable price. Gone are the days of
industrial/military grade screened parts used in the manufacture of rugged computers. The
challenge today is to adapt what is provided for the server class computing industry to harsh
environments like those found in well-head monitoring or oil exploration. Three key trends have
dominated the COTS packaging in the last ten years.
1. Regulatory pressure to substitute tin-lead solders for tin-silver-copper alternatives has altered
the fatigue life curve for cyclic temperature induced failure which can created a latent reliability
issues and “Tin-Whiskers” (spontaneous dendritic growth of pure tin columns). This problem is
typically solved by adding silver and copper to tin. While the consumer electronics industry is
unencumbered by the change in these materials, the lower solder ductility fail under higher
loads but fewer cycles for SnAgCu based solders3
. This makes creating rugged electronics more
difficult due to the environmental factors.
2. The integrated circuit technology continues to advance allowing for smaller features in the
microprocessor silicon (lithography reduction via Moore’s Law) which is impacting the
connection density on the printed circuit boards Ball Grid Array (BGA) size and pitch. Finer
pitched features fracture more readily under a set strain or deflection. This means it is critical to
prevent stress on these fine featured ball grid arrays.
3. Intel® and AMD® are integrating more and more of the circuitryon the microprocessor substrate
(video, memory controller, interrupt control hub, platform controller hub, etc.) making the
silicon substrate larger. This is chiefly because of the technology improvement mentioned
above. Larger silicon packages create a need for less deflection in the boards and therefore the
chassis in order to maintain reliable performance.
These factors conspire to make
adapting COTS architectures even
more difficult, although not
unmanageable. Creating a server
package that can withstand shock or
impact loading and vibration or cyclic
deflection is a critical factor in
designing a well monitoring system.
The heart of and arguably the most
sensitive aspect of the integrated
product is the compute capability.
Numerous enhancements are
required to utilize a COTS motherboard in this application. The key to making a rugged system lies
3
http://nepp.nasa.gov/whisker/reference/tech_papers/2011-kostic-Pb-free.pdf
Figure 6, Billet aluminum chassis creates enhanced protection for
electronics.

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in constructing a chassis which has such extreme stiffness, that deflections in the solder joints are
entirely avoided. Standard sheet metal construction for the computer chassis provides insufficient
rigidity for long life and reliable operation in this environment. An alternative to this approach is a
billet machined chassis. This type of milled box construction does an excellent job of limiting
deflection; however, there is a weight penalty. Since this is intended to be a portable application,
weight is critical.
Another approach is weight reduction through the
use of composite materials such as cross weave
carbon fiber laminates for the enclosures. Weight
savings of 20-30% are readily achievable using these
materials. Additionally, the stiffness of the enclosures
rivals those of traditional material selection making a
viable option at roughly a 15% cost premium.
The protection of the electronics and the need for a
light weight structure drive the design considerations for the computer. Staking components for
vibration and shock, protecting the electronics from humidity intrusion, and using stainless steel
hardware are good measures to take in creating rugged, durable systems.
Many of these monitoring systems require the support
of virtualization software to accommodate a vast
number of sensor applications running on a single
computer. It is difficult to find and expensive to develop
an embedded computer architecture that is capable of
accepting a server grade virtualization Operating
System (VMware, Windows Server w/ Hyper V, etc.) as
most small embedded platforms are not server grade
hardware and lack the compute power needed for
virtualization.
An economical alternative is to use platforms that have
already been certified to be compatible with your OS of
choice. This tends to be a system level challenge.
Included in the mix is the choice of a network switch
and its management capability. The same challenges
faced on the compute side of the system are seen in the
network side.
CLEAN POWER IS A KEY ISSUE ON-SITE
Figure 9, Protecting sockets in server class boards.
Figure 8, Staked Components for Shock and
Vibration.
Figure 7, Carbon Fiber 3U.

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Oil production sites are not typically known for having clean power. This was never an issue until
high end computing entered the equation. A months’ worth of monitoring could be lost with a
single power spike. The use of an UPS is essential in maintaining the integrity of the data collected
at the well site. Ruggedness and weight are significant factors in UPS selection for well sites.
Ruggedness because of the environmental extremes and weight because these systems are
expected to be portable. But these are not the only parameters that should be examined when
selecting a UPS. Other concerns relate to the use of generators and the ability to provide galvanic
isolation. The use of generators and the poor quality they can provide can result in the loss of data
or a break in the communication link. Generators can cause frequency instability and notching of
the sine wave input to any unprotected load resulting in damaged equipment and downtime on
site reducing the productivity of the well site.
Most commercial UPS do not provide the ruggedness to cope with the extreme temperatures or the
environment and fail very quickly. Most commercial line-interactive UPS do not provide galvanic
isolation or provide frequency stability to the load and have to utilize the batteries to cope with the
voltage fluctuations or the frequency instability. This results in battery failure or a dramatic
reduction in battery life. The extreme temperatures also affect line-interactive UPS as the UPS and
batteries are designed to operate in a typical ambient temperature of 20-24°C (68-78°F)
environment.
The solution is to utilize a rugged design with a double conversion on-line UPS with input isolation.
Double conversion on-line UPS provide frequency stability, voltage stabilization and complete
galvanic isolation to your load without
utilizing battery power. Batteries are
only used when power totally fails or
exceeds -15/+25% on the input
voltage. This utilization rate results in
longer battery life, less maintenance
cost, reduced site down time and a
more productive well site.
A true On-Line UPS has the following characteristics:
• There is no transfer time or interruption of power to the load if a blackout or brownout
occurs because the inverter is already on-line, supplying 100% of the load. This is not the
case with line-interactive and standby UPS.
• The true on-line UPS provides full time conditioned clean power because the UPS is creating
a new clean sine wave after converting or rectifying from AC from the utility to DC and then
back to AC, referred to as double conversion. The double conversion on-line topology fully
protects the computer load from all on-going and often transparent power problems on the
utility line. Only a double conversion UPS protects the load from the eleven (11) types of
Figure 10, Rugged UPS with double conversion capability, courtesy of
Intellipower.

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power problems. These include the following: line noise, voltage sags, voltage and current
surges, frequency changes, switching transients, low voltages, high voltages, harmonics
problems, lightning, blackouts and break in power when AC fails. Other types of systems
typically protect against only five of these power problems at most.
• The double conversion on-line topology is highly compatible for use with backup AC power
generators, which is one of its major advantages over any of the standby type UPS products
including line interactive UPS. Backup AC generators have severely distorted waveforms
when supplying non-linear loads such as computers as a result of their relatively high
output impedance. All of the standby type UPS’s interpret the voltage distortion as bad
power quality causing the UPS to go to battery. When the generator is unloaded, the
voltage or frequency distortion is reduced so the standby or line interactive then goes off
battery and back to utility. This cycle may repeat indefinitely at intervals of about four
seconds. This causes excessive transients to the load and eventually the battery is
exhausted, which shuts down the load. Only a double-conversion on-line UPS will solve
these compatibility problems.
Figure 11, UPS Double conversion block diagram, courtesy of Intellipower
• On-line UPS’s can provide tightly regulated output voltage, usually +3%, to the load even if
the input voltage varies widely. Many on-line UPS products can provide this tight regulation
without any battery drain even with input voltages ranging from 85 volts to 138 volts.
• On-line UPS provides longer run time from its batteries when needed because the battery
will not be partially drained during a brownout leaving its full capacity to be available for a
blackout.
• Overall battery life will be longer for an on-line type UPS compared to standby and standby
with boost (line interactive) types because the batteries do not have to be used frequently

11. Page 11 of 11
to respond to sags, quick line fluctuations and brownouts as well as the related transfers of
transformer voltage taps all of which cause battery wear and a shortened battery life. In
addition, battery life is further increased by high quality, digital intelligent, multi-mode
battery chargers.
CONCLUSIONS
The need for server class computing on a well site is a recent trend. This trend has provided
challenges for companies that need to carefully monitor production for the purposes of regulatory
requirements in addition to production optimization. The oil field is a relatively inhospitable place
for computers, power supplies, and network switches. Selecting the right components and
protecting them from damage is a key factor in a long and uneventful life. Chassis stiffness and
circuit card protection as well as transit case integration and a double conversion UPS power
conditioning make well monitoring a viable science in the industry. Correctly considering these
choices defines the essence of the engineering required for uninterrupted revenue.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jim Shaw is the Executive Vice President of Engineering at Crystal Group and
oversees product development and product strategy. Jim has a 30-year history of
designing and building rugged electronics for industrial and military applications.
Prior to his tenure at Crystal Group in Hiawatha, Iowa, Jim worked at Rockwell Collins
for 21 years where he led the display development team there as a senior
engineering manager. Jim and his Crystal Group team are responsible for creating
leading edge architectures for industrial and military computing markets.
ABOUT CRYSTAL GROUP INC.
Crystal Group Inc., an employee-owned small business located in Hiawatha, Iowa, USA, is a
technology innovation leader specializing in both custom and COTS products for defense,
government and industrial markets since 1987. Crystal Group designs and manufactures
installation-ready rugged servers, displays, networking devices, embedded systems, power supplies
and storage devices that fit critical applications in demanding environmental conditions.
The company is certified to quality management standards AS9100C:2009 and ISO 9001:2008.
Crystal Group products meet and exceed MIL-STDs 810, 167-1, 461, MIL-S-901, IEEE and IEC
industrial standards. Additionally, the company offers integration services, configuration
management, product life-cycle planning and 5+ year warranties.
crystalrugged.com
© 2016 Crystal Group Inc. All rights reserved. All marks are properties of their respective owners.
Design and specifications are subject to change.
Jim Shaw
Crystal Group Inc.