Transient Temperature Profile Analysis for Injection Well Intake

The patent replaces mechanical flow meters with a thermal-based measurement system using temperature sensors and heat transfer analysis. This substitution eliminates the mechanical constraints that limited applicability to certain well architectures, allowing the method to be used in any well configuration including horizontal wells and wells with complex architectures where mechanical logging is not feasible.

The patent introduces temperature as an intermediary parameter to indirectly measure water intake profile. Instead of directly measuring flow with mechanical sensors, the system uses temperature changes caused by heat transfer between injected water and formation as a mediator to determine water intake characteristics, thereby bypassing well architecture limitations.

The patent employs periodic injection and shut-in cycles instead of single continuous operations. By repeating injection-shut-in sequences, the method allows temperature fields to develop and dissipate in controlled intervals, creating distinct thermal signatures for different intake zones. This periodic action enhances the contrast and resolvability of temperature profiles, thereby improving measurement precision while maintaining operational simplicity.

The patent performs preliminary temperature measurements during injection phases before conducting shut-in surveys. These preliminary data provide baseline temperature distributions that are used to interpret subsequent shut-in temperature evolution, improving the accuracy of water intake profile determination by accounting for initial thermal conditions and reducing ambiguity in interpreting temperature front movements.