Here you may find some results of applying the author’s simulation-based methodology that has been applied in area of design and development of information technology for assessment of underground petroleum and natural gas deposits.

There are a lot of traditional methods and technologies using acoustic and electrical sources of sounding signal for depth sounding of Earth. Alongside with it, non-traditional sources of sounding signals are used as well, in particular, MHD-generators are used in Russia for these purposes.

MHD-generator (magneto-hydrodynamic generator) is a complex physical installation based on a solid fuel booster of a missile engine. MHD-generator creates a short high-power electromagnetic impulse used for depth sounding of Earth. The natural electromagnetic field of the Earth (NEMF) is a source of interference and noise in these experiments. Therefore, the starting time of the MHD-generator must be selected with the minimal level of interference. Besides that, it is necessary to provide a real-time control over numerous measuring stations located on a geophysical range of several dozens of miles. 

Each start of an MHD-generator is rather expensive. Therefore, computer control system must ensure obtaining of the maximal amount of reliable data at each start. 

The tasks solved by the computer control system are grouped in three operational modes of the system: forecast, synchronization, and control.

In the forecast mode:

In synchronization mode the necessary commands are issued:

Control mode provides:

Author’s simulation-based methodology was applied to design this computer system. MHD-generator’s control system had significant constraints on the probability of solving the tasks grouped into modes described above, as well as types and cost of hardware used in the system. Hardware and software from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and modules CAMAC (Computer Aided Measurement and Control) were used in the system.

This slide shows one of the stages of design of the MHD-generator control system. In particular, three alternative options of the MHD-generator control system’s architecture are shown. They differ from each other by hardware configuration and distribution of operational modes of the system. For each of these options we have conducted simulation experiments to evaluate the probability of solving a task in each of the modes depending on the hardware reliability and the frequency of MHD-generator’s starts. As a result, a system’s architecture completely adequate to the customer’s demands was determined.

This slide shows a generalized block diagram of the designed and developed computer system for the control of both MHD-generator and the entire geophysical experiment on depth sounding of Earth. Here you can see the MHD-generator itself, connected to the control center through a special fiber-optic decoupler. Numerous control and measuring laboratories (CML) with various sensors, arranged throughout the large territory of the geophysical range. Control of the measuring laboratories and data acquisition from the sensors was implemented using a special radio channel.

This system was used for actual geological investigations in several regions of the Soviet Union. In particular, in East Siberia (Krasnoyarsk region, Vanavara - it is interesting to note that it the site of the famous Tunguzka Meteorite of 1908). There, using our computer system, we had assessed the underground deposits of petroleum and perspectives for practical exploration and development of this oil field were determined. Interesting practical results using our system were also obtained in Caspian Region (Astrakhan area). Here our computer system was used to assess the development of the natural gas field.