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Laboratory Equipment

Bedretto Underground Laboratory for Geosciences and Geoenergies (BedrettoLab)

Geo-energy test beds

Fluid Temperature and Conductivity

Tool measures the temperature and electric conductivity of the borehole fluid. Measurement purpose: This tool provides insight into fluid salinity and can trace hydraulically active fractures.

Category

Temporary

Group

Open Hole Logging

Type

Borehole Logging

Spectral Gamma

Spectral gamma can be used for depth correlation between logs. In addition, it can provide insight into lithological changes along the well.

Category

Temporary

Group

Open Hole Logging

Type

Borehole Logging

Geobiology Observatory

no description found

Category

Permanent

Group

In-Situ Laboratory

Type

Facility Type

Fibre Braag Grating sensor (FGB)

The sensors were arranged along chains with ten sensors each. As it is important that the specific wavelengths of each FBG sensor, that are arranged in series along the same fiber chain, must not overlap, the number of sensors per chain are limited to 10. In each borehole we use two sensor chains with alternating sensors for redundancy purposes. The sensors come with cable (multimode) loops to allow access from both sides, again for redundancy purposes. Because FBG sensors are sensitive to both strain and temperature, a single mode cable for temperature measurements is incorporated in the backloop cable.

Category

Permanent

Group

Distributed Strain Sensing

Type

Distributed Fibre Optic Sensing

Earthquake Physics testbed

Located at >2 km inside a mountain, with >1 km of overburden, and far away from external noise sources such as wind and traffic, the Earthquake Physics testbed is seismically very quiet. A Streickeisen STS-2 seismometer located just ∼130 m away from the MC fault zone (seismic station 8R.T2246), is the quietest seismic station in the entire national network operated by the Swiss Seismological Service. These are excellent conditions for building a highly sensitive earthquake observatory.

Category

Permanent

Group

In-Situ Laboratory

Type

Facility Type

triaxial geophones 100Hz sensors (RTC 100Hz)

These geophones complement the microseismic monitoring of the largest events expected, by extending the network horizontally. The triaxial geophones contain 100Hz sensors (RTC 100Hz) and come with 100m cable. The tool is suitable for 3'' boreholes. The coupling in the boreholes is realized by two pneumatic cylinders per geophone.

Category

Temporary

Group

Geophones

Type

Seismic Monitoring

Silixa Ultima XT DTS

The Silixa Ultima XT DTS offers the established high standard of resolution, accuracy and reliability of the ULTIMA DTS family, but over a class-leading operating temperature range. The unit can operate in temperatures from -40◦C to +65◦C; all without compromising the superior accuracy and reliability. Complete with a self-calibrating utility and on-board solid state storage, the XT-DTS has been designed for long-term unattended measurements.

Category

Temporary

Group

Distributed Temperature Sensing

Type

Distributed Fibre Optic Sensing

Single-mode fibre optic cable BRUsens DSS

Single-mode cables are suitable both for temperature measurements (Brillouin- or Raman based) and strain measurements (DSS=Brillouin or DAS=Rayleigh). The kind of measurement performed is defined by the interrogator used.

Category

Permanent

Group

Distributed Strain Sensing

Type

Distributed Fibre Optic Sensing

Geothermal testbed

It is equipped with a 400 m stimulation borehole equipped with a permanent multi-packer system separating the borehole into distinct intervals. Surrounding the injection borehole an array of monitoring boreholes have been drilled. The boreholes are equipped with a variety of sensors and consists of pore pressure sensors, fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors to measure strain, various seismic sensors, fiber-optic cables for distributed strain (DSS), distributed acoustic (DAS) and distributed temperature sensing (DTS).

Category

Permanent

Group

Geo-Energy Testbed

Type

Facility Type

Vibration-based traffic light system

no description found

Category

Permanent

Group

Real-time seismic monitoring

Type

Seismic Monitoring

Jewell Tiltmeter

Three tiltmeters complement the geomechanical monitoring in BedrettoLab.

Category

Temporary

Group

Geomechanics

Type

Borehole Monitoring

Step-Rate Injection Method for Fracture In-Situ Properties (SIMFIP) tool

Small device developed at GMF that sits inside a well-bore deep underground, which can create a fracture and measure its aperture in real-time, using the same instrument.

Category

Temporary

Group

Geomechanics

Type

Borehole Monitoring

Acoustic Emission (AE)-Accelerometer chain

It is optimized for the monitoring of the frequency range 1 kHz to 80 kHz, which allows us to monitor the formation of small cracks of centimeter size within the reservoir, an important observation in order to understand the damage evolution. The sensor is made for installation via cementation and able to withstand high pressures > 100 bar. Eight to sixteen AE sensors are placed per borehole. Data is digitized with a 200 kHz sampling frequency.

Category

Permanent

Group

Acoustic Emission (AE)

Type

Seismic Monitoring

Wilcoxon 736 sensor, Endevco 45A19 sensor

6 Wilcoxon 736 sensors - this type of sensor covers the broadest frequency band up to 25 kHz. 3 Endevco 45A19 sensors (Megitt) - capable to record up to 6 kHz with a higher sensitivity.

IMS South Africa built both sensors into a housing that allows cementing the sensors in the boreholes allowing for operations at pressures up to 100 bar.

Category

Permanent

Group

High-frequency accelerometer

Type

Seismic Monitoring

STS-2 High-Performance Portable Very-Broad-Band Triaxial Seismometer

Four seismic stations are permanently installed within the Bedretto tunnel.

Category

Permanent

Group

Accelerometer

Type

Seismic Monitoring

Pore-Pressure Sensors and Multi-packer

To measure pore pressure in different intervals of the experiment volume, we installed a multi-packer that separates the monitoring borehole "MB2" into several segments, each coming with one pressure sensor. Our multi-packer comes with 7 intervals separated by packers of 1m length.

Category

Permanent

Group

Enhanced Geothermal Systems

Type

Borehole Monitoring

100 Hz - 4000 Hz

Geophones are pendulum-based seismometers that are capable to measure seismic waves emitted by small seismic events. The sensors must be able to record high frequencies up to the kHz range, the sensors must be spurious free when recording seismic events from short distances and able to withstand up to 100 bar background pressure.

Category

Permanent

Group

Geophones

Type

Seismic Monitoring

GMuG

The transmitters are based on piezoelectric ceramics that emit after receiving a 1200 V delta impulse, a stress wave similar to seismic waves. Two transmitters are placed per borehole and distributed in such a way that the reservoir center is fully scanned from all directions.

Category

Permanent

Group

Ultrasonic Transmitter

Type

Seismic Monitoring

Deviation

Tool measures calibrated orientations with respect to accelerometer and magnetometer. Measurement purpose: Tool is used to measure borehole trajectory.

Category

Temporary

Group

Open Hole Logging

Type

Borehole Logging

Optical Televiewer with UV imaging

This tool provides geometric information about the wellbore (e.g. caliper, breakouts, open fractures etc.) and can be used to map fractures and faults. ABI generally is better at mapping breakouts, while the OBI is better at identifying different geologies (as long as the water is clear).

Category

Temporary

Group

Open Hole Logging

Type

Borehole Logging

Acoustic Televiewer

This tool provides geometric information about the wellbore (e.g. caliper, breakouts, open fractures etc.) and can be used to map fractures and faults.

Category

Temporary

Group

Open Hole Logging

Type

Borehole Logging

Caliper

This tool is run as one of the first logs in a borehole of uncertain conditions. It gives a first estimate of borehole geometry.

Category

Temporary

Group

Open Hole Logging

Type

Borehole Logging