A Method for Estimating the Location of the Drill-Bit During Horizontal Directional Drilling Using a Giant-Magnetostrictive Vibrator

摘要

Horizontal directional drilling (HDD) is a commonly used method for laying pipelines that avoids the need to make an open cut. However, the location of the drill-bit underground must be known at all times when using this method. As conventional electromagnetic wave-based methods are known to have several problems, for example buildings in the line of construction, the moisture content of the ground and the presence of steel towers near the construction site. Herein we suggest a new method based on the propagation of elastic waves in the ground. Thus, measurement of the elastic waves generated by a giant-magnetostrictive vibrator by sensors set on the ground allows us to obtain the differences in arrival time of this wave at each sensor by applying a cross-correlation analysis to the waveforms detected. Finally, an approximate three-dimensional (3D) location method based on these differences was designed.