Tutorial 7 Curved Boreholes

Oriented Core
Survey Data
Collar Data
Traverse Display

Dips v.7.0 Tutorial Manual

Tutorial 7: Curved Boreholes

Introduction
This tutorial demonstrates how to enter and process data for non-linear boreholes, using
the Curved Borehole Oriented Core traverse option.
Select File > Recent Folders > Examples Folder and open the Curved Borehole.dips7 file.
You should see the following contour plot.

This file contains data from a single curved borehole traverse. Notice that the traverse
orientation is displayed on the stereonet as a green circle with the traverse ID: BH-001. For
a curved borehole traverse, this point is the FIRST point in the survey file.

Curved Borehole Traverses

A curved borehole traverse in Dips, is a non-linear borehole, where the borehole path is
defined by a survey file with orientation versus depth (distance) measurements.
There are two different types of curved borehole traverses which can be defined in Dips:

Curved BH Oriented Core

Curved BH Televiewer

For the Curved Borehole Oriented Core option, the joint measurements are alpha/beta
angles measured from oriented core.
For the Curved Borehole Televiewer option, the joint measurements are already processed
into true Dip/DipDirection or Strike/Dip from televiewer or other processing method.

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Tutorial 7: Curved Boreholes

The file you have just opened uses the Curved BH Oriented Core option. This has been
defined in the Traverse Information dialog.
1. Select: Analysis > Traverses
2. From the list of Traverse Types at the left of the dialog, select the Curved BH
Oriented Core traverse type.
3. Notice the number (in brackets) beside each Traverse Type. This indicates the
number of currently defined traverses for each traverse type.
4. Since we only have one curved borehole traverse defined, there is a (1) beside
Curved BH Oriented Core, and a (0) beside all other traverse types.

Note:

Traverse ID is alpha-numeric (previous versions only allowed integer values). You

may now use alpha-numeric codes for the traverse ID, for all traverse types.
The Data Format refers to the orientation data format entered in the main Dips
spreadsheet for the orientation data collected on a given traverse. For oriented
core traverses, the Data Format is always Alpha / Beta (i.e. local angles measured
on the oriented core).
The Traverse Format refers to the format used to record the orientation of the
traverse itself. For a Curved BH Oriented Core traverse, this requires Survey File
data and a value of Orient1. Orient 1 defines the position of the reference line
relative to the top of the core. Orient 1 = 180 indicates a reference line scribed
along the bottom of the core.
See the Dips help system for details about the definition of Orient 1 for oriented
core borehole traverses (applies to linear or curved oriented core traverses).

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Tutorial 7: Curved Boreholes

Collar Data
Select the Collar Data tab in the Traverse Information dialog.

The Collar Data tab allows you to record the XYZ coordinates of the collar for each borehole,
and the total depth of each borehole.
NOTE: currently the Collar Data is NOT used in the Dips analysis, however it will be
implemented in the next upgrade for filtering and plotting of curved borehole data.

Survey Data
Select the Survey Data tab in the Traverse Information dialog.

The Survey Data tab allows you to enter the Distance (i.e. Depth) and Trend/Plunge of the
survey points.
NOTE:

This file only uses a single traverse. If you have multiple curved borehole traverses,
then the ID, Distance and Trend/Plunge data for all traverses is simply entered
sequentially in the data columns.
You will notice the negative plunge values. Since survey file plunge values
commonly use a negative convention to indicate downward plunge, you can directly
paste plunge data with the negative sign into the survey data tab, as long as the
correct convention is selected in the Settings dialog as described below.

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Tutorial 7: Curved Boreholes

Curved Borehole Settings

If you select the Settings
button in the Traverse Information dialog, you can
configure some options for the curved borehole input.

The Plunge Options allow you to choose the sign convention for plunge used to
record the survey file. This applies to survey data only, and does NOT affect the
conventions used in the main Dips spreadsheet.
The De-survey Options offer two different linear methods. See the Dips help system
for more information.

Select Cancel in the Settings dialog and the Traverse Information dialog.

Grid View
Lets have a look at the main Dips spreadsheet, referred to as the Grid View.
Select the Grid View tab at the lower left of the screen.

Orientation Columns
Since we are using an oriented core traverse, the orientation data in the first two columns
are Alpha / Beta angles measured on the oriented core.
NOTE: if we were using the Curved Borehole Televiewer option, then the Orientation data
would be in Dip/DipDirection or Strike/Dip format.

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Tutorial 7: Curved Boreholes

Traverse Column
The Traverse Column records the traverse ID of each measurement. In this case all
measurements are from the same traverse with id BH-001, which was also entered in the
Traverse Information dialog.
NOTE: traverse ID values entered in the Traverse Column must ALWAYS correspond to
existing Traverse ID values entered in the Traverse Information dialog, or else an error
message will be displayed.

Distance Column
When you are analyzing data from curved boreholes (either oriented core or televiewer), a
Distance column is mandatory. The Distance values entered in the Grid View should be
within the range of Distance values entered in the Survey Data in the Traverse dialog for the
corresponding traverse.
The Distance Column can be manually turned on or off in the Project Settings dialog.
However for Curved Borehole traverses, since the Distance column is mandatory, it is
automatically turned on (when you define a curved borehole traverse), and cannot be
turned off, as indicated below.

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Tutorial 7: Curved Boreholes

Display of Traverses
Traverse orientations can be displayed on the stereonet by selecting the Traverses
checkbox in the sidebar Plot Options.

Traverses points are displayed as a green circle labeled T: traverse ID (in this case T:BH001). By default, curved traverses are represented by the orientation of the first survey
point only.

The symbol used to display traverses can be customized in the Symbol Editor dialog.
1. Select: Edit > Edit Symbols
2. Select Traverses from the Symbol list.

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Tutorial 7: Curved Boreholes

Furthermore, for Curved Borehole traverses, you can display ALL points in the Survey file by
selecting the Show All Points checkbox in the Symbol Editor dialog.
If you do this, you will see the survey file points for curved traverse BH-001 plotted as
shown below (series of overlapping green circles).

If the borehole deviation is small, then the survey points will overlap in a cluster. If there is
significant deviation of a lengthy borehole, the survey points will show the path of the
borehole on the stereonet.

Processing Curved Borehole Data

For a Curved Borehole Oriented Core traverse, the data is processed as follows:

The alpha / beta angles measured on the oriented core, and entered in the Grid
View, are processed and plotted as true joint plane orientations on the stereonet,
using the survey and traverse information entered in the traverse dialog.
The Terzaghi weighting can also be applied, since each measurement entered in the
Grid View corresponds to a survey distance along the borehole. The borehole
orientation can be determined for each joint measurement, and the weighting
factor applied.

The processing of data for Curved Borehole Oriented Core traverses is essentially the same
as for Linear Borehole Oriented Core traverses described in Tutorial 05, except the traverse
orientation is variable and determined from the survey file rather than being constant as for
a linear borehole.
In general, once you have set up the traverse information for a curved borehole, the
plotting and analysis of data is no different from other traverse types defined in Dips. You
may combine any number of different traverse types within the same Dips file.

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