1. A method for synchronization of at least two clocks connected to a downhole network comprising:
determining total signal latency between a controlling processing element comprising a synchronizing clock and at least one downhole processing element comprising at least one downhole clock;
the controlling processing element sending a request to the downhole processing element to set the downhole clock to a synchronizing time adjusted to compensate for latency.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the downhole network is integrated into a downhole tool string.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the downhole network comprises a plurality of downhole components, wherein each downhole component comprises a conductor connecting a first communication element in one end and a second communication element in another end.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first and second communication elements are selected from the group consisting of inductive coils, optical fiber couplers, and electrical contacts.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the inductive coils are encapsulated in circular, magnetically conducting, electrically insulating troughs.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein electronic time stamps are used to measure transmission latency between processing elements.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the downhole processing elements is selected from the group consisting of computer systems, electronic processors, and integrated circuits.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the clocks is located outside of the well bore.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the downhole clocks is attached to the tool string.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the downhole clocks are distributed along the tool string.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the downhole clocks are associated with tools selected from the group consisting of mud motors, turbines, jars, repeaters, amplifiers, nodes, mud hammers, shock absorbers, reamers, under-reamers, fishing tools, steering elements, MWD tools, LWD tools, seismic sources, seismic receivers, sensors, modems, swivels, pumps, perforators, other tools with an explosive charge, mud-pulse sirens, well casing, blow-out preventors, bottom hole assemblies, switches, routers, multiplexers, piezoelectric devices, optical transmitter, optical regenerators, optical receivers, and wireless transceivers.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the processing elements is connected to an information source through a medium selected from the group consisting of global positioning systems, computer networks, and wireless networks.
13. The method of claim 1, wherein at least three clocks are concurrently electrically synchronized.
14. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the processing elements comprises hardware that fixes the computational latency to a known constant.
15. The method of claim 1, wherein the method to determine the total signal latency comprises:
the controlling processing element sending a first request to the downhole processing element to set the downhole clock to time tn;
the controlling processing element sending a second request to the downhole processing element to relay a time tz back to the controlling processing element, time tz being the time according to the downhole clock at the approximate instant the response to the second request is transmitted;
the controlling processing element receiving time tz from the downhole processing element and recording a time tx, time tx being the approximate instant time tz arrives from the downhole processing element, according to the synchronizing clock;
approximately determining a total signal latency between the controlling processing element and the downhole processing element by logical computations using time tz and time tx.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the controlling processing element sends the second request multiple times to determine an approximate average total signal latency.
17. The method of claim 15, wherein the first request from the controlling processing element is made at time tn.
18. A method for synchronization of at least two clocks connected to a downhole network comprising:
a controlling processing element comprising a synchronizing clock sending a first request to a downhole processing element comprising at least one downhole clock to set the downhole clock to time tn;
the controlling processing element sending a second request to the downhole processing element to relay a time tz back to the controlling processing element, time tz being the time according to the downhole clock at the approximate instant the second request is received;
the controlling processing element receiving time tz from the downhole processing element and recording a time tx, time tx being the approximate instant time tz arrives from the downhole processing element, according to the synchronizing clock;
approximately determining a total signal latency between the controlling processing element and the downhole processing element by logical computations using time tz and time tz;
the controlling processing element sending a request to the downhole processing element to set the downhole clock to a synchronizing time adjusted to compensate for total signal latency.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein the downhole network is housed within a downhole tool string.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein the downhole network comprises a plurality of downhole components, wherein each downhole component comprises a conductor connecting a communication element in one end and a second communication element in another end.
21. The method of claim 20, wherein the first and second communication elements are selected from the group consisting of inductive coils, optical fiber couplers, and electrical contacts.
22. The method of claim 21, wherein the inductive coils are encapsulated in circular, magnetically conductive, electrically insulating troughs.
23. The method of claim 18, wherein electronic time stamps are used to determine transmission latency between processing elements.
24. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of the processing elements comprises hardware that fixes the computational latency to a known constant.
25. A method for determining total signal latency between at least two processing elements connected to a downhole network comprising:
a controlling processing element comprising a first clock sending a first request to a downhole processing element comprising a downhole clock to set the downhole clock to time tn;
the controlling processing element sending a second request to the downhole processing element to relay a time tz back to the controlling processing element, time tz being the time according to the downhole clock at the approximate instant the second request is received;
the controlling processing element receiving time tz from the downhole processing element and recording a time tx, time tx being the approximate instant time tz arrives
from the downhole processing element, according to the first clock;
the controlling processing element approximately determining a total signal latency between itself and the downhole processing element by logical computations using time tz and time tx.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein the downhole network is housed within a downhole tool string.
27. The method of claim 26, wherein the downhole network comprises a plurality of downhole components, wherein each downhole component comprises a conductor connecting a first communication element in one end and a second communication element in another end.
28. The method of claim 27, wherein the first and second communication elements are selected from the group consisting of inductive coils, optical fiber couplers, and electrical contacts.
29. The method of claim 28, wherein the inductive coils are encapsulated in circular, magnetically conducting, electrically insulating troughs.
30. The method of claim 25, wherein at least one time tz and at least one time tx are measured to determine an approximate average total signal latency between the first and second devices.
31. The method of claim 25, wherein at least one of the processing elements comprises hardware that fixes the computational latency to a known constant.
32. A system for synchronizing at least two clocks connected to a downhole network comprising:
a controlling processing element in electronic communication with a synchronizing clock in communication over a downhole network with
at least one downhole processing element in electronic communication with at least one downhole clock.
33. The system of claim 32, wherein the downhole network is housed within a downhole tool string.
34. The system of claim 33, wherein the downhole network comprises a plurality of downhole components, wherein each downhole component comprises a conductor connecting a first communication element in one end and a second communication element in another end.
35. The system of claim 34, wherein the first and second communication elements are selected from the group consisting of inductive coils, optical fiber couplers, and electrical contacts.
36. The system of claim 35, wherein the inductive coils are encapsulated in magnetically conducting, electrically insulating troughs.
37. The system of claim 32, wherein the processing elements are capable of affixing electronic time stamps to data that are transmitted and received between devices.
38. The system of claim 32, wherein at least one of the processing elements is selected from the group consisting of computer systems, electronic processors, and integrated circuits.
39. The system of claim 32, wherein at least one of the processing elements is connected to an information source through a medium selected from the group consisting of global positioning systems, computer networks, and wireless networks.
40. The system of claim 32, wherein at least one clock is located outside of the well bore.
41. The system of claim 32, wherein at least one clock is attached to the drill string.
42. The system of claim 32, wherein at least one clock comprises a clock source selected from the group consisting of at least one crystal, at least one transistor, at least one oscillator, at least one RC circuit, at least one LC circuit, and at least one RLC circuit.
43. The system of claim 32, wherein at least one of the devices comprises hardware that fixes the computational latency to a known constant.
44. The system of claim 32, wherein at least three clocks are concurrently electrically synchronized.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An armor, comprising:
a projectile entry sheet;
a spall liner;
a core disposed between the projectile entry sheet and the spall liner, the core comprising:
a polymeric matrix; and
a plurality of ceramic rods disposed in the polymeric matrix; and
a first shock dissipation layer disposed between the projectile entry sheet and the core.
2. The armor, according to claim 1, wherein the projectile entry sheet comprises:
a material selected from the group consisting of titanium; a titanium alloy; aluminum; an aluminum alloy; an organic-matrix composite material; a metal-matrix composite material; a laminated material; and a titaniumaluminum laminate.
3. The armor, according to claim 1, wherein the polymeric matrix extends between at least one ceramic rod of the plurality of ceramic rods and the first shock dissipation layer.
4. The armor, according to claim 1, wherein at least one ceramic rod of the plurality of ceramic rods abuts the first shock dissipation layer.
5. The armor, according to claim 1, wherein the polymeric matrix comprises:
a material selected from the group consisting of polyurethane and epoxy.
6. The armor, according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of ceramic rods comprises:
a material selected from the group consisting of aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, and boron carbide.
7. The armor, according to claim 1, wherein at least some of adjacent ceramic rods of the plurality of ceramic rods abut one another.
8. The armor, according to claim 1, wherein the spall liner comprises:
a material selected from the group consisting of titanium; a titanium alloy; aluminum; an aluminum alloy; an organic-matrix composite material; a metal-matrix composite material; a laminated material; and a titaniumaluminum laminate.
9. The armor, according to claim 1, wherein the first shock dissipation layer comprises:
a viscoelastic material.
10. The armor, according to claim 1, wherein the first shock dissipation layer comprises:
a material selected from the group consisting of polyurethane, polysulfide polymer, natural rubber, and a synthetic rubber.
11. The armor, according to claim 1, further comprising:
a second shock dissipation layer disposed between the core and the spall liner.
12. The armor, according to claim 11, wherein the second shock dissipation layer comprises:
a material selected from the group consisting of polyurethane, polysulfide polymer, natural rubber, and a synthetic rubber.
13. The armor, according to claim 11, wherein a thickness of the second shock dissipation layer is no more than about one-half of an average height of the plurality of ceramic rods.
14. The armor, according to claim 1, wherein a thickness of the first shock dissipation layer is no more than about one-half of a height of an average height of the plurality of ceramic rods.
15. The armor, according to claim 1, wherein the armor is operably associated with a vehicle.
16. The armor, according to claim 1, wherein the armor is configured to form a portion of a vehicle.
17. An armor, comprising:
a projectile entry sheet;
a spall liner;
a core disposed between the projectile entry sheet and the spall liner, the core comprising:
a polymeric matrix; and
a plurality of ceramic rods disposed in the polymeric matrix, the plurality of ceramic rods exhibiting an average height;
a first, viscoelastic, shock dissipation layer disposed between the projectile entry sheet and the core, the first shock dissipation layer exhibiting a thickness of no more than about one-half of the average height of the plurality of ceramic rods; and
a second, viscoelastic, shock dissipation layer disposed between the spall liner and the core, the second shock dissipation layer exhibiting a thickness of no more than about one-half of the average height of the plurality of ceramic rods.
18. A method, comprising the steps of:
providing a plurality of ceramic rods in a desired configuration;
embedding the plurality of ceramic rods in a polymeric matrix to form a core having a first surface and a second surface opposing the first surface of the core;
providing a projectile entry sheet and a first shock dissipation layer;
disposing the first shock dissipation layer between the projectile entry sheet and the first surface of the core;
providing a spall liner; and
disposing the spall liner proximate the second surface of the core to form an armor.
19. The method, according to claim 18, further comprising the steps of:
providing a second shock dissipation layer; and
disposing the second shock dissipation layer between the core and the spall liner to form the armor.
20. The method, according to claim 18, further comprising the step of:
operably associating the armor with a vehicle.