US Patent 8977523 Methods to estimate downhole drilling vibration amplitude from surface measurement

Method to estimate severity of downhole vibration for a drill tool assembly, including: identifying a dataset comprising selected drill tool assembly parameters; selecting a reference level of downhole vibration amplitude for the drill tool assembly; identifying a surface drilling parameter and calculating a reference surface vibration attribute for the selected reference level of downhole vibration amplitude; determining a surface parameter vibration attribute derived from at least one surface measurement or observation obtained in a drilling operation, the determined surface parameter vibration attribute corresponding to the identified surface drilling parameter; and estimating a downhole vibration severity indicator by evaluating the determined surface parameter vibration attribute with respect to the identified reference surface vibration attribute.