Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation of Pressure Measurement Modules in While-Drilling Systems

Abstract

To address the issues of high cost and low efficiency in traditional testing of pressure measurement modules while drilling—which rely on physical sensors and simulated high-temperature environments—a testing system based on hardware-in-the-loop simulation technology is proposed to achieve efficient and low-cost performance verification of the measurement module. The system consists of a PC host computer, a real-time simulator (PXIe platform), and the measurement module. Simulation models of pressure and temperature sensors are built using Simulink and deployed to the real-time simulator via VeriStand software to emulate voltage and resistance signals consistent with those of actual sensors. A host computer interface is developed using C# to enable parameter configuration, data acquisition, and error analysis. The system validates the effectiveness of the temperature drift compensation algorithm through comparative experiments with and without correction. Test results show that the system can effectively simulate downhole sensor outputs, and after correction, the pressure measurement error is controlled within ±108 psi, significantly suppressing the influence of temperature on measurement accuracy. This verifies the feasibility and superiority of the hardware-in-the-loop simulation method in testing measurement-while-drilling modules.