Seismos has opened a new applied acoustics research facility in Jarrell, Texas, designed to support the development and validation of acoustic sensing technologies for hydraulic fracturing, pipeline operations, and other industrial applications.
The company said its new Seismos Applied Acoustics Research Center encompasses 87,120 ft² and is built around a 2,349-ft full-scale flow loop, creating what it describes as one of the industry's most advanced multifrequency wellbore and pipeline acoustics test beds. The facility is equipped with acoustic sensing systems, flowmeters, fiber-optic instrumentation, and other measurement technologies to re-create field-scale wellbore and pipeline conditions under controlled settings.
According to the company, the center's primary purpose is to accelerate development of the measurement technologies that underpin closed-loop stimulation, an approach that uses real-time well measurements to evaluate treatment performance and guide operational decisions during hydraulic fracturing operations rather than relying solely on predesigned pumping schedules. Seismos said it integrates these measurements with AI-powered completion logic, intervention and control workflows, and automation systems interfacing with modern control centers and pumping fleets.
The facility allows researchers to test and validate measurements associated with pipe friction, perforation friction, effective hydraulic diameter, flow distribution, and perforation efficiency under known operating conditions. Company officials said the test environment can be configured with varying perforation counts and diameters, fluid systems, flow rates, pressures, proppant concentrations, and erosion states to study how acoustic signatures and pressure-wave responses change as operating conditions evolve.
Open Research Platform
Seismos said the center has been designed as a collaborative platform for operators, technology companies, universities, and national laboratories. The company plans to use the facility to support research involving fluid dynamics, multiphase flow, acoustic sensing, pressure-wave analysis, friction measurements, and physics-based artificial intelligence applications.
The company stated that researchers will be able to define test conditions, generate physical measurements, and investigate new sensing approaches in a controlled environment intended to replicate field conditions.
Supporting AI-Driven Operations
A key focus of the new facility is generating physical measurements that can be used to support AI-based decision systems.
Physical measurements provide the foundation for the AI models and decision systems built on top of them, the company said, noting that direct measurements capture operational responses and anomalies that may not be represented in historical data sets.
The company said it has accumulated a proprietary database containing measurements and subsurface information from hundreds of thousands of stages, which it uses to develop AI models, completion logic, and automation workflows.
Applications Beyond Oil and Gas
While the facility's initial emphasis is advancing closed-loop stimulation and upstream energy applications, Seismos said the acoustic technologies being developed have potential uses in pipeline integrity management, critical infrastructure monitoring, and national security applications.
"Our focus remains on solving some of the most difficult measurement and control challenges in upstream oil and gas and pipelines, including continuing to advance closed-loop operations," Seismos CEO Panos Adamopoulos said. "At the same time, our technologies have applications far beyond those markets. This Applied Acoustics Research Center allows us to accelerate that work in critical infrastructure, energy security and other applications."