Surface Dynamometer Card
• Dynamometer
– The principal tool for analyzing the operation of rod pumped wells
– Gathers polished rod load and displacement “points” and plots the resulting “curve”
• Surface dynamometer card
• Shape of this card is determined by changing downhole conditions
– Rod pump controllers use the changing shape of the surface dynamometer card to detect:
• Fluid pound
• Gas compression in the pump
• Excessive polished rod loads – high or low
– The RPC takes appropriate action as determined by the field operator