Investigation on Heat Extraction Performance of Fractured Geothermal Reservoir Using Coupled Thermal-Hydraulic-Mechanical Model Based on Equivalent Continuum Method

Natural fractures and artificial fractures in a tight rock matrix of an enhanced geothermal system make flow and heat transfer become seriously anisotropic. In this paper, a field-scale fractured heterogeneous geothermal reservoir model is built to study the heat transfer process. Based on an equiva...

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Published inEnergies (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 127
Main Authors Wang, Tong, Sun, Zhixue, Zhang, Kai, Jiang, Chuanyin, Xin, Ying, Mao, Qiangqiang
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.01.2019
Subjects
Cartesian coordinates
Computer simulation
Convection
Convective heat transfer
Efficiency
Energy
enhanced geothermal system
equivalent continuum method
Finite volume method
Flow velocity
Fractured reservoirs
Fractures
Geothermal power
Heat transfer
Heat transmission
Heat treatment
Hydraulic fracturing
Investigations
Mechanical properties
numerical simulation
Permeability
Petroleum engineering
Physical properties
Porosity
Porous media
Power plants
Reservoir operation
Rocks
Simulation
THM coupling
Transmission fluids
Two dimensional models
two-equation thermal model
United States > US
China
Germany
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Summary:Natural fractures and artificial fractures in a tight rock matrix of an enhanced geothermal system make flow and heat transfer become seriously anisotropic. In this paper, a field-scale fractured heterogeneous geothermal reservoir model is built to study the heat transfer process. Based on an equivalent continuum method and local thermal non-equilibrium model, an equivalent permeability tensor is mapped from discrete fractures and a coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical mathematical model is adopted in which logarithmic stress sensitivity model is used to couple effective stress and permeability. From numerical simulation results at different injection rates, the contour results show the heterogeneity of flow, heat transfer and stress sensitivity are dominated by fractures distribution. Temperature contours reveal that the heat convection between water and rock in a fracture is more intense than the heat conduction between rock under different temperatures. The predicted power generation of a geothermal plant reveals the adverse effect on heat conversion efficiency, which is caused by the temperature drop at high injection rates.
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en12010127