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Thermal Drawdown-Induced Flow Channeling in a Single Fracture in EGS

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The evolution of flow pattern along a single fracture and its effects on heat production is a fundamental problem in the assessments of engineered geothermal systems (EGS). The channelized flow pattern associated with ubiquitous heterogeneity in fracture aperture distribution causes non-uniform temperature decrease in the rock body, which makes the flow increasingly concentrated into some preferential paths through the action of thermal stress. This mechanism may cause rapid heat production deterioration of EGS reservoirs.
In this study, we investigated the effects of aperture heterogeneity on flow pattern evolution in a single fracture in a low-permeability crystalline formation. We developed a numerical model on the platform of GEOS to simulate the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical processes in a penny-shaped fracture accessed via an injection well and a production well. We find that aperture heterogeneity generally exacerbates flow channeling and reservoir performance generally decreases with longer correlation length of aperture field. The expected production life is highly variable (5 years to beyond 30 years) when the aperture correlation length is longer than 1/5 of the well distance, whereas a heterogeneous fracture behaves similar to a homogeneous one when the correlation length is much shorter than the well distance. Besides, the mean production life decreases with greater aperture standard deviation only when the correlation length is relatively long. Although flow channeling is inevitable, initial aperture fields and well locations that enable tortuous preferential paths tend to prolong heat production lives.

Citation Formats

TY - DATA AB - The evolution of flow pattern along a single fracture and its effects on heat production is a fundamental problem in the assessments of engineered geothermal systems (EGS). The channelized flow pattern associated with ubiquitous heterogeneity in fracture aperture distribution causes non-uniform temperature decrease in the rock body, which makes the flow increasingly concentrated into some preferential paths through the action of thermal stress. This mechanism may cause rapid heat production deterioration of EGS reservoirs. In this study, we investigated the effects of aperture heterogeneity on flow pattern evolution in a single fracture in a low-permeability crystalline formation. We developed a numerical model on the platform of GEOS to simulate the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical processes in a penny-shaped fracture accessed via an injection well and a production well. We find that aperture heterogeneity generally exacerbates flow channeling and reservoir performance generally decreases with longer correlation length of aperture field. The expected production life is highly variable (5 years to beyond 30 years) when the aperture correlation length is longer than 1/5 of the well distance, whereas a heterogeneous fracture behaves similar to a homogeneous one when the correlation length is much shorter than the well distance. Besides, the mean production life decreases with greater aperture standard deviation only when the correlation length is relatively long. Although flow channeling is inevitable, initial aperture fields and well locations that enable tortuous preferential paths tend to prolong heat production lives. AU - Guo, Bin A2 - Fu, Pengcheng A3 - Hao, Yue A4 - Peters, Catherine A. A5 - Carrigan, Charles R. DB - Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI) DP - Open EI | National Renewable Energy Laboratory DO - KW - geothermal KW - thermal drawdown KW - single fracture system KW - thermomechanical coupling KW - flow channeling KW - reservoir simulation KW - EGS KW - engineered geothermal systems KW - geothermics KW - heat production KW - single fracture KW - thermomechanical LA - English DA - 2015/11/15 PY - 2015 PB - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory T1 - Thermal Drawdown-Induced Flow Channeling in a Single Fracture in EGS UR - https://data.openei.org/submissions/6891 ER -
Export Citation to RIS
Guo, Bin, et al. Thermal Drawdown-Induced Flow Channeling in a Single Fracture in EGS. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 15 November, 2015, GDR. https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/655.
Guo, B., Fu, P., Hao, Y., Peters, C., & Carrigan, C. (2015). Thermal Drawdown-Induced Flow Channeling in a Single Fracture in EGS. [Data set]. GDR. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/655
Guo, Bin, Pengcheng Fu, Yue Hao, Catherine A. Peters, and Charles R. Carrigan. Thermal Drawdown-Induced Flow Channeling in a Single Fracture in EGS. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, November, 15, 2015. Distributed by GDR. https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/655
@misc{OEDI_Dataset_6891, title = {Thermal Drawdown-Induced Flow Channeling in a Single Fracture in EGS}, author = {Guo, Bin and Fu, Pengcheng and Hao, Yue and Peters, Catherine A. and Carrigan, Charles R.}, abstractNote = {The evolution of flow pattern along a single fracture and its effects on heat production is a fundamental problem in the assessments of engineered geothermal systems (EGS). The channelized flow pattern associated with ubiquitous heterogeneity in fracture aperture distribution causes non-uniform temperature decrease in the rock body, which makes the flow increasingly concentrated into some preferential paths through the action of thermal stress. This mechanism may cause rapid heat production deterioration of EGS reservoirs.
In this study, we investigated the effects of aperture heterogeneity on flow pattern evolution in a single fracture in a low-permeability crystalline formation. We developed a numerical model on the platform of GEOS to simulate the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical processes in a penny-shaped fracture accessed via an injection well and a production well. We find that aperture heterogeneity generally exacerbates flow channeling and reservoir performance generally decreases with longer correlation length of aperture field. The expected production life is highly variable (5 years to beyond 30 years) when the aperture correlation length is longer than 1/5 of the well distance, whereas a heterogeneous fracture behaves similar to a homogeneous one when the correlation length is much shorter than the well distance. Besides, the mean production life decreases with greater aperture standard deviation only when the correlation length is relatively long. Although flow channeling is inevitable, initial aperture fields and well locations that enable tortuous preferential paths tend to prolong heat production lives.
}, url = {https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/655}, year = {2015}, howpublished = {GDR, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/655}, note = {Accessed: 2025-05-04} }

Details

Data from Nov 15, 2015

Last updated Aug 11, 2017

Submitted Nov 26, 2015

Organization

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Contact

Charles Carrigan

925.422.3941

Authors

Bin Guo

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Pengcheng Fu

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Yue Hao

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Catherine A. Peters

Princeton University

Charles R. Carrigan

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Research Areas

DOE Project Details

Project Name Validation of EGS Feasibility and Explosive Fracturing Techniques

Project Lead Elisabet Metcalfe

Project Number FY15 AOP 1.3.2.4

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