We investigate the subsurface heat exchange process in EGS （enhanced geothermal systems） with a previously developed novel model. This model treats the porous heat reservoir as an equivalent porous medium of a singl...We investigate the subsurface heat exchange process in EGS （enhanced geothermal systems） with a previously developed novel model. This model treats the porous heat reservoir as an equivalent porous medium of a single porosity. However, it considers local thermal non-equilibrium between solid rock matrix and fluid flowing in the factures and employs two energy conservation equations to describe heat transfer in the rock matrix and in the fractures, respectively, enabling the modeling and analyses of convective heat exchange in the heat reservoir. Another salient feature of this model is its capability of simulating the complete subsurface heat exchange process in EGS. The EGS subsurface geometry of interest physically consists of multiple domains： open channels for injection and production wells, the artificial heat reservoir, and the rocks enclosing the heat reservoir, while computationally we treat it as a single-domain of multiple sub-regions associated with different sets of characteristic properties （porosity and permeability, etc.）. This circumvents typical difficulties about matching boundary conditions between sub-domains in traditional multi-domain approaches and facilitates numerical implementation and simulation of the complete subsurface heat exchange process. This model is used to perform a comprehensive parametric study with respect to an imaginary doublet EGS. Effects of several parameters, including the permeability of heat reservoir, heat exchange coefficient in the heat reservoir, the specific area of fractures in the heat reservoir, and thermal compensation from surrounding rocks, on the heat extraction efficiency and EGS lifetime are analyzed.展开更多
文摘We investigate the subsurface heat exchange process in EGS （enhanced geothermal systems） with a previously developed novel model. This model treats the porous heat reservoir as an equivalent porous medium of a single porosity. However, it considers local thermal non-equilibrium between solid rock matrix and fluid flowing in the factures and employs two energy conservation equations to describe heat transfer in the rock matrix and in the fractures, respectively, enabling the modeling and analyses of convective heat exchange in the heat reservoir. Another salient feature of this model is its capability of simulating the complete subsurface heat exchange process in EGS. The EGS subsurface geometry of interest physically consists of multiple domains： open channels for injection and production wells, the artificial heat reservoir, and the rocks enclosing the heat reservoir, while computationally we treat it as a single-domain of multiple sub-regions associated with different sets of characteristic properties （porosity and permeability, etc.）. This circumvents typical difficulties about matching boundary conditions between sub-domains in traditional multi-domain approaches and facilitates numerical implementation and simulation of the complete subsurface heat exchange process. This model is used to perform a comprehensive parametric study with respect to an imaginary doublet EGS. Effects of several parameters, including the permeability of heat reservoir, heat exchange coefficient in the heat reservoir, the specific area of fractures in the heat reservoir, and thermal compensation from surrounding rocks, on the heat extraction efficiency and EGS lifetime are analyzed.
