Estimating the heat transfer capability of fractured geothermal systems

The heat transfer capability of any geothermal system is an essential characteristic deciding about its productivity, lifetime, and sustainability. Common attempts assuming thermal equilibrium between hot rock and injected fluid have shown to be a poor proxy for the thermal field in the subsurface. More detailed models at the laboratory scale based on explicit heat transfer between phases provide much better estimates but require a priori information concerning fracture geometry and network connectivity that is commonly not available at field scale applications.

Based on these single and discrete fracture models, this work presents an effective heat transfer model upscaled for fracture networks. Using a realistic parameter set including fracture orientation, fracture density, and the permeability distribution, the developed approach determines the heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer area to be subsequently used in a coupled thermo-hydraulic model to simulate the evolution of the temperature field. The heat transfer coefficient is derived from a semi-empirical approach using the dimensionless Nusselt, Prandtl, and Reynolds numbers, and based on over 240 experiments. The heat transfer area is analytically derived from geometrical constraints. This approach achieves good agreement with single fracture experiments as well as with an analytical solution for an equally spaced fracture network. Its full capabilities are demonstrated with a complex three-dimensional simulation of a doublet system in a heterogeneous fracture network including anisotropy.