Heat transport by flow through rough rock fractures: a numerical investigation

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Version: Final published version
License: CC BY 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_71133373D14B
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Heat transport by flow through rough rock fractures: a numerical investigation
Journal
Advances in Water Resources
Author(s)
Klepikova Maria, Méheust Yves, Roques Clément, Linde Niklas
ISSN
0309-1708
Publication state
Published
Issued date
10/2021
Volume
156
Pages
104042
Language
english
Abstract
Fracture surface topography exhibits long-range spatial correlations resulting in a heterogeneous aperture field. This leads to the formation, within fracture planes, of preferential flow channels controlling flow and transport processes. By means of a 3-D heat transport model coupled with a 2-D fracture flow model based on the lubrification approximation (i.e., local cubic law), we investigate how the statistical parameters determining spatial aperture variations in individual fractures control the heat exchange at the fluid/rock interface and heat transport by flow. Ensemble statistics over fracture realizations provide insights into the main hydraulic and geometrical parameters controlling the hydraulic and thermal behaviour of rough fractures. Similarly to the rough fracture’s hydraulic behaviour, we find that its heat transport behaviour deviates from the conventional parallel plate fracture model with increasing fracture closure and/or decreasing correlation length. We demonstrate that the advancement of the thermal front is typically slower in rough fractures compared to smooth fractures having the same mechanical aperture. In contrast with previous studies that neglect temporal and spatial temperature variations in the rock matrix, we find that the thermal behavior of a rough-walled fracture can, under field-relevant conditions, be predicted from a parallel plate model with an aperture equal to the rough fracture’s effective hydraulic aperture. This greatly simplifies the prediction of possible reservoir thermal behavior when using field measurable quantities and hydrological modeling.
Keywords
Water Science and Technology
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
01/11/2021 10:41
Last modification date
03/11/2021 7:10
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