Natural convection in

geothermal resources containing

near-critical water

Submission to the IDDP/ICDP workshop 2

Arnold Watson and Sadiq Zarrouk

The Geothermal Institute, University of Auckland, New Zealand

 Power generation requirement

fluid at supercritical state for efficient

conversion of heat to electricity
good permeability
good supply of fluid, ie extensive zone
at supercritical state
 Our investigation
 Fluid in the near-
critical state
 Reasons for this approach

We expect this region to:

– occupy small depth range
– have dynamic flow conditions
– significantly affect fluid flow and
temperature over a much wider depth
range
 Main features of our work

we anticipate zone will be high

width/depth ratio
we have not used standard geothermal
reservoir simulation software
we could have used IFC water
properties but chose not to
 we are investigating not predicting
 Previous work related to
engineering equipment
 heat transfer in nuclear reactors
and fossil fuelled boilers
 cooling rocket engines with the
fuel
 helium cooled superconductors
 solvent in the chemical and food
processing industries
 Practical outcomes of this
previous work

Avoid the near-critical region in

designed equipment for power
generation
critical region very important for species
extraction - very high solubility
Near-Critical and Super-Critical
Studies in Geothermal Systems

Experimental, Dunn and Hardee (1981)

MULCOM, Cox and Pruess (1990)
MULCOM, Kissling (1995)
SIM.FIGS, Hanano and Seth (1995)
STAR, Yano and Ishido (1998)
TOUGH2, Sato et al. (2000)
 Near-Critical Properties of Water
Based on IAPWS-IF97 formerly (1967 IFC)

10000 2600 10.00 500

Coefficent of Thermal Expansion (1/deg C)

2500
Cp
Specific Heat Capacity (kJ/kg.K)

2400

Specific Enthalpy (kJ/kg)

400

Density (kg/cum)
1000 2300 1.00
h
2200
300
2100

100 2000 0.10

200
1900

1800

10 1700 0.01 100

370

371

372

373

374

375

376

377

378

379

380

370

371

372

373

374

375

376

377

378

379

380
Temperature (deg C) Temperature (deg C)
 Speed of Sound (m/s) Thermal Conductivity (mW/m. K)

100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900

300
320
340
360
380
400
420
440
460
370 370

371 371

372 372

373 373

374 374

375 375

376 376

Tempertaure (deg C)

Temperature (deg C)
377 377

378 378

379 379

380 380

pH Dynamic Viscosity (micro Pa.sec)

20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60

10.0

6.0
6.5
7.0
7.5
8.0
8.5
9.0
9.5

370
370

371
371

372
372

373
373

374
374

375
375

376 376
Tempertuare (deg C)

377
Temperature (deg C)

377

378 378

379 379

380 380
 Equations Governing Natural
Convection in Porous Media

v w
 0
( Cp) m  (1   )( Cp) r   ( Cp) f
y z
K P
v
 y  
k m  1   k r   .k f

K  P 
w  f g  f    (1   (T  T ))
  z 

T 2 1   
( Cp ) m  ( Cp ) f .vT  k m . T    
t   T  P
 Work plan
Selected PHOENICS after trying
TOUGH2
reproduced solutions for cellular
convection with “normal” fluids
with and without Boussinesq
approximation
introduced local peak in 
introduced local peaks in  and Cp
Natural convection in porous media with
the Boussinesq approximation
Isotherms Streamlines Isotherms Streamlines

After 100 sec. After 100 sec.

After 200 sec. After 200 sec.

After 300 sec. After 400 sec.

After 400 sec. After 900 sec.

After 900 sec. After 1300 sec.

Rac  4 2
 Isotherms

Streamlines
This work Vadasz et al. (1993)

Porous media heated from the top (1.0 ºC) and cooled from below (0.0 ºC)
with side heating (0.5 ºC), Ra=200.
 Isotherms

Streamlines
This work Vadasz et al. (1993)

Porous media heated from the top (1.0 ºC) and cooled from below (0.0 ºC)
with side heating (1.5 ºC), Ra=100
 Natural convection in porous media
without the Boussinesq approximation
Isotherms Streamlines
Isotherms Streamlines

After 100 sec.

After 100 sec.

After 200 sec.

After 300 sec.

After 300 sec.

After 500 sec.

After 400 sec.

After 900 sec.

After 900 sec.

 New solutions for a fluid with
near-critical-like properties
0.0020 1000 45.0 400.0
Cpc
0.0018 40.0
998

Specific Heat Capacity (kJ/kg.K)

Cp
0.0016
Expansion coefficient (1/C)

35.0

Specific Enthalpy (kJ/kg)

996 300.0
0.0014 h

Density (kg/cum)
30.0
994
0.0012
25.0
0.0010 992 200.0
20.0
0.0008
990 15.0
0.0006
988 100.0
10.0
0.0004
5.0
Cpo Cpo
986
0.0002
To T1 Tc T2
T1 Tc T2 0.0 0.0
0.0000 984
20 25 30 35 40 45 50
20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Temperature (deg C) Temperature (deg C)
 The effects of increasing thermal
expansion
Isotherms
Isotherms Streamlines

 c   =1

Streamlines (m2/sec)
c 
=2

c 
=10

Density
c 
=20

c 
=50
c 

The effects of increasing the ratio on the temperature and streamlines, without the c 

Boussinesq approximation. Steady state results for =10, with Cp= Constant (4200 J/kgºK
The effects of increasing thermal
expansion and specific heat
Isotherms Streamlines Isotherms

After 18000 sec.

Streamlines

After 18080 sec.

Specific heat capacity

After 18160 sec.

After 18240 sec.

Density

After 18320 sec.

The significance of lateral
convection
 Relevance of work to IDDP
 Near-critical zone should be drilled into and
investigated before drilling ahead and casing
off
 it may be available to be explored over a
significant area
 although supercritical fluid is preferred for
power generation, production from the near-
critical zone could be the economic optimum
 Indications for well
measurements

do not assume steady state parameter

distributions versus well depth
measure pressure and temperature
versus time at nominated depths