Determination of longitudinal and transverse thermal dispersion coefficients in a fluid saturated porous medium

Geothermal energy is a clean and environment friendly renewable natural source of energy continuously produced inside the earth as a result of the decay of radioactive material. Hydrothermal energy from geothermal reservoirs is utilized by pumping the hot water from deeper formations to the surface by production wells and after heat extraction, it (cooled water) is injected back to the geological formation by injection wells for the maintenance of hydraulic regime, to avoid subsidence and for long term utilization of geothermal potential of the reservoir. The present work aims at the impact of both longitudinal and transverse thermal dispersion coefficients on heat transfer characteristics (Nusselt number, Rayleigh number, Pe) in forced convective flow in a layered (isotropic, heterogeneous) saturated porous medium numerically (FEM) by using one temperature model describing the thermal equilibrium between fluid and solid phases with volume averaging. We investigate the dependency of both thermal dispersion coefficients on fluid flow and properties by coupling the 2-D steady convection-conduction model with steady fluid flow. An important step is to specify the distance between the production and injection wells to avoid the entry of cool water into the production well.