Full text loading...
-
Simulation of Enhanced Geothermal Systems Using Dynamic Unstructured Mesh Optimisation
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 80th EAGE Conference and Exhibition 2018, Jun 2018, Volume 2018, p.1 - 5
Abstract
Recently, a novel method for heat extraction from geothermal reservoirs has been proposed, it is named radiator enhance geothermal system (RAD-EGS). In this method, the heat is extracted by placing two horizontal wells separated vertically, and injecting the cold water in the deepest one. Modelling a geothermal reservoir with wells can be very challenging as the scales to be considered can span several orders of magnitude. Around the wells (metres scale) it is well known that there is a high-pressure drawdown, while the dimensions of the reservoir are typically of many kilometres. Modelling across these scales using a fixed mesh can be computationally very expensive. Here, an unstructured dynamic mesh optimisation method is used to dynamically optimise the mesh to the fields of interest such as temperature and/or pressure to ensure that a certain precision across the domain is obtained. This methodology places the resolution where and when necessary, reducing the number of elements to ensure a certain accuracy when compared to an equivalent fixed mesh. Wells are represented using a 1D line which is represented by a line vector, whose position is not modified when adapting the mesh.