Free thermal convection in heterogeneous porous media

authored by

Van Tam Nguyen, Thomas Graf, Carlos R. Guevara Morel

Abstract

This study investigates free thermal convection in heterogeneous porous media and its dependency on grid discretization. Heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity fields are described with a geostatistical approach. Numerical experiments are carried out with the heterogeneous thermal Elder problem. Results are evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively. Key results show that (1) grid convergence for thermal variable-density flow simulations in heterogeneous porous media can be achieved, (2) the degree and structure of a heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity field significantly affect thermal convective flow patterns, (3) steady-state heat distribution depends on the hydraulic conductivity field rather than on thermal conductivity, (4) more variant log hydraulic conductivity fields result in an increase of the heat flux, of the heat stored, and of the upwelling length of thermal plume fingers, (5) an increase in the horizontal correlation length of the log hydraulic conductivity field leads to an increase of the heat stored and the upwelling length, but it does not affect the heat flux, and (6) an increase in the mean of the log hydraulic conductivity field leads to an increase of the heat flux, of the heat stored, and of the upwelling length.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Hydrology and Water Resources Management
Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Environmental Physics in Civil Engineering

Type

Article

Journal

GEOTHERMICS

Volume

64

Pages

152-162

No. of pages

11

ISSN

0375-6505

Publication date

01.11.2016

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment, Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology, Geology

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geothermics.2016.05.006 (Access: Closed)