International Journal of Thermophysics, December 2018, 39:136 | Cite as

Investigation on Heat Transfer Properties of Supercritical Water in a Rock Fracture for Enhanced Geothermal Systems

Yuanyuan He，Bing Bai，Xiaochun Li

Abstract

     Supercritical water (SCW) has shown promise as a working fluid to extract heat from hot dry rock (HDR); however, fundamental research on its heat transfer characteristics in HDR fractures is still required. A 2D heat transfer model that considers the variable thermophysical properties was updated to numerically investigate the effects of mass flow rate, thermal reservoir temperature, and fracture aperture size on the heat transfer characteristics of SCW flow through a single HDR fracture. The heat transfer performance of SCW and supercritical CO₂ (scCO₂) was compared under the same conditions. The results indicate that the heat transmission performance of SCW is superior to scCO₂ at high temperature and high pressure. It is essential to synthesize the thermal reservoir temperature and pressure, site conditions, and heat transmission fluids during HDR development.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10765-018-2455-3

Investigation on Heat Transfer Properties of Supercritical Water in a Rock Fract.pdf