HR: 1340h
AN: T23B-0550    [Abstracts]
TI: Finite Element Modeling of the Hydraulic Stimulation Process for Hot Fractured Geothermal Reservoir Construction
AU: Wyborn, D
EM: doonew@geodynamics.com.au
AF: Geodynamics Ltd, Level 3, 11 Lang Parade, Milton, Brisbane, QLD 4064 Australia
AU: * Xing, H
EM: xing@esscc.uq.edu.au
AF: Earth Systems Science Computational Centre (ESSCC), The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072 Australia
AU: * Xing, H
EM: xing@esscc.uq.edu.au
AF: Australian Computational Earth Systems Simulator, Major National Research Facility, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072 Australia
AU: Mora, P
EM: morap@esscc.uq.edu.au
AF: Earth Systems Science Computational Centre (ESSCC), The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072 Australia
AU: Mora, P
EM: morap@esscc.uq.edu.au
AF: Australian Computational Earth Systems Simulator, Major National Research Facility, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072 Australia
AB: Since the 1970's, a number of research programmes have worked towards developing Hot Dry Rock technology (HDR) for geothermal energy which has been renamed as Hot Fractured Rock (HFR) in Australia. This problem involves the thermal, fluid and mechanical behaviour of geo-materials and induced seismic events, and potential geological perturbations to the geological heat exchanger facility (i.e. the geothermal reservoir) during the construction, production and shutdown phases. The understanding, simulation and prediction of such a multi-scale highly coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical geo-mechanical system are very important in both theory and practical applications. This paper will focus on our current research activity in finite element modeling of the hydraulic stimulation process which is widely applied to construct the HDR/HFR geothermal reservoir system. A 3-dimensional finite element computational model and code for modeling nonlinear frictional contact behaviours between multiple deformable bodies with the arbitrarily-shaped contact element strategy has been developed, which provides a means to simulate interacting fault systems including crustal boundary conditions and various nonlinearities. It has been successfully applied in a wide range of fields and is extended here to simulate the hydraulic stimulation process. The preliminary simulation results on the hydraulic stimulation process demonstrate the stability and usefulness of the algorithm for analyzing hot fractured geothermal reservoir construction. References Xing, H.L., Mora, P. & Makinouchi, A. (2004) Finite element analysis of fault bend influence on stick-slip instability along an intra-plate fault, Pure Appl. Geophys., 161, 2091-2102. Xing, H.L., & Makinouchi, A. (2002) Three dimensional finite element modelling of thermomechanical frictional contact between finite deformation bodies using R-minimum strategy, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 191,4193-4214.
DE: 3200 MATHEMATICAL GEOPHYSICS (0500, 4400, 7833)
DE: 8004 Dynamics and mechanics of faulting (8118)
DE: 8118 Dynamics and mechanics of faulting (8004)
DE: 8130 Heat generation and transport
DE: 8163 Rheology and friction of fault zones (8034)
SC: Tectonophysics [T]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005