Modeling Water-Steam Flow in Fractured Reservoirs: Application to
Enhanced Geothermal Systems
Abstract
A water-steam two-phase fractured geothermal reservoir model is
presented in this paper. Coupled flow and thermal processes are solved
in the reservoir and fractures using the pressure-enthalpy formulation
and water-steam phase behavior correlations. Both an implicit pressure,
explicit enthalpy and a fully implicit solution algorithm have been
developed. After model validation, this simulator is used to model the
heat extraction rate from enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). The
temperature and energy flux from the production well are plotted and
analyzed. The effects of several key parameters on enhanced geothermal
systems are investigated. It is found that injection rate, fracture
spacing, well spacing, and effective fracture surface area have the
biggest impact on the heat extraction rate. It is also found that heat
conduction is the main contributor to the heat flux while convective
fluid flow does not contribute much when the reservoir permeability
i.e., the rate of gravity driven convection is low. The heat flux from
the earth does not affect short-term EGS production but can be an
important factor for long-term EGS development. The geothermal reservoir
simulator presented in this paper can be used to optimize and design EGS
in geothermal fields (fracture spacing, well spacing, injection rate,
etc.).