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Impact of single inclined faults on the fluid flow and heat transport: results from 3-D finite element simulations

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Abstract

The impact of inclined faults on the hydrothermal field is assessed by adding simplified structural settings to synthetic models. This study is innovative in carrying out numerical simulations because it integrates the real 3-D nature of flow influenced by a fault in a porous medium, thereby providing a useful tool for complex geothermal modelling. The 3-D simulations for the coupled fluid flow and heat transport processes are based on the finite element method. In the model, one geological layer is dissected by a dipping fault. Sensitivity analyses are conducted to quantify the effects of the fault’s transmissivity on the fluid flow and thermal field. Different fault models are compared with a model where no fault is present to evaluate the effect of varying fault transmissivity. The results show that faults have a significant impact on the hydrothermal field. Varying either the fault zone width or the fault permeability will result in relevant differences in the pressure, velocity and temperature field. A linear relationship between fault zone width and fluid velocity is found, indicating that velocities increase with decreasing widths. The faults act as preferential pathways for advective heat transport in case of highly transmissive faults, whereas almost no fluid may be transported through poorly transmissive faults.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Björn Lewerenz for very helpful computational support and Philipp Balling for his contributions to visualisation and artwork. We acknowledge valuable advice and support in technical questions concerning OpenGeoSys from Dr. Norihiro Watanabe. Jonathan Banks is thanked for his corrections and editing. Additional thanks go to Dr. Hang Si from the WIAS Institute in Berlin for his help in using his open source meshing software TetGen (Si 2008). The numerical results are visualised by using the open source postprocessor ParaView. Constructive comments and suggestions for improvement by two anonymous reviewers and Prof. Olaf Kolditz are gratefully acknowledged. This work is part of the project GeoEn and has been funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the programme “Spitzenforschung in den neuen Ländern” (BMBF Grant 03G0671A/B/C).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, 14469, Potsdam, Germany

    Yvonne Cherubini

  2. Helmholtz Centre Potsdam-GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Yvonne Cherubini, Mauro Cacace, Guido Blöcher & Magdalena Scheck-Wenderoth

Authors
  1. Yvonne Cherubini
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  2. Mauro Cacace
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  3. Guido Blöcher
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  4. Magdalena Scheck-Wenderoth
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yvonne Cherubini.

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12665_2012_2212_MOESM1_ESM.jpg

Fluid pressure evolution through time at the three observation points (a), fluid velocity evolution for observation point 3 (b) and temperature evolution along the three observation points (c), see Figs. 1a, b for their respective location

12665_2012_2212_MOESM2_ESM.jpg

Fluid velocity vectors along the whole fault plane as well as along a horizontal plane cutting the model approximately in the central part during (a) the initial stage and (b) after 0.4 days (~0.01 month) of simulation. Non-scaled vectors represent the velocity direction and the background colours map their magnitudes

12665_2012_2212_MOESM3_ESM.jpg

Fault zone width vs. fluid velocity (black dots) for all model simulations within the sensitivity study for the WFZ in observation point 2, located in the central part of the fault plane

12665_2012_2212_MOESM4_ESM.jpg

Distribution of discrete 3-D isotherms of the temperature differences between model with minimum WFZ and model with maximum WFZ

12665_2012_2212_MOESM5_ESM.jpg

Distribution of isobars of the pressure differences between a model with a dipping fault of 60° and a model with a vertical fault on a horizontal cutting plane at −90 m

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Cherubini, Y., Cacace, M., Blöcher, G. et al. Impact of single inclined faults on the fluid flow and heat transport: results from 3-D finite element simulations. Environ Earth Sci 70, 3603–3618 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-012-2212-z

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