The Numerical Simulation of Heat and Mass Transfer on Geothermal System-A Case Study in Laoling Area, Shandong, China

Abstract

Geothermal resources have become increasingly attractive and promising because of their abundant resource base and environmental protection, especially for hydrothermal resources, which are widely developed for heating in winter. It is indicated that numerical simulation is an important tool for high efficiency geothermal system development. Compared with other methods, numerical simulation is a more comprehensive, scientific, and effective method in the evaluation of recoverable resources and the formulation of development plans. However, there are some problems in the existing software, such as deviation in physical property calculation, incomplete multifields coupling, and poor applicability for low-permeability reservoir and large-scale models. Therefore, based on the optimized multiphysics coupling mathematical model and MPI architecture, a simulator for a multiphysics-coupling geothermal system (SMG) was developed by Sinopec. A case study in the Laoling area, Shandong, China was primarily conducted by using geothermal software SMG, where the effect of well spacing and injection fluid temperature on the production was illustrated. Moreover, a geothermal recoverable resources evaluation method based on numerical simulation is proposed and used for the evaluation of regional geothermal dynamic recoverable resources in Laoling.