Simulation of a Heat Transfer in Porous Media
For geothermal energy engineers, this provides a simulation tool to optimize heat extraction, though the approach is incremental.
The paper models heat transfer in porous media with multiple layers (mobile/immobile zones) for geothermal energy optimization. Numerical simulations aim to reduce costly physical experiments and improve control of heating processes.
We are motivated to model a heat transfer to a multiple layer regime and their optimization for heat energy resources. Such a problem can be modeled by a porous media with different phases (liquid and solid). The idea arose of a geothermal energy reservoir which can be used by cities, e.g. Berlin. While hot ground areas are covered to most high populated cites, the energy resources are important and a shift to use such resources are enormous. We design a model of the heat transport via the flow of water through the heterogeneous layer of the underlying earth sediments. We discuss a multiple layer model, based on mobile and immobile zones. Such numerical simulations help to economize on expensive physical experiments and obtain control mechanisms for the delicate heating process.