Analysis of tracer and thermal transients during reinjection

Thesis/Dissertation · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990

OSTI ID:6012067

Kocabas, I

This work studied tracer and thermal transients during reinjection in geothermal reservoirs and developed a new technique which combines the results from interwell tracer tests and thermal injection-backflow tests to estimate the thermal breakthrough times. Tracer tests are essential to determine the degree of connectivity between the injection wells and the producing wells. To analyze the tracer return profiles quantitatively, they employed three mathematical models namely, the convection-dispersion (CD) model, matrix diffusion (MD) model, and the Avdonin (AD) model, which were developed to study tracer and heat transport in a single vertical fracture. The authors considered three types of tracer tests namely, interwell tracer tests without recirculation, interwell tracer tests with recirculation, and injection-backflow tracer tests. To estimate the model parameters, we used a non-linear regression program to match tracer return profiles to the solutions. We matched the appropriate solutions to the three sets of data obtained from the interwell tracer tests without recirculation at Wairakei, New Zealand. All model matches had small residuals but differed considerably in capturing the distinctive features such as peak time and tailing of the profiles. We developed new solutions to the mathematical models to interpret the return profiles from interwell tracer tests with recirculation. They also developed solutions to the CD and MD models to interpret the return profiles of injection-backflow tracer tests. Finally they suggested thermal injection-backflow tests as a means to estimate the thermal transport parameters. The solution to the MD model can be used for interpreting thermal injection-backflow tests.

• Research Organization: Stanford Univ., CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6012067
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
150904* -- Geothermal Engineering-- Geothermal Reservoir & Well Performance
AUSTRALASIA
BOREHOLE LINKING
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
CONVECTION
ENERGY TRANSFER
FLOW MODELS
FLUID FLOW
FLUID INJECTION
FLUIDS
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOTHERMAL FLUIDS
GEOTHERMAL WELLS
HEAT TRANSFER
INDUSTRIAL WASTES
INJECTION WELLS
INTEGRAL TRANSFORMATIONS
ISOTOPE APPLICATIONS
LAPLACE TRANSFORMATION
LIQUID WASTES
MASS TRANSFER
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICS
MATRICES
NEW ZEALAND
PERFORMANCE
RECYCLING
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
SPENT LIQUORS
STATISTICS
TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION
TESTING
TRACER TECHNIQUES
TRANSFORMATIONS
TRANSIENTS
WASTES
WELLS