| Title | Use of COMSOL Multiphysics to Develop a Shallow Preliminary Conceptual Model for Geothermal Exploration at Pilgrim Hot Springs, Alaska |
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| Authors | Daanen, Ronald P.; Chittambakkam, Arvind; Haselwimmer, Christian; Prakash, Anupma; Mager, Markus; Holdmann, Gwen |
| Year | 2012 |
| Conference | Geothermal Resources Council Transactions |
| Keywords | Pilgrim Hot Springs; Alaska; COMSOL; model; geothermal exploration |
| Abstract | The Pilgrim Hot Springs near Nome, Alaska, presents a potential high latitude geothermal resource. A small part of the geothermal resource was last explored in the 70’s and 80’s that resulted in a few geothermal wells with temperatures around 90°C in a shallow aquifer, but deeper temperatures show a strong reversal with depth to as low as 40°C. Our recent study focused on developing new techniques to further explore this geothermal resource. Remote sensing of surface temperature and calculated surface heat flux was used to assess a larger region around the known geothermal anomaly. This information was used to set boundary conditions for a preliminary thermo-hydro model generated using COMSOL and presented here. The COMSOL Multiphysics finite element package is designed to combine physical equations. The package has a very strong grid building tool that is flexible. We coupled mass and heat transfer in porous media by solving the Richard’s equation simultaneously with Fourier’s Law. Building complex geometries to guide geothermal liquids through the domain is very intuitive and COMSOL automatically selects optimized solvers based on the physics selected for the model. The results show that a steady state model can be used to simulate the observed strong temperature reversals at Pilgrim Hot Springs. The model calculates heat fluxes for all components and it gives a thermal input of 38 MW. Future exploration of geothermal systems could combine high resolution remote sensing combined with geological data in a coupled thermo-hydro model to explore remote geothermal resources. |