Record Details

Title Some Results of a Long-Term Flow Test of a Hot Dry Rock Reservoir
Authors Zyvoloski, G. A.; Aamodt, R. L.; Fisher, H. N.; Murphy, H. D.
Year 1981
Conference Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
Keywords Reservoir Engineering; Hot Dry Rock; USA; New Mexico; Fenton Hill; Decline Temperature; Fractures; Heat Transfer; Thermal Drawdown; Flow Impedance
Abstract Results form a 286 day flow test of a new hot dry rock reservoir at Fenton Hill in Jemez Mountain in northwest New Mexico are presented. The reservoir was created by fracturing an interval of granitic rock at a depth of 2.93 km (9620 ft.). The system was formed from a recemeneted wellbore pair used to create the first hot dry rock reservoir. The undisturbed rock temperature at the bottom of the new reservoir was 197°C. With a nominal outlet flow of 5.7 x 10-3 m2/s (95 gpm), the reservoir showed a thermal drawdown of about 8°C. A preliminary estimate of the heat transfer area is 45000 m3 (480000 ft2). The water loss rate to the formation was 4.6 x 10-4 m3/s (7gpm). The flow impedence was 1.6 GPa s/M3 (15 psi/gpm). The results of the flow test show that in comparison with earlier smaller hot dry rock system at the same site, the large increase in heat transfer area was accompanies by only a small increase in the water loss and with the impedence staying essentially constant.
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