Thermo-Mechanical Simulations of Rock Behavior in Underground Coal Gasification Show Negligible Impact of Temperature-Dependent Parameters on Permeability Changes

Christopher Otto and Thomas Kempka
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Christopher Otto: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, Potsdam 14473, Germany
Thomas Kempka: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, Potsdam 14473, Germany

Energies, 2015, vol. 8, issue 6, 1-28

Abstract: A coupled thermo-mechanical model has been developed to assess permeability changes in the vicinity of an underground coal gasification (UCG) reactor resulting from excavation and thermo-mechanical effects. Thereto, we consider a stepwise UCG reactor excavation based on a pre-defined coal consumption rate and dynamic thermal boundary conditions. Simulation results demonstrate that thermo-mechanical rock behavior is mainly driven by the thermal expansion coefficient, thermal conductivity, tensile strength and elastic modulus of the surrounding rock. A comparison between temperature-dependent and temperature-independent parameters applied in the simulations indicates notable variations in the distribution of total displacements in the UCG reactor vicinity related to thermal stress, but only negligible differences in permeability changes. Hence, temperature-dependent thermo-mechanical parameters have to be considered in the assessment of near-field UCG impacts only, while far-field models can achieve a higher computational efficiency by using temperature-independent thermo-mechanical parameters. Considering the findings of the present study in the large-scale assessment of potential environmental impacts of underground coal gasification, representative coupled simulations based on complex 3D large-scale models become computationally feasible.

Keywords: underground coal gasification; thermo-mechanical modeling; numerical simulation; permeability changes; environmental impacts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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