Effects of Hydraulic Gradient and Diffusivity on Isoterm and Flow Patterns in Two Dimensional Liquid-Dominated Hydrothermal Systems

Abstract

This work is intented to illustrate isotherm and flow patterns in two-dimensional liquid-dominated hydrothermal systems. They can be simulated numerically by assuming that a density-driven flow exists in the system. The equations that govern the densitydriven flow are the differential equations of flow and transport. The model of isotherm and flow patterns is executed by FAST-C(2D) code. The isotherm and flow patterns in the system are influenced by hydraulic gradient at the top of boundary and thermal diffusivity. The mushroom shape of isotherm pattern is found in the free convection system where no hydraulic gradient is set at the top of boundary. In this case, an ascending flow region and convection pattern emerge in the system. When different hydraulic gradients are set at the top of boundary, different isotherm and flow patterns appear where the isotherm pattern is distorted from the initial shape. When thermal diffusivity is larger, the the size of isotherm patterns will also be larger.