BOILING IN A VERTICAL FRACTURE

Abstract

An experimental study of boiling in an artificial fracture has been conducted with the goal of understanding the propagation of a thermal front in a
fracture where the liquid injectate flashes to steam. Laboratory work is illustrated, a background of liquid-vapor phase transition is described, and a strategy for modeling boiling in a discrete fracture with an impermeable matrix is being developed. This strategy involves the development of empirical functions relating heat flux on an impermeable surface to its excess temperature with experiments being conducted at Stanford. If functions that quantify a two-phase coefficient for thermal convection can be developed, a numerical model which balances the heat conduction from an
impermeable rock with the advecting fluid enthalpy could be constructed. This modeling approach is derived from literature on multiphase heat exchange in tubes and on surfaces, and may ultimately be useful
for the analysis of the propagation of a thermal front in fractured media.