Heat transfer to a viscous reacting fluid injected into a heated planar slot

Abstract

The present study formulates the mathematical model for analyzing the penetration length and transport phenomena of a viscous reacting fluid injected into a two-dimensional heated slot. The application of the results are in clarifying the use of a reacting fluid to seal fracture in geothermal formations to prevent circulation loss during drilling geothermal wells. A methodology and a computer code have been developed which incorporate SIMPLE and MAC schemes, and which is capable of simulating a moving free surface boundary at the leading front with constant volumetric flow rate and with variable properties and exothermic chemical heat generation is suggested and developed. The constitutive and kinetic equations for the applied fluid are similar to an RIM type of material. Special attention is put on the kinematics of fountain flow and effects of hydrodynamic boundary conditions on the overall hydrodynamic phenomena. The effect of the gellation crust is briefly discussed.