Thermal front propagation in variable aperture fracture–matrix system: A numerical study

A numerical study on the effect of complex fracture aperture geometry on propagation of thermal front in a coupled single fracture–matrix system has been carried out. Sinusoidal and logarithmic functions have been used to capture the variation in fracture aperture. Modifications have been made to existing coupled partial differential governing equations to consider the variation of fracture aperture. Effect of temperature on the thermal and physical properties of rock have been incorporated. A fully implicit finite difference scheme has been used to discretize the coupled governing equations. Thermal convection, dispersion and conduction are the major transport processes within fracture, while conduction is the major transport process within rock matrix. The results suggest that variation of fracture aperture increases the heat transfer rate at the fracture–matrix interface. Sensitivity analysis on rock thermal conductivity and fracture aperture have been carried out. The results suggest that the heat transfer from rock matrix to fracture for the case of the parallel plate model is greatly dependent on the rock thermal conductivity (λm) as compared to variable aperture model. Further, the thermal front propagation for both parallel plate model and variable aperture model is sensitive to changes in fracture aperture. The heat transfer rate at the interface is greater at smaller fracture apertures and decreases with increase in aperture.