COUPLED TRANSPORT OF HEAT AND FLUID IN FAULTED POROUS MEDIA

Sedimentary basins host a significant portion of the world’s economic mineral and energy resources. Formation of these resources involves the interaction of different and likely coupled processes including groundwater flow, mechanical deformation, mass and energy transfer. Understanding the dynamics of flows and related physical processes in sedimentary basins is essential for a correct assessment of their geothermal potential. The major challenge is to understand the coupling between processes occurring in a common geological framework but having inherent different spatial and temporal scales. Numerical (mathematical) models provide useful tools to analyse all these aspects and to be predictive for a correct assessment of geothermal resources especially in areas where data acquisition is demanding. An integrated approach is presented which combines geological and geophysical observations with numerical techniques to unravel these challenges and to investigate the thermal field and fluid flow system in the Northeast German Basin (NEGB).