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Working Group on Thermal Properties:
Activities 2007 - 2009
International
collaboration in metrological testing
instruments for thermal property measurement
was organized with participation of the RWTH
Aachen University (Germany), Schlumberger
Moscow Research Center, Russian State
Geological Prospecting University, Moscow
State University. The testing was organized
(1) to compare quality of specific heat
capacity measurements performed with
different instruments, (2) to improve the
rock thermal property measurement technique,
(3) to obtain reliable thermal property
references which are necessary in both basic
and applied geothermics.
The
vast set of advanced geothermal
instruments developed recently for
measurements of rock thermal property
was applied to provide representative
geothermal data for the reservoir of the
Yarega heavy oil field. The measurements
of thermal conductivity, diffusivity,
volumetric heat capacity and coefficient
of linear thermal expansion were
performed on more than 500 cores
saturated by air, brine and heavy oil at
elevated temperature (within a range of
20 °C - 200 °C) and pressure and normal
conditions. The measurements were
performed (1) to construct the 3D model
of the field thermal properties, (2) to
develop optimal approach to heavy oil
production with the steam assisted
gravity drainage (SAGD) technology, (3)
to study influence of rock thermal
property variations on the SAGD
efficiency. Similar geothermal research
were performed at the first time in the
practice of geothermics.
The
experimental geothermic research within
the scientific deep drilling in the USA
(Ereville well, Chesapeake impact
structure) and Russia (Yen-Yakhinskaya
super-deep well, Voronezhskaya well)
were coordinated and guided to provide
possible highest quality of basic and
applied geothermal data from the
scientific deep drilling. The research
work included collaboration by Yuri
Popov and his research group with the
research groups from the Karlsruhe and
Berlin Universities (Germany), US
Geological Survey (Reston), the State
Enterprise “Nedra” (Yaroslavl, Russia).
Detailed data were obtained on rock
thermal properties, temperature and
temperature gradient, and heat flow
density within the Earth's crust.
An
instrument was developed to provide
measurements of thermal conductivity of
fluids with wide rage of viscosity at
different temperatures (0 °C - 150 °C).
Metrological testing was performed and
the quality of measurements was
determined. The instrument was
introduced in oil field studies and its
performance compared to commercially
available instrumentation. This showed
shown that quality of measurements with
the new instrument exceeds the
measurement quality of previously used
instrumentation.
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