Heat Transfer to Ultralarge-Scale Heat Pipes Placed in a Geothermal Reservoir (2nd Report):Transverse Flows

Abstract

An analysis on the heat transfer problem associated with a new energy extraction scheme from hydrothermal systems is presented. The proposed scheme uses ultralarge heat pipes as the energy transfer device. In the second report we intended to evaluate the rate of heat transfer to the heat pipe evapolator when it is subject to transverse flows in geothermal reservoirs. First an integral solution based on the boundary layer approximation was obtained. The validity of the integral solution was then confirmed by extensive numerical experiments. The analysis was extended further to cases where the flow direction forms an arbitrary angle with the heat pipe axis. According to the present analysis it is found that the presence of transverse flows of 0.01 mm/sec increases the rate of heat transfer five times as much as one without flows.