This engineering note documents some information regarding the solenoid magnet flow valve, EVMF. See also EN-437 'Control Dewar valve sizing' also for further information on this valve. This note documents the modification done to the valve to change it to a Cv = 0.32.

This is an upgrade to the thermal contraction analysis sound in D0 Engineering Note: 3823.115-EN-426. In this new design, a portion of the transfer lines are consolidated into one 6-inch vacuum jacket. Since all four transfer lines follow the same path and are of equal lengths, the stress analysis is performed on only one transfer line using the design system ALGOR{reg_sign}. The GHe Cooldown Supply line is analyzed for combined pressure, thermal movement, and dead weight and all the stresses were below the allowable stress limit of 25,050 psi.

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Pre- and post-fracturing well tests in TG-2 well drilled next to the Matsukawa field are interpreted for evaluating effects of a massive hydraulic fracturing treatment. The interpreted data include multiple-step rate tests, a two-step rate test, and falloff tests. Pressure behaviors of massive hydraulic fracturing are matched by a simulator of dynamic fracture option. Fracture parting pressures can be evaluated from the multiple-step rate test data. The multiple-step rates during the massive hydraulic fracturing treatment show that multiple fractures have been induced in sequence. Although the pre-fracturing falloff tests are too short, fracture propagation can be evaluated qualitatively from the falloff data. Interpretation of the falloff test immediately after the MHF suggests that extensive fractures have been created by the MHF, which is verified by simulation. The post-fracturing falloff tests show that the fractures created by the MHF have closed to a great degree.

The Cascade Range is a geothermal dichotomy. On the one hand, it is an active volcanic arc above a subducting plate and is demonstrably an area of high heat flow. On the other hand, the distribution of hydrothermal manifestations compared to other volcanic arcs is sparse, and the hydrothermal outflow calculated from stream chemistry is low. Several large estimates of undiscovered geothermal resources in the U.S. part of the Cascade Range prepared in the 1970s and early 1980s were based fundamentally on two models of the upper crust. One model assumed that large, partly molten, intrusive bodies exist in the upper 10 km beneath major volcanic centers and serve as the thermal engines driving overlying hydrothermal systems. The other model interpreted the coincident heat-flow and gravity gradients west of the Cascade crest in central Oregon to indicate a partly molten heat source at 10 {+-} 2 km depth extending {approx}30 km west from the axis of the range. Investigations of the past ten years have called both models into question. Large long-lived high-temperature hydrothermal systems at depths <3 km in the U.S. part of the Cascade Range appear to be restricted to silicic domefields at the Lassen volcanic center, Medicine …

This paper presents a space integrated zero dimensional model that describes the thermodynamic behavior of a geothermal fracture undergoing exploitation. The main assumptions involved are: fluid and energy entering the fracture come from the surrounding matrix, fracture of infinite conductivity, and that the steam and water phases are gravitationally segregated and in thermodynamic equilibrium. The nonlinear equations of mass and energy conservation are numerically solved. A sensitivity analysis on the main parameters that affect this problem was carried out. Water recharge is described by a linear infinite aquifer, and heat flow from the matrix to the fluid was also considered by means of a linear infinite system. The behavior of the system is clearly described for conditions of exploitation in the steam, in the water, or mixed completion in both steam and water zones.

The Steamboat Hills Geothermal Field in northwestern Nevada, about 15 km south of Reno, is a shallow (150m to 825m) moderate temperature (155 C to 168 C) liquid-dominated geothermal reservoir situated in highly-fractured granodiorite. Three injection wells were drilled and completed in granodiorite to dispose of spent geothermal fluids from the Steamboat II and III power plants (a 30 MW air-cooled binary-type facility). Injection wells were targeted to depths below 300m to inject spent fluids below producing fractures. First, quasi-static downhole pressure-temperature-spinner (PTS) logs were obtained. Then, the three wells were injection-tested using fluids between 80 C and 106 C at rates from 70 kg/s to 200 kg/s. PTS logs were run both up and down the wells during these injection tests. These PTS surveys have delineated the subsurface fracture zones which will accept fluid. The relative injectivity of the wells was also established. Shut-in interzonal flow within the wells was identified and characterized.

A simulation model capable of handling the effects of sorption was constructed. It accounts for the curved interface thermodynamics associated with adsorption and desorption. Data from several laboratory experiments were used to verify the model. The results indicated that simulation runs using sorption isotherms adequately model the pressure transient behavior observed in the laboratory experiments. Dry steam models severely underestimated the effective compressibility. Models using flat-interface (steam table) thermodynamics over-estimated the compressibility of the system, indicated by slower than actual rate of pressure transient propagation.

Approximately 800 ft. of continuous core was recovered from borehole SB-15 D (on unit 15, near the site of the abandoned Geysers Resort) during a recently completed drilling operation funded by the USDOE. Sections of this core were collected at 50 ft intervals for subsequent examination as drilling proceeded. Five foot sections were not removed at the drill site, but were sealed in the innermost sleeve of a triple tube coring system to minimize drying and disturbance of the core. All cores remained sealed and were radiographed within 72 hours of drilling: the five foot core from near 1400 ft. was scanned within 18 hours of drilling. A third generation x-ray scanner, which uses high energy radiation to penetrate the aluminum sleeve and 3.5 inch cores, was used to make preliminary radiographs and to collect multiple views of the sample as the core is rotated in front of the beam. True three dimensional tomographs are then reconstructed from the data. At present, the images have a spatial resolution of approximately 140 micrometers and can resolve contrast differences of 0.2%. The tomographs clearly show differences in lithology with depth in the reservoir. Partially filled fractures, vein selvage and vuggy porosity are …

The Department of Energy (DOE)/geothermal industry-sponsored Geysers Coring Project (GCP) has yielded 236.8 m of continuous core apparently spanning the transition between the uppermost Geysers steam reservoir and its caprock. Both zones in the corehole are developed in superficially similar, fractured, complexly veined and locally sericitized, Franciscan (late Mesozoic) graywacke-argillite sequences. However, whereas the reservoir rocks host two major fluid conduits (potential steam entries), the caprock is only sparingly permeable. This discrepancy appears to reflect principally vein texture and mineralogy. Two types of veins are common in the core--randomly-oriented, Franciscan metamorphic quartz-calcite veins; and high-angle, late Cenozoic veins deposited by The Geysers hydrothermal system. The older veins locally contain hydrothermal carbonate-dissolution vugs, which, although concentrated at the larger fluid conduit, are scattered throughout the core. The younger veins, commonly with intercrystalline vugs, consist dominantly of euhedral quartz, calcite, K-feldspar, wairakite, and pyrite--those in the reservoir rock also contain minor epidote and illite. The corresponding caprock veins are devoid of epidote but contain abundant, late-stage, mixed-layer illite/smecite (5-18% smectite interlayers) with minor chlorite/smectite (40-45% smectite interlayers). We suggest that clots of these two expandable clays in the caprock clog otherwise permeable veins and carbonate-dissolution networks at strategic sites to produce or …

Field measurements and modeling have shown the potential for using a Hot Dry Rock (HDR) geothermal reservoir for electric load following: either with Power-Peaking from a base-load operating condition, or for Pumped Storage of off-peak electric energy with a very significant thermal augmentation of the stored mechanical energy during periods of power production. For the base-load with power-peaking mode of operation, an HDR reservoir appears capable of producing over twice its nominal power output for short--2 to 4 hour--periods of time. In this mode of operation, the reservoir normally would be produced under a high-backpressure condition with the HDR reservoir region near the production well highly inflated. Upon demand, the production backpressure would be sharply reduced, surging the production flow. Alternatively, for Pumped Storage, the reservoir would be operated in a cyclic mode, with production shut-in during off-peak hours. When the produced thermal energy of such a pumped-storage system is considered, an HDR reservoir would be capable of returning considerably more energy to the surface during the production phase than would have been consumed in inflating the reservoir during the off-peak storage phase. Pumped Storage reservoir operation was actually demonstrated experimentally during a brief series of cyclic reservoir tests at …

A simple model is proposed for water/rock interaction in rock fractures through which geothermal water flows. Water/rock interaction experiments were carried out at high temperature and pressure (200-350 C, 18 MPa) in order to obtain basic solubility and reaction rate data. Based on the experimental data, changes of idealized fracture apertures with time are calculated numerically. The results of the calculations show that the precipitation from water can lead to plugging of the fractures under certain conditions. Finally, the results are compared with the experimental data.

During the mid-l980's, Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) drilled a number of deep wells (M-200 series) at the Cerro Prieto geothermal field, Baja California, Mexico to investigate the continuation of the geothermal reservoir to the east of the Cerro Prieto-II and III production areas. The wells encountered permeability at depths ranging from 2,800 to 4,400 m but due to the reservoir depth and the relatively cold temperatures encountered in the upper 1,000 to 2,000 m of the wells, it was not possible to discharge some of the wells. The wells at Cerro Prieto are generally discharged by injecting compressed air below the water level using 2-3/8-inch tubing installed with either a crane or workover rig. The objective of this technique is to lift sufficient water out of the well to stimulate flow from the reservoir into the wellbore. However, in the case of the M-200 series wells, the temperatures in the upper 1,000 to 2,000 m are generally below 50 C and the heat loss to the formation is therefore significant. The impact of heat loss on the stimulation process was evaluated using both a numerical model of the reservoir/wellbore system and steady-state wellbore modeling. The results from the study …

Active fault systems usually provide high-permeability channels for hydrothermal outflow in geothermal fields. Locating such fault systems is of a vital importance to plan geothermal production and injection drilling, since an active fault zone often acts as a fracture-extensive low-velocity wave guide to seismic waves. We have located an active fault zone in the Coso geothermal field, California, by identifying and analyzing a fault-zone trapped Rayleigh-type guided wave from microearthquake data. The wavelet transform is employed to characterize guided-wave's velocity-frequency dispersion, and numerical methods are used to simulate the guided-wave propagation. The modeling calculation suggests that the fault zone is {approx} 200m wide, and has a P wave velocity of 4.80 km/s and a S wave velocity of 3.00 km/s, which is sandwiched between two half spaces with relatively higher velocities (P wave velocity 5.60 km/s, and S wave velocity 3.20 km/s). zones having vertical or nearly vertical dipping fault planes.

Microearthquake activity at the Southeast Geysers, California, geothermal field is monitored with a high-resolution digital seismic network. Hypocenters are spatially clustered in both injection and production areas, but also occur in more diffuse patterns, mostly at depths from 1 to 2.8 km. Hypocenters near the injection well DV-11 exhibit a striking correlation with movement of injectate and injectate-derived steam. Preliminary moment tensor results show promise to provide information on the differing source mechanisms resulting from fluid injection and steam extraction.

This paper is an attempt to model well decline in a vapor dominated reservoir with fractal geometry. The fractal network of fractures is treated as a continuum with characteristic anomalous diffusion of pressure. A numerical solver is used to obtain the solution of the partial differential equation including adsorption in the fractal storage space. The decline of the reservoir is found to obey the empirical hyperbolic type relation when adsorption is not present. Desorption does not change the signature of the flow rate decline but shifts it on the time/flow rate axis. Only three out of six model parameters can be estimated from field data, due to the linear correlation between parameters. An application to real well data from The Geysers field is presented together with the estimated reservoir, fractal space and adsorption parameters. Desorption dominated flow is still a questionable approximation for flow in fractal objects.

Thermal energy extraction from five wells supplying 5-MWe wellhead generators in three zones of the Los Azufres geothermal field has been examined from production and chemical data compiled over 14-years of operation. The data, as annual means, are useful in observing small-scale changes in reservoir performance with continuous production. The chemical components are chloride for quality control and the geothermometer elements for reservoir temperatures. The flowrate and fluid enthalpy data are used to calculate the thermal extraction rates. Integration of these data provides an estimate of the total energy extracted from the zone surrounding the well. The combined production and chemical geothermometer data are used to model the produced fluid as coming from just-penetrating wells for which the annual produced mass originates from a series of concentric hemispheric shells moving out into the reservoir. Estimates are made of the drawdown distance into the reservoir and the far-field conditions.

Hydrothermal systems typically consist of hot permeable rock which contains either liquid or liquid and saturated steam within the voids. These systems vent fluids at the surface through hot springs, fumaroles, mud pools, steaming ground and geysers. They are simultaneously recharged as meteoric water percolates through the surrounding rock or through the active injection of water at various geothermal reservoirs. In a number of geothermal reservoirs from which significant amounts of hot fluid have been extracted and passed through turbines, superheated regions of vapor have developed. As liquid migrates through a superheated region of a hydrothermal system, some of the liquid vaporizes at a migrating liquid-vapor interface. Using simple physical arguments, and analogue laboratory experiments we show that, under the influence of gravity, the liquid-vapor interface may become unstable and break up into fingers.

A set of models of HDR systems is presented which attempts to explain the formation and operation of HDR systems using only the in-situ properties of the fractured rock mass, the earth stress field, the engineering intervention applied by way of stimulation and the relative positions and pressures of the well(s). A statistical and rock mechanics description of fractures in low permeability rocks provides the basis for modeling of stimulation, circulation and water loss in HDR systems. The model uses a large number of parameters, chiefly simple directly measurable quantities, describing the rock mass and fracture system. The effect of stimulation (raised fluid pressure allowing slip) on fracture apertures is calculated, and the volume of rock affected per volume of fluid pumped estimated. The total rock volume affected by stimulation is equated with the rock volume containing the associated AE (microseismicity). The aperture and compliance properties of the stimulated fractures are used to estimate impedance and flow within the reservoir. Fluid loss from the boundary of the stimulated volume is treated using radial leak-off with pressure-dependent permeability.

During the past 20 years the Geothermal Resources Council (GRC), has grown and changed dramatically. An educational organization, the GRC sponsors an annual scientific meeting, and short courses, workshops, and symposia. Meetings and workshops typically are held at locations where members can also attend field trips. The GRC also publishes special reports, a monthly magazine, the GRC BULLETIN, and annual meeting transactions. The GRC On-line Information System, a relatively new service, is a library containing over 20,000 technical geothermal papers, articles, maps and periodicals. Presently, citations for 10,000 of these library materials are stored on computer and available via modem to users anywhere in the world. New citations are added to the library frequently. The GRC's sister association, the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA), collaborates with the GRC on educational programs.

Numerical simulations were carried out to characterize the behaviors of fractured reservoirs under production which causes in-situ boiling. A radial flow model with a single production well, and a two-dimensional geothermal reservoir model with several production and injection wells were used to study the two-phase reservoir behavior. The behavior can be characterized mainly by the parameters such as the fracture spacing and matrix permeability. However, heterogeneous distribution of the steam saturation in the fracture and matrix regions brings about another complicated feature to problems of fractured two-phase reservoirs.

The extent of thermally altered rocks in high temperature geothermal reservoirs hosted by young volcanic rocks can be assessed from magnetic surveys. Magnetic anomalies associated with many geothermal field in New Zealand and Indonesia can be interpreted in terms of thick (up to 1 km) demagnetized reservoir rocks. Demagnetization of these rocks has been confirmed by core studies and is caused by hydrothermal alteration produced from fluid/rock interactions. Models of the demagnetized Wairakei (NZ) and Kamojang (Indonesia) reservoirs are presented which include the productive areas. Magnetic surveys give fast and economical investigations of high temperature prospects if measurements are made from the air. The magnetic interpretation models can provide important constraints for reservoir models. Magnetic ground surveys can also be used to assess the extent of concealed near surface alteration which can be used in site selection of engineering structures.

PREFACE The Twentieth Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering, dedicated to the memory of Professor Hank Ramey, was held at Stanford University on January 24-26, 1995. There were ninety-five registered participants. Participants came from six foreign countries: Japan, Mexico, England, Italy, New Zealand and Iceland. The performance of many geothermal reservoirs outside the United States was described in several of the papers. Professor Roland N. Horne opened the meeting and welcomed visitors to the campus. The key note speaker was Marshall Reed, who gave a brief overview of the Department of Energy's current plan. Thirty-two papers were presented in the technical sessions of the workshop. Technical papers were organized into eleven sessions concerning: field development, modeling, well tesubore, injection, geoscience, geochemistry and field operations. Session chairmen were major contributors to the workshop, and we thank: Ben Barker, Bob Fournier, Mark Walters, John Counsil, Marcelo Lippmann, Keshav Goyal, Joel Renner and Mike Shook. In addition to the technical sessions, a panel discussion was held on ''What have we learned in 20 years?'' Panel speakers included Patrick Muffler, George Frye, Alfred Truesdell and John Pritchett. The subject was further discussed by Subir Sanyal, who gave the post-dinner speech at the banquet. The Workshop …

The author calculated the neutralization of circulating beam in this report. In the calculation it is assumed that all electrons liberated from the background molecules due to the collisional processes are trapped in the potential well of the proton beam. Including the dependence of ionization cross sections on the kinetic energy of the incident particle, the author derived the empirical formula for beam neutralization as a function of time and baseline vacuum pressure, which is applicable to the one acceleration cycle of the IPNS-Upgrade RCS.