Establishment of an empirical correlation for estimating the thermal conductivity of igneous rocks

Abstract

A correlation to predict the thermal conductivity of andesitic igneous rocks is developed from measured data on drill cores from wells from the Los Azufres geothermal field, Mexico. The correlation was developed from density, porosity, and thermal conductivity. Seventeen determinations were made on drill cores extracted at varying depths from 12 wells. Thermal conductivity varied from 1.05 to 2.34 W · m−1 · K−1, while bulk density varied from 2050 to 2740 kg · m−3 and grain density varied from 2610 to 2940 kg · m−3. Total porosity varied from 1.9 to 24.7%. Two polynomial regressions, one linear and one quadratic, were tested on the thermal conductivity-times-bulk density product, with total porosity as the independent variable. The correlation coefficients and residual mean square deviations were 0.83 and 0.00491 for the linear fit and 0.87 and 0.00425 for the quadratic model, respectively. For porosities up to about 18%, both models showed very close predictions, but for larger values, the quadratic model appeared to be better and it is recommended for the porosity range from 0 to 25%. Furthermore, density and porosity may be determined from drill cuttings, which are more readily available than cores.