Physics of Flow in Geothermal Systems

Abstract

The equations governing the simultaneous flow of steam and water in a geothermal reservoir are developed by treating the porous medium as a continuum. The balance laws for mass, linear momentum, and energy, which are valid for a single continuum, are integrated over each phase (rock, liquid water, and steam) in a representative elementary volume of the medium. The resulting equations are macroscopic point balances, which account entirely for the loss of definition in going from the microscopic to the macroscopic level of observation.