Fractality of the geysers

Abstract

Heat convection at pore-scale, which is strongly dependent on the topology of pore space, remains poorly understood for geothermal reservoirs. This is despite fundamental advances made in modeling heat transfer in nano and micro-scale conduits. With this in mind, we analyze the fractality of the pore space of The Geysers to fully characterize its topology. We consider circular and slit-like throat geometries to represent aspect ratios close to unity and infinity, respectively. Our study shows that the effective length of pore space follows the general fractal rule. This study can have major implications for understanding heat convection at pore-scale by presenting a representative fractal model for The Geysers.