Heat Transfer Characteristics and Prediction Model of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (SC-CO2) in a Vertical Tube

Abstract

Due to its distinct capability to improve the efficiency of shale gas production, supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) fracturing has attracted increased attention in recent years. Heat transfer occurs in the transportation and fracture processes. To better predict and understand the heat transfer of SC-CO2 near the critical region, numerical simulations focusing on a vertical flow pipe were performed. Various turbulence models and turbulent Prandtl numbers (Prt) were evaluated to capture the heat transfer deterioration (HTD). The simulations show that the turbulent Prandtl number model (TWL model) combined with the Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model accurately predicts the HTD in the critical region. It was found that Prt has a strong effect on the heat transfer prediction. The HTD occurred under larger heat flux density conditions, and an acceleration process was observed. Gravity also affects the HTD through the linkage of buoyancy, and HTD did not occur under zero-gravity conditions.

Keywords

• shale gas
• supercritical carbon dioxide
• heat transfer characteristics
• prediction model
• heat flux density