IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v319y2025ics0360544225007005.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical coupling analysis of spiral wellbores in horizontal wells for heat extraction from hot dry rock: A case study of the Gonghe Basin, Qinghai, China

Author

Listed:
  • Jiang, Sheng
  • Chen, Chen
  • Zhang, Shanling
  • Xu, Zhenhua
  • Liu, Xiang
  • Tu, Guigang
  • Zhao, Songying

Abstract

The development of Hot Dry Rock (HDR) as a sustainable high-temperature geothermal resource has gained increasing attention in renewable energy applications. This study employs a three-dimensional thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) coupled finite element model to assess the feasibility of spiral wellbores in U-shaped Closed-Loop Geothermal Systems (UCLGS) for HDR extraction. The heat extraction performance of spiral wellbores was evaluated over 50 years and compared with cylindrical wellbores. The distribution patterns of the reservoir temperature field during heat extraction with spiral and cylindrical wellbores were investigated. Additionally, the evolution of the reservoir stress and displacement fields during heat extraction was analyzed, exploring the response mechanisms of these fields. Results indicate that the spiral wellbore demonstrates superior thermal extraction performance compared to the cylindrical wellbore, with production temperature, wellbore heat extraction per linear meter, and power generation increasing by 12.67 %, 23.73 %, and 27.07 %, respectively. However, spiral wellbores also induce more significant stress and displacement responses within the reservoir. This research provides valuable insights into the long-term evolution of reservoir stress and displacement, offering references for spiral wellbore application in UCLGS.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiang, Sheng & Chen, Chen & Zhang, Shanling & Xu, Zhenhua & Liu, Xiang & Tu, Guigang & Zhao, Songying, 2025. "Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical coupling analysis of spiral wellbores in horizontal wells for heat extraction from hot dry rock: A case study of the Gonghe Basin, Qinghai, China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 319(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:319:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225007005
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.135058
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225007005
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2025.135058?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lu, Shyi-Min, 2018. "A global review of enhanced geothermal system (EGS)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2902-2921.
    2. Ding, Xuanming & Wu, Qi & Wang, Chenglong & Kong, Gangqiang, 2024. "Thermo‒mechanical behavior of energy pile group in dry sand subjected to a horizontal load," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    3. Dinh, Ba Huu & Kim, Young-Sang & Yoon, Seok, 2022. "Experimental and numerical studies on the performance of horizontal U-type and spiral-coil-type ground heat exchangers considering economic aspects," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 505-516.
    4. Hou, Xinglan & Zhong, Xiuping & Nie, Shuaishuai & Wang, Yafei & Tu, Guigang & Ma, Yingrui & Liu, Kunyan & Chen, Chen, 2023. "Numerical simulation study of intermittent heat extraction from hot dry rock using horizontal well based on thermal compensation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    5. Zhang, Jiansong & Liu, Yongsheng & Lv, Jianguo & Gao, Wenlong, 2024. "The flow and heat transfer characteristics of supercritical mixed-phase CO2 and N2 in a 3D self-affine rough fracture," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 303(C).
    6. Song, Xianzhi & Shi, Yu & Li, Gensheng & Shen, Zhonghou & Hu, Xiaodong & Lyu, Zehao & Zheng, Rui & Wang, Gaosheng, 2018. "Numerical analysis of the heat production performance of a closed loop geothermal system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 365-378.
    7. Qiao, Mingzheng & Jing, Zefeng & Feng, Chenchen & Li, Minghui & Chen, Cheng & Zou, Xupeng & Zhou, Yujuan, 2024. "Review on heat extraction systems of hot dry rock: Classifications, benefits, limitations, research status and future prospects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    8. Olasolo, P. & Juárez, M.C. & Morales, M.P. & D´Amico, Sebastiano & Liarte, I.A., 2016. "Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS): A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 133-144.
    9. Lei, Zhihong & Zhang, Yanjun & Zhang, Senqi & Fu, Lei & Hu, Zhongjun & Yu, Ziwang & Li, Liangzhen & Zhou, Jian, 2020. "Electricity generation from a three-horizontal-well enhanced geothermal system in the Qiabuqia geothermal field, China: Slickwater fracturing treatments for different reservoir scenarios," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 65-83.
    10. Anderson, Austin & Rezaie, Behnaz, 2019. "Geothermal technology: Trends and potential role in a sustainable future," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C), pages 18-34.
    11. Liu, Yongwang & Li, Kun & Guan, Zhichuan & Lin, Guojun & Xu, Yuqiang, 2023. "Research on circulating heat recovery law of single horizontal well for hot dry rock geothermal resources," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    12. Wang, Gaosheng & Song, Xianzhi & Shi, Yu & Yang, Ruiyue & Yulong, Feixue & Zheng, Rui & Li, Jiacheng, 2021. "Heat extraction analysis of a novel multilateral-well coaxial closed-loop geothermal system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 974-986.
    13. Hou, Xinglan & Zhong, Xiuping & Nie, Shuaishuai & Wang, Yafei & Tu, Guigang & Ma, Yingrui & Liu, Kunyan & Chen, Chen, 2024. "Study on the heat recovery behavior of horizontal well systems in the Qiabuqia geothermal area of the Gonghe Basin, China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    14. Lei, Zhihong & Zhang, Yanjun & Yu, Ziwang & Hu, Zhongjun & Li, Liangzhen & Zhang, Senqi & Fu, Lei & Zhou, Ling & Xie, Yangyang, 2019. "Exploratory research into the enhanced geothermal system power generation project: The Qiabuqia geothermal field, Northwest China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 52-70.
    15. Feng, Zijun & Zhao, Yangsheng & Zhou, Anchao & Zhang, Ning, 2012. "Development program of hot dry rock geothermal resource in the Yangbajing Basin of China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 490-495.
    16. Barbier, Enrico, 2002. "Geothermal energy technology and current status: an overview," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 6(1-2), pages 3-65.
    17. Moya, Diego & Aldás, Clay & Kaparaju, Prasad, 2018. "Geothermal energy: Power plant technology and direct heat applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 889-901.
    18. Zhu, Jialing & Hu, Kaiyong & Lu, Xinli & Huang, Xiaoxue & Liu, Ketao & Wu, Xiujie, 2015. "A review of geothermal energy resources, development, and applications in China: Current status and prospects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(P1), pages 466-483.
    19. Sun, Zhi-xue & Zhang, Xu & Xu, Yi & Yao, Jun & Wang, Hao-xuan & Lv, Shuhuan & Sun, Zhi-lei & Huang, Yong & Cai, Ming-yu & Huang, Xiaoxue, 2017. "Numerical simulation of the heat extraction in EGS with thermal-hydraulic-mechanical coupling method based on discrete fractures model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 20-33.
    20. Aliyu, Musa D. & Archer, Rosalind A., 2021. "Numerical simulation of multifracture HDR geothermal reservoirs," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 541-555.
    21. Li, S. & Wang, S. & Tang, H., 2022. "Stimulation mechanism and design of enhanced geothermal systems: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    22. Chen, Juanwen & Li, Zhibin & Huang, Wenbo & Ma, Qingshan & Li, Ang & Wang, Bin & Sun, Hongtao & Jiang, Fangming, 2024. "Super-long gravity heat pipe geothermal space heating system: A practical case in Taiyuan, China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Qiao, Mingzheng & Jing, Zefeng & Feng, Chenchen & Li, Minghui & Chen, Cheng & Zou, Xupeng & Zhou, Yujuan, 2024. "Review on heat extraction systems of hot dry rock: Classifications, benefits, limitations, research status and future prospects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    2. Hou, Xinglan & Zhong, Xiuping & Nie, Shuaishuai & Wang, Yafei & Tu, Guigang & Ma, Yingrui & Liu, Kunyan & Chen, Chen, 2024. "Study on the heat recovery behavior of horizontal well systems in the Qiabuqia geothermal area of the Gonghe Basin, China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    3. Ma, Yuanyuan & Li, Shibin & Zhang, Ligang & Liu, Songze & Liu, Zhaoyi & Li, Hao & Shi, Erxiu & Zhang, Haijun, 2020. "Numerical simulation study on the heat extraction performance of multi-well injection enhanced geothermal system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 782-795.
    4. Hou, Xinglan & Zhong, Xiuping & Nie, Shuaishuai & Wang, Yafei & Tu, Guigang & Ma, Yingrui & Liu, Kunyan & Chen, Chen, 2023. "Numerical simulation study of intermittent heat extraction from hot dry rock using horizontal well based on thermal compensation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    5. Ma, Yuanyuan & Li, Shibin & Zhang, Ligang & Liu, Songze & Liu, Zhaoyi & Li, Hao & Shi, Erxiu, 2020. "Study on the effect of well layout schemes and fracture parameters on the heat extraction performance of enhanced geothermal system in fractured reservoir," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    6. Xue, Zhenqian & Wei, Zichao & Ma, Haoming & Sun, Zhe & Lu, Chengang & Chen, Zhangxin, 2025. "Exploring the role of fracture networks in enhanced geothermal systems: Insights from integrated thermal-hydraulic-mechanical-chemical and wellbore dynamics simulations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    7. Ma, Yuanyuan & Li, Shibin & Zhang, Ligang & Liu, Songze & Liu, Zhaoyi & Li, Hao & Shi, Erxiu & Liu, Xuemei & Liu, Hongliang, 2020. "Analysis on the heat extraction performance of multi-well injection enhanced geothermal system based on leaf-like bifurcated fracture networks," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    8. Liu, Jun & Zhao, Peng & Peng, Jiao & Xian, Hongyu, 2024. "Insight into the investigation of heat extraction performance affected by natural fractures in enhanced geothermal system (EGS) with THM multiphysical field model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    9. Harshini, R.D.G.F. & Chaudhuri, A. & Ranjith, P.G, 2024. "Harnessing the heat below: Efficacy of closed-loop systems in the cooper basin, Australia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    10. Xiangcheng Que & Shu Zhu & Bei Han, 2025. "Data-Driven Visualization of the Dynamics of Geothermal Energy and Hot Dry Rock Research," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-24, May.
    11. Guo, Tiankui & Zhang, Yuelong & He, Jiayuan & Gong, Facheng & Chen, Ming & Liu, Xiaoqiang, 2021. "Research on geothermal development model of abandoned high temperature oil reservoir in North China oilfield," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 1-12.
    12. Zhou, Luming & Zhu, Zhende & Xie, Xinghua & Hu, Yunjin, 2022. "Coupled thermal–hydraulic–mechanical model for an enhanced geothermal system and numerical analysis of its heat mining performance," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 1440-1458.
    13. Song, Guofeng & Song, Xianzhi & Ji, Jiayan & Wu, Xiaoguang & Li, Gensheng & Xu, Fuqiang & Shi, Yu & Wang, Gaosheng, 2022. "Evolution of fracture aperture and thermal productivity influenced by chemical reaction in enhanced geothermal system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 126-142.
    14. Zhang, Jie & Xie, Jingxuan, 2020. "Effect of reservoir’s permeability and porosity on the performance of cellular development model for enhanced geothermal system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 824-838.
    15. Zheng, Jun & Li, Peng & Dou, Bin & Fan, Tao & Tian, Hong & Lai, Xiaotian, 2022. "Impact research of well layout schemes and fracture parameters on heat production performance of enhanced geothermal system considering water cooling effect," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    16. Kurnia, Jundika C. & Putra, Zulfan A. & Muraza, Oki & Ghoreishi-Madiseh, Seyed Ali & Sasmito, Agus P., 2021. "Numerical evaluation, process design and techno-economic analysis of geothermal energy extraction from abandoned oil wells in Malaysia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 868-879.
    17. Zhao, Peng & Liu, Jun & Elsworth, Derek, 2023. "Numerical study on a multifracture enhanced geothermal system considering matrix permeability enhancement induced by thermal unloading," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 33-44.
    18. Xue, Yi & Liu, Shuai & Chai, Junrui & Liu, Jia & Ranjith, P.G. & Cai, Chengzheng & Gao, Feng & Bai, Xue, 2023. "Effect of water-cooling shock on fracture initiation and morphology of high-temperature granite: Application of hydraulic fracturing to enhanced geothermal systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).
    19. Soltani, M. & Moradi Kashkooli, Farshad & Souri, Mohammad & Rafiei, Behnam & Jabarifar, Mohammad & Gharali, Kobra & Nathwani, Jatin S., 2021. "Environmental, economic, and social impacts of geothermal energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    20. Wang, Guoying & Ma, Hongwei & Liu, Shaowei & Yang, Dong & Xu, Xiaokai & Fu, Mengxiong & Jia, Housheng, 2022. "Thermal power extraction from a deep, closed-loop, multi-level, multi-branch, U-shaped borehole heat exchanger geothermal system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 894-906.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:319:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225007005. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.