Geohydrological environmental effects of geothermal power production, Phase IIA. Final report

Abstract

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A history of numerical modelling of the Wairakei geothermal field

“…At the same time as the development of the lumped-parameter models of Wairakei, geothermal reservoir simulation was evolving (Pritchett et al, 1976;Coats, 1977;Faust and Mercer, 1979a;Pruess and Schroeder, 1979), culminating with the Code Comparison Study in 1980 (Stanford Geothermal Program, 1980;Molloy and Sorey, 1981).…”

“…Faust, 1975, 1979a;Lasseter et al, 1976;Brownell et al, 1977;Toronyi and Farouq Ali, 1977;Faust and Mercer, 1979a,b;Garg and Pritchett, 1977;Coats, 1977;Pruess and Schroeder, 1979). Because of the availability of data, several authors used Wairakei as a test case for their simulators Pritchett et al, 1976Pritchett et al, , 1978Pritchett et al, , 1980Mercer and Faust, 1979b). Some of these studies have been reviewed by O'Sullivan (1985) and are further discussed in Section 3.…”

Areas of ground subsidence due to geofluid withdrawal

“…Kunze, 1977 Wairakei has one of the b e s t o v e r a l l subsidence data bases. Modeling s t u d i e s already accomplished (Pritchett, 1976, Mercer, 1975 have brought much of the available data base t o the U.S., and have added t o our knowledge of t h e Wairakei system.…”

“…, Horizonal permeability, from Elder, 19751966Hendrickson, 1976 From core test a t e f f e c t i v e stress = 50 bars (confining pressure = 150 bars)…”

“…Mercer, e t al., Vertical permeability 19 75 Hendrickson, 1976 From code test a t e f f e c t i v e stress = 6.9 bars (confining pressure = 6.9 bars) from gravity c h g e s suggest t h a t 5 t o 10 percent of the w a t e r is magmatic (Hunt, 1970).…”