Project Overview

Fossil fuels drive emissions and climate change, underscoring the need for renewable energy. Geothermal energy systems, offers a sustainable solution by extracting heat from low-permeability rock formations, expanding its applicability. However, heat losses to rock formations and high frictional drag reduce efficiency. Targeted pipe inserts address these challenges by enhancing heat transfer and reducing drag through wall-flow entrainment and thermal boundary layer disruption. These innovations boost system performance and reduce costs for geothermal energy, supporting the transition to sustainable energy. Past work assessed the recovery of flow and turbulence properties in Fourier pipe designs, showing that lower Fourier modes (m=3) led to faster recovery, while higher modes (m=15) and combined modes (m=3+15) caused delayed downstream flow development. These insights provided evidence for reduction in frictional drag and heat losses. The subsequent current step involves optimizing insert length and thickness for maximum heat recovery and minimal drag for commercialization. Particularly, a systematic study will be conducted that involves variation in the length and thickness of the inserts. High fidelity and wall-resolved numerical simulations will evaluate their effects on turbulent fluid dynamics, heat recovery and drag. By identifying the optimized configuration, this study aims to enhance efficiency and lower operational costs for geothermal applications, petrochemical reactors/mixers, and pipelines.