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Introduction
The classic work by Rameyl on wellbore heat transmission derived the temperature distribution in a well used
for injecting hot fluid. Ramey later expanded on this to
give the rate of heat loss from the well to the formation. 2
However, by assuming that the fluid remains at its inflow
temperature, Ramey's analysis effectively gave the heat
loss at infinite fluid flow rate - in other words,
the maximum possible heat-loss rate. This paper reexamines this problem for finite fluid flow rate and determines the heat-loss rate as a function offluid properties
and fluid flow rate. Because this analysis is valuable
when considering geothermal wells, results will be presented for producing and injection wells. This paper
considers only single-phase fluids flowing in the well.
Satter3 suggested a method for estimating wellbore heat
loss when considering condensing steam flow and presented a sample procedure for a given set of reservoir
properties. His analysis also may be extended to production wells to obtain heat-flow estimates with two-phase
flow. For single-phase flow, the formulation permits
direct calculation of wellbore heat loss with various production and injection conditions.
Injection
Using Ramey's analysis and notation,1 consider a heat
balance in the radial direction on a section of a well with
height dz, losing heat at rate dq from the casing to the
formation. Then,
dq 271'krP (T T)
dz - k+r P!(t)
1- e ,
0149-2136/79/0001-7153$00.25
.............. ( )
=-
!(t)
In
A(t) -
r.
aH2]
27rr I Vk
5
q", - k + rp!(t) L(To-b)H - ~ ......... ( )
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116
To = 300F
q
qoo
1.37
2.68
3.92
5.11
6.23
7.30
To = 400F
q
qoo
1.33
2.54
3.63
4.61
5.48
6.24
1.98
3.89
5.75
7.54
9.27
10.95
1.93
3.70
5.32
6.81
8.16
9.39
To = 500F
q
qoo
To = 600F
q
qoo
2.52
5.86
7.02
9.01
10.85
12.54
2.58
5.11
7.57
9.93
12.31
14.59
3.11
6.01
8.71
11.21
13.54
15.68
3.19
6.32
9.40
12.41
15.35
18.24
+ aA -b)
(1 - e
H
-A
)]
'
................................ (6)
or al ternativel y ,
+ H2 _ H3
2A2
6A 3
'
then,
q =we (To-T 1 ).
Comparing q", [the total heat-loss rate for a well with
infinite flow rate (Eq. 5)] with q [the total heat loss for a
well with flow rate w (Eq. 6)] ,q is found to be a function
of both wand e, the specific heat of the fluid, whereas q '"
is independent of both the fluid that flows in the well and
the rate at which it flows.
For example, using the steam-injection system considered by Ramey,2 the actual wellbore heat-loss rate at an
injection time of 100 days for an injection rate of 10,000
Ib/hr (1.26 kg/s) is compared with the estimated value
(q",) in Table 1.
Production
With a well producing hot fluid, Eqs. 3,5, and 6 can be
used by substituting b = To. With a geothermal well
producing hot fl uid without tubing, the temperature in the
well as a function of height y above the producing depth
can be gi ven as
Tl = (To-ay)
= 1_
aA
q = 'TrakH 2 _ weaH3
6A 2
f(t)
+ ~ (-I)n weaHn
~
n!An-l .
............................... (11)
100
2'Trk
(MMBtu/d) 80
q=awe[H+A(e~H-1)J
........... (10)
Hoat
Laos
60
40
20
O~~-~---~---~---~
100
1000
10,000
100,000
FLOW RATE (lb/hrl
1,000.000
Fig. 1-Total well bore heat-loss rate vs well flowing rate for a well
producing hot water. Production time is30 days. The dotted line is
the maximum heat-loss rate for infinite flow.
117
References
1. Ramey, H. J., Jr.: "Wellbore Heat Transmission," J. Pet. Tech.
(April 1962)427-435; Trans., AIME, 225.
2. Ramey, H. J., Jr.: "How To Calculate Heat Transmission in Hot
Fluid Injection," Pet. Eng. (Nov. 1964) llO-l20.
3. Satter, A.: "Heat Losses During Flow of Steam Down a Wellbore,"
J. Pet. Tech. (July 1963) 845-851; Trans., AIME, 234.
Orignal manuscript received in Society of Petroleum Engineers office March 27,
1978. Paper (SPE 7153) accepted for publication July 14. 1978. Revised manuscript
received Sept. 5, 1978.
ll8
Roland N. Horne*
Stanford U.
Stanford, CA