THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

NUMERICAL SIMULATION AND PARAMETER ANALYSIS OF LIQUID NITROGEN COOLING FOR HIGH TEMPERATURE GRANITES

ABSTRACT
Liquid nitrogen stimulation has important application value in the fields of deep geothermal development, and unconventional oil and gas reservoir exploitation. It is difficult to experimentally observe the evolution of temperature and cryogenic-induced stress inside the rock during the cooling process. Numerical simulation complements the experimental difficulties. In this study, the liquid nitrogen cooling process of high temperature granite under different parameters is studied by numerical simulation. The results show that a higher heat transfer coefficient and model initial temperature enhance the heat transfer efficiency of the cooling process, thus resulting in more severe cryogenic-induced stresses. Young's modulus and expansion coefficient are independent of the temperature distribution during the cooling process. Higher Young's modulus amplifies stress under identical thermal contraction constraints. Higher expansion coefficients enhance the thermal strains and thermal strain incompatibility, thus elevating the cryogenic-induced stresses. This study will provide the theoretical basis for the application of liquid nitrogen in reservoir stimulation.
KEYWORDS
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2024-07-27
PAPER REVISED: 2024-10-21
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2024-11-26
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2025-06-01
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI2502463Z
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2025, VOLUME 29, ISSUE Issue 2, PAGES [1463 - 1470]
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2025 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence