Exercise 2

Ok, time to put our new knowledge to work! Let’s explore a more realistic case and investigate how a more permeable fault zone can deviate hydrothermal upflow. You can find background on such a setup in [Andersen et al., 2015].

Steps

  • check all settings and modify model run time so that the plume arrives at the surface

  • modify (or create) a setFieldsDict to create the permeability structure.

  • use a function called rotatedBoxToCell to set the permeability structure

  • run the case and explore how the results change for different fault widths and permeability contrasts.

Step 1

Copy the $HOME/hydrothermalfoam-master/cookbooks/2d/Regular2DBox/ into your working directory.

cd $HOME/HydrothermalFoam_runs
cp -r /home/openfoam/hydrothermalfoam-master/cookbooks/2d/Regular2DBox/ ./Fault_zone_2D

Step 2

Now modify the case and setup the permeability structure. It should look like this:

../../_images/perm_fault.png

Fig. 32 Permeability structure of our detachment fault example cause.

We can use the rotatedBoxToCell function in the setFieldsDict for this. Check the openfoam documentation !

Tip

It’s all about rotating the coordinate system to figure out the origin and i,j,k vectors for rotatedBoxToCell!

../../_images/coord_sys.png 
regions
(
    rotatedBoxToCell
    {
        origin   ( ? ? ?);
        i        ( ? ? ?);
        j        ( ? ?  ?);
        k        ( ? ?  ?);

        fieldValues
        (
            volScalarFieldValue permeability 1e-13
        );
    }
);

Step 3

Explore the results in paraview! And investigate how the results change for different fault widths and permeability contrasts.

../../_images/flow_fault.png

Fig. 33 Hydrothermal flow along a preferential pathway.

Tip

  • Run many simulations for different fault widths and permeabilities

  • Explore how vent temperature changes

  • …and when the plume is captured by the fault!