Grain-Scale Failure in Thermal Spallation Drilling
Geothermal power promises clean, renewable, reliable and potentially widely-available energy, but is limited by high initial capital costs. New drilling technologies are required to make geothermal power financially competitive with other energy sources. One potential solution is offered by Thermal Spallation Drilling (TSD) - a novel drilling technique in which small particles (spalls) are released from the rock surface by rapid heating. In this paper, we discuss results from a new modeling effort investigating thermal spallation drilling. In particular, we describe an explicit model that simulates the grain-scale mechanics of thermal spallation and use this model to examine existing theories concerning spalling mechanisms. We will report how borehole conditions influence spall production, and discuss implications for macro-scale models of drilling systems.
Citation Formats
TY - DATA
AB - Geothermal power promises clean, renewable, reliable and potentially widely-available energy, but is limited by high initial capital costs. New drilling technologies are required to make geothermal power financially competitive with other energy sources. One potential solution is offered by Thermal Spallation Drilling (TSD) - a novel drilling technique in which small particles (spalls) are released from the rock surface by rapid heating. In this paper, we discuss results from a new modeling effort investigating thermal spallation drilling. In particular, we describe an explicit model that simulates the grain-scale mechanics of thermal spallation and use this model to examine existing theories concerning spalling mechanisms. We will report how borehole conditions influence spall production, and discuss implications for macro-scale models of drilling systems.
AU - Walsh, Stuart D.C.
A2 - Lomov, Ilya
A3 - Roberts, Jeffery J.
DB - Geothermal Data Repository
DP - Open EI | National Renewable Energy Laboratory
DO -
KW - geothermal
KW - thermal spallation drilling
KW - thermomechanical processes
KW - modeling
KW - grain-scale mechanics
LA - English
DA - 2012/01/01
PY - 2012
PB - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
T1 - Grain-Scale Failure in Thermal Spallation Drilling
UR - https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/175
ER -
Walsh, Stuart D.C., et al. Grain-Scale Failure in Thermal Spallation Drilling. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 1 January, 2012, Geothermal Data Repository. https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/175.
Walsh, S., Lomov, I., & Roberts, J. (2012). Grain-Scale Failure in Thermal Spallation Drilling. [Data set]. Geothermal Data Repository. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/175
Walsh, Stuart D.C., Ilya Lomov, and Jeffery J. Roberts. Grain-Scale Failure in Thermal Spallation Drilling. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, January, 1, 2012. Distributed by Geothermal Data Repository. https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/175
@misc{GDR_Dataset_175,
title = {Grain-Scale Failure in Thermal Spallation Drilling},
author = {Walsh, Stuart D.C. and Lomov, Ilya and Roberts, Jeffery J.},
abstractNote = {Geothermal power promises clean, renewable, reliable and potentially widely-available energy, but is limited by high initial capital costs. New drilling technologies are required to make geothermal power financially competitive with other energy sources. One potential solution is offered by Thermal Spallation Drilling (TSD) - a novel drilling technique in which small particles (spalls) are released from the rock surface by rapid heating. In this paper, we discuss results from a new modeling effort investigating thermal spallation drilling. In particular, we describe an explicit model that simulates the grain-scale mechanics of thermal spallation and use this model to examine existing theories concerning spalling mechanisms. We will report how borehole conditions influence spall production, and discuss implications for macro-scale models of drilling systems.},
url = {https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/175},
year = {2012},
howpublished = {Geothermal Data Repository, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/175},
note = {Accessed: 2025-04-25}
}
Details
Data from Jan 1, 2012
Last updated May 23, 2017
Submitted Feb 13, 2013
Organization
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Contact
Stuart D.C. Walsh
Authors
Keywords
geothermal, thermal spallation drilling, thermomechanical processes, modeling, grain-scale mechanicsDOE Project Details
Project Name Geomechanical Modeling for Thermal Spallation Drilling
Project Lead Greg Stillman
Project Number LLNL FY12 AOP2
