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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 21, NO. 20, PAGES 2199–2202, 1994

Fluid Flow and Heat Transport Near the Critical Point of H₂O

S. E. Ingebritsen

U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California

D. O. Hayba

U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia

Abstract

Near-critical extrema in the properties of water may influence flow patterns in hydrothermal systems, but singularities in equations of state for H₂O at its critical point have inhibited quantitative modeling. Posing governing equations in terms of pressure (P) and enthalpy (H) avoids these singularities and facilitates computation. Numerical simulations with a P-H based model show little near-critical enhancement in heat transfer for systems in which flow is driven by fixed pressure drops. However, in density-driven systems, near-critical variations in fluid properties can enhance convective heat transfer by a factor of 10² or more ("superconvection") if permeability is sufficiently high. Near-critical two-phase processes ("heat pipes") are at least equally effective at dissipating thermal energy. The restriction to high-permeability environments within a fairly narrow P-H window suggests that superconvection may be quite rare in natural systems

Received 16 June 1994; accepted 21 July 1994.

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Citation: Ingebritsen, S. E., and D. O. Hayba (1994), Fluid Flow and Heat Transport Near the Critical Point of H₂O, Geophys. Res. Lett., 21(20), 2199–2202.

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. Published in 1994 by the American Geophysical Union.