Thermal energy storage in an unconfined aquifer: 1. Field Injection Experiment

A thermal injection and storage experiment was conducted to investigate the feasibility of storing thermal energy in shallow unconfined aquifers near the water table. Heated water was injected into a shallow aquifer and plume temperatures were monitored over a 141-day period by means of a dense array of bundle-type piezometers. The highly detailed data, which provide the three-dimensional temperature distribution within the aquifer, give good insight into the physical processes of aquifer thermal energy storage, and provide an excellent basis for the verification of simulation models. The experimental data also allow the physical processes of heat advection, dispersion, retardation, buoyancy and boundary heat loss to be quantified. In a companion paper, a three-dimensional density-dependent groundwater flow and thermal transport model is developed and validated using the results of the thermal injection experiment.

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