News - Preparatory phase of the monitoring line completed

In the GeConnect research project, an analogue experiment of the novel technology flexible coupling should be conducted that mimics the real working conditions of a downhole installation. Compared to an actual borehole installation, the analogue experiment has the great advantage that the thermal and mechanical behavior of the construction can be monitoring under defined boundary conditions and in highest detail when it comes to temperature and pressure changes, deformations and acoustic emissions. As a preparation for the full-scale surface experiment of the flexible coupling, a number of laboratory experiments have been conducted to investigate the optimal monitoring solution to study the thermal and mechanical behavior of the structure. The technology of fiber-optic distributed sensing was selected to obtain in-situ information about the temperatures and strain inside of the experimental setup in real-time over the entire temperature range from ambient conditions to the maximal planned temperature of 300 °C. Scientists and engineers from GFZ Potsdam and ÍSOR have developed a workflow with the Icelandic manufacturing facility at VHE erf. to make such a sophisticated monitoring campaign possible. The preparatory laboratory experiments were an elemental building block to enable the installation of the fiber-optic measuring section in the large-scale field experiment. The experimental phase was concluded with the 30th of June 2019. In the next phase, the monitoring line is going to be implemented in the construction workflow of the flexible coupling surface experiment. The GeConnect research project and preliminary results were presented at the European Geothermal Congress 2019 in The Hague, The Netherlands: Gunnar Skúlason Kaldal, Ingólfur Thorbjornsson, Lárus Guðmundsson, Thomas Reinsch, Martin Lipus, Jens Wollenweber, Bogdan Orlic, Þór Gíslason, Ari Stefánsson, Bjarni Pálsson, Ólafur Sverrisson: Full-scale Surface Experiment of Cemented-in Casing Connections Designed for Thermal Stress Mitigation; European Geothermal Congress 2019, Den Haag, The Netherlands, 11-14 June 2019 LINK