A Calculation Method of Apparent Permeabilty and Its Application to a Geothermal Reservoir Model

This paper describes a calculation method of apparent permeability by using the Monte Carlo Method and its application to a geothermal reservoir. The theoretical results are as follows; (1) The apparent permeability depends on the standard deviation of permeability distribution and not on the difference of distribution functions. (2) The arithmetical average can be used as the representative value, when the standard deviation is less than 0.2. (3) The arithmetical average cannot be used as the representative value of permeability, when the standard deviation is larger than 0.2. The apparent permeablity decreases and approaches zero, as the standard deviation increases. In this case, it is necessary that the arithmetical average must be corrected as the representative value using the standard deviation. (4) When the Prandtl number is larger than 10, the arithmetical average can be used as the representative value of permeability. But when it is less than 10, the arithmetical average must be corrected as the representative value using the standard deviation.