Numerical investigation of convective heat transfer in liquid hydrocarbons stored in underground reservoirs

In planning for the underground storing of liquid hydrocarbons and calculating the technological parameters of underground reservoirs formed by leeching from a rock salt massif, it is necessary to understand the hydrodynamic and heat transfer processes produced by natural convection. The paper is devoted to numerical study of the initial stage of convective heat transfer in a vertical cylindrical cavity completely filled with a liquid hydrocarbon. It is assumed that at the initial time the temperature of the liquid, which is at rest, is homogeneous, Convective flow develops in part due to the initial temperature difference between the liquid and the massif and partly due to the geothermal temperature gradient in the latter. The problem is regarded as coupled, the convective process in the liquid being determined simultaneously with the solution of the heat-conduction problem in the surrounding rock. The Grashof numbers characterizing the intensity of the real process are very large: G lO¹²–lO¹⁵. A numerical solution was obtained for moderate Grashof numbers G lO⁷–lO¹¹. The asymptotic dependences for the integral characteristics of the unsteady process obtained in a series of calculations were extrapolated to the real values of the Grashof number.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 143–148, March–April, 1981.