Convection fluid dynamics in a model of a fault zone in the earth's crust

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Abstract
Faulted regions associated with geothermal areas are assumed to be composed of rock which has been heavily fractured within the fault zone by continuous tectonic activity. The fractured zone is modelled as a vertical, slender, two-dimensional channel of saturated porous material with impermeable walls on which the temperature increases linearly with depth. The development of an isothermal slug flow entering the fault at a large depth is examined. An entry solution and the subsequent approach to the fully developed configuration are obtained for large Rayleigh number flow. The former is characterized by growing thermal boundary layers adjacent to the walls and a slightly accelerated isothermal core flow. Further downstream the development is described by a parabolic system. It is shown that a class of fully developed solutions is not spatially stable.