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Research in Numerical Simulation

Numerical Flow Analysis

Geothermal Scanning for Groundwater Flow

Geothermal methods to classify the subsurface of Germany with respect to the ability for nuclear waste deposits.

Joint research project with RWTH Aachen University and LIAG Hannover funded by the German Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) and the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS)


The subsurface temperature increases with depth with an average gradient of 30°C per kilometre. Locally, strong deviations from this average value can occur, resulting from following factors:


Ground water flow: Water has a high heat capacity. Even small ground water flows (~ mm/a) can transport great quantities of stored heat. Groundwater flow therefore might result in a strong deformation of the temperature field. The strongest effects are observed in the surrounding of thermal springs or gushing springs, which transport hot water to the earth's surface.


Paleoclimate: During history of earth the average surface temperature strongly changed. These variations produce temperature signals which are slowly transported with time from earth's surface to greater depth. The temperature increase after the end of the last ice age is still measurable in boreholes of 1-2 km depth. Later events, such as the little temperature drop at about the 15th century or the warming within the last century are detectable in boreholes of a few 100 m depth.


Subsurface heterogeneity: The thermal properties of rocks strongly change depending on the mineralogical composition and the rock porosity. Thus the heat flow, having normally a vertical direction, is refracted at bed boundaries. To separate of effects of ground water flow and paleoclimate from the temperature field needs a good knowledge of the thermal properties of the formations as well as of their geometry.


By planning a conventional or a nuclear waste deposit, one of the main targets is to protect the environment from pollution. Pollutants can easily be transported be streaming groundwater. Therefore, main restrictions for nuclear waste deposits are areas with ground water flow. The objective of this study was to investigate temperature profiles from boreholes in Germany and to the separate all factors of subsurface heterogeneities and paleoclimate from the temperature logs in order to detect and quantify of groundwater flow on a regional scale.




Instituts für Höchstleistungsrechnen, RWTH Aachen 

GGA-Instituts Hannover

Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit (BMU)  

Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (BfS)



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