Design of Oil Shale In-Situ Extraction Heater Structure and Numerical Simulation of the Fracturing Process

Downhole continuous spiral folded plate heaters that generate high temperature air to heat oil shale are an efficient method of in-situ oil shale extraction. In this paper, the physical model of downhole continuous spiral folded plate heater and the physical model of oil shale heating are established respectively, and Fluent software is used to numerically simulate the above physical model. The heat transfer characteristics, outlet temperature, and comprehensive performance of this heater under different mass flow rates and heating powers are studied, and the heater performance is analyzed by the above indexes. The heating parameters were used to heat the physical model of oil shale. The optimal working parameters were determined by heating time and cost, and the working parameters were used to heat the other four physical models of oil shale. The oil production rate, heating rate, and accumulated power consumption of oil shale were analyzed, and the results were analyzed. The results show that the continuous type spiral folded plate heater has the best performance with the operating parameters of 10 kW power and 0.01624 kg/s mass flow rate, and the model IV has the shortest heating time, the fastest oil yield, and the lowest cumulative power consumption.