EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENT THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY ON THE TEMPERATURE FIELD AT DEPTH: CASE STUDY OF KUUJJUAQ, CANADA

This work aims at assessing the influence of temperature-dependent thermal conductivity on the temperature distribution at depth. Thermal conductivity was evaluated at temperatures ranging from 20 to 160 ºC. The experimental results were implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics to simulate the temperature at depth. The data was implemented as analytical and interpolation functions. The results reveal that the analytical functions lead to a 11 % increase of the temperature at 5 km. In turn, COMSOL’s interpolation function shows an increase of about 9.5 %. This new evaluation predicts temperatures of 105 to 113 ºC at 5 km below Kuujjuaq (Canada).