Discussion on the Paper “Thermal Effects Promotes Non-Darcian Flow in Heated Rock Fractures by Jie Tan, Guan Rong, Changdog Li, Jia-Qing Zhou, and Huiming Tang 2023

The effect of in-situ reservoir conditions (high temperature and pressure) on the fracture characteristics (aperture, asperities) and behaviour of fluid through the fractures is a very niche study area for varied energy fields like (i) enhanced geothermal energy systems (ii) nuclear energy storage (iii) CO2 sequestration, (iv) petroleum engineering and (v) storage of liquified natural gas. Keeping this in view many researchers have conducted studies to understand the heat and mass transfer processes occurring in the fractures. Along the same lines Tan et al., 2023 published the paper Thermal Effects Promotes Non-Darcian Flow in Heated Rock Fractures to understand the effect of fluid flow through rock fractures at high temperatures. However, the data presented in the paper by Tan et al., Rock Mech Rock Eng 2023 related to (i) the fracture closure, (ii) the time required for the changes along the fracture, (iii) the thermal expansion effect, and (iv) changes to the phase of water while heating requires further explanation and will otherwise result in the dissemination of incomplete information if not taken care of. The same has been further elaborated in the discussion that follows.