The investigation of thermal aquifers and determination of important rock parameters is one of the main topics in the research area of the Geothermal Energy Group. Therefore, the laboratory of the geothermal energy group carries out measurements on essential geophysical parameters with the following tools:

• Thermal Conductivity Analyzer (C-therm TCi)

  • thermal conductivity, heat capacity and other thermal properties

• Helium Pycnometer

  • density and porosity measurements 

• Portable handheld air permeameter NER’s Tiny perm 3 

  • permeability measurements 

• Thermo Triaxial Cell

  • the thermo-hydro-mechanical triaxial cell (Figure 1) enables the simulation of thermal and mechanical properties as well as the hydraulic and chemical changes of geological materials under different deep geothermal reservoir‚ in situ‘ conditions (high pressure and temperature, variable fluids). With these measurements the suitability of a particular geological formation for geothermal energy production can be determined and existing geothermal systems can be optimized