The Behavior of Fluid Flow and Solute Transport in 3D Crossed Rock Fractures

作者：Xuefeng Han, Kangsheng Xue, Shaojie Zhang · 发表于：Processes · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.3390/pr13010067 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Groundwater flow and contamination studies、Hydraulic Fracturing and Reservoir Analysis、Seismic Imaging and Inversion Techniques

Understanding the behavior of fluid flow and solute transport in fractured rock is of great significance to geoscience and engineering. The discrete fracture network is the predominate channel for fluid flow through fractured rock as the permeability of fracture is several magnitudes higher than that of the rock matrix. As the basic components of the fracture network, investigating the fluid flow in crossed fractures is the prerequisite of understanding the fluid flow in fractured rock. First, a program based on the successive random addition algorithm was developed to generate rough fracture surfaces. Next, a series of fracture models considering shear effects and different surface roughness were constructed. Finally, fluid dynamic analyses were performed to understand the role of flowrate and surface roughness in the evolution of flow field, concentration field, solute breakthrough, and solute mixing inside the crossed fractures. Results indicated that the channeling flow at the fracture intersection became more pronounced with the increasing Péclet number (Pe) and Joint Roughness Coefficient (JRC), the evolution of the concentration field was influenced by Pe and the distribution of the concentration field was influenced by JRC. For Pe < 10, the solute transport process was dominated by molecular diffusion. For 100 > Pe > 10, the solute transport process was in the complete mixing mode. In addition, for Pe > 100, the solute transport process was in the streamli...