Effect of Poroelastic Coupling and Fracture Dynamics on Solute Transport and Geomechanical Stability

Tran, Minh; Jha, Birendra

doi:10.1029/2021wr029584

Cited by 28 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Realistic modelling relies not only on accurate data concerning material parameters, but also on appropriate spatial distribution of such parameters (Houben et al, 2018;Irvine et al, 2015;Kalbus et al, 2009). Typically, distributed material parameters are generated by stochastic random fields based on an a priori statistical distribution (Vanmarcke et al, 1986). Although random fields have proven to be useful, they do not capture the usual continuity of material parameters (Strebelle, 2002).…”

Section: Herten Aquifer Data Set Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RHEA v1.0: Enabling fully coupled simulations with hydro-geomechanical heterogeneity

Bastias¹,

Rau

Blum

2021

Geosci. Model Dev.

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Abstract. Realistic modelling of tightly coupled hydro-geomechanical processes is relevant for the assessment of many hydrological and geotechnical applications. Such processes occur in geologic formations and are influenced by natural heterogeneity. Current numerical libraries offer capabilities and physics couplings that have proven to be valuable in many geotechnical fields like gas storage, rock fracturing and Earth resources extraction. However, implementation and verification of the full heterogeneity of subsurface properties using high-resolution field data in coupled simulations has not been done before. We develop, verify and document RHEA (Real HEterogeneity App), an open-source, fully coupled, finite-element application capable of including element-resolution hydro-geomechanical properties in coupled simulations. To extend current modelling capabilities of the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE), we added new code that handles spatially distributed data of all hydro-geomechanical properties. We further propose a simple yet powerful workflow to facilitate the incorporation of such data to MOOSE. We then verify RHEA with analytical solutions in one and two dimensions and propose a benchmark semi-analytical problem to verify heterogeneous systems with sharp gradients. Finally, we demonstrate RHEA's capabilities with a comprehensive example including realistic properties. With this we demonstrate that RHEA is a verified open-source application able to include complex geology to perform scalable, fully coupled, hydro-geomechanical simulations. Our work is a valuable tool to assess challenging real-world hydro-geomechanical systems that may include different levels of complexity like heterogeneous geology and sharp gradients produced by contrasting subsurface properties.

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Section: Herten Aquifer Data Set Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RHEA v1.0: Enabling fully coupled simulations with hydro-geomechanical heterogeneity

Bastias¹,

Rau

Blum

2021

Geosci. Model Dev.

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“…In the case of injected solute–ambient fluid systems, this is equivalent to the mixture viscosity's dependence on the injected solute concentration. As a result, the solute plume's mobility and, consequently, mixing are significantly affected by the viscosity contrast (Jha, Cueto-Felgueroso & Juanes 2011 a ; Nijjer, Hewitt & Neufeld 2018; Tran & Jha 2020, 2021; Bonazzi et al. 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of initial plume shape on miscible porous media flows under density and viscosity contrasts

Bonazzi,

Jha,

de Barros

2023

J. Fluid Mech.

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The effect of the initial condition upon the transport dynamics of miscible flowing fluids in a porous medium is investigated under viscosity and density contrasts. Such flows have attracted significant attention due to their importance in many fields of science and engineering, such as $\mathrm {CO}_2$ sequestration and aquifer remediation. Using high-resolution two-dimensional numerical simulations, we illustrate the impact of viscosity and density contrasts on the temporal evolution of the spreading and mixing quantities. We show that such impact depends on the initial shape of the source distribution where the solute is injected and on the intensity of the horizontal background flux. We find that rates of mixing are dependent on whether the solute is more or less viscous than the ambient fluid, a result usually not taken into consideration in studies on gravity fingering. At higher background flux, the effects due to horizontal viscous fingering dominate over gravitational fingering. Our computational analysis also suggests a non-trivial relationship between mixing and the length of the plume's interface under fingering instabilities. Finally, we show how a stratified permeability field can interact with these sources of instabilities and affect the transport behaviour of the plume.

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“…Most studies have concluded that in‐fracture aperture variability, whether natural or caused by external stress, can have significant effects on fluid flow and transport in a single fracture (Cardenas et al., 2007; Dang et al., 2019; de Dreuzy et al., 2012; Frampton et al., 2019; Hanna & Rajaram, 1998; Hyman et al., 2021; Kang et al., 2016; Makedonska et al., 2016; Pandey et al., 2015; M. Wang et al., 2016; Zhou et al., 2018). Within the context of network flow, there is substantially less research than at the single fracture scale (Garipov et al., 2016; Hyman et al., 2016, 2019b, 2020; Kang et al., 2019, 2020; Lei et al., 2017; Maillot et al., 2016; McClure et al., 2016; Sweeney & Hyman, 2020; Tran & Jha, 2021). Nonetheless, a common finding amongst these studies is that when the aperture distribution widens, for example, due to different fractures opening and closing from stress, flow channelization increases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous research has studied the link between fracture-to-fracture aperture heterogeneity from different perspectives than what we have done here and could be re-interpreted in light of our results. For one aspect, it has been published that under anisotropic mechanical stress fields, aperture distributions may widen and become more variable(Garipov et al, 2016;Kang et al, 2019;Lei et al, 2017;McClure et al, 2016;Sweeney & Hyman, 2020;Tran & Jha, 2021). If the network is short circuited relative its original topology via connected shear fractures, one can expect early arrival times of solutes relative to the original network.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wang et al, 2016;Zhou et al, 2018). Within the context of network flow, there is substantially less research than at the single fracture scale (Garipov et al, 2016;Hyman et al, 2016Hyman et al, , 2019bHyman et al, , 2020Kang et al, 2019Kang et al, , 2020Lei et al, 2017;Maillot et al, 2016;McClure et al, 2016;Sweeney & Hyman, 2020;Tran & Jha, 2021). Nonetheless, a common finding amongst these studies is that when the aperture distribution widens, for example, due to different fractures opening and closing from stress, flow channelization increases.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterizing the Impacts of Multi‐Scale Heterogeneity on Solute Transport in Fracture Networks

Sweeney,

Hyman,

O’Malley

et al. 2023

Geophysical Research Letters

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We model flow and transport in fracture networks with varying degrees of fracture‐to‐fracture aperture heterogeneity and network intensity to show how changes in these properties can cause the emergence of anomalous flow and transport behavior. If fracture‐to‐fracture aperture heterogeneity is increased in sparse networks, velocity fluctuations inhibit high flow rates and solute transport can be delayed. Surprisingly, transport can be slowed even in cases where hydraulic aperture is monotonically increased. As the intensity of the networks is increased, more connected pathways allow for particles to bypass these effects. There exists transition behavior where with relatively few connected pathways in a network, first arrival times of particles are not heavily affected by fracture‐to‐fracture aperture heterogeneity, but the scaling behavior of the tails is strongly influenced. These results reinforce the importance of considering multi‐scale effects in fractured systems and can inform flow and transport processes in both natural and engineered fractured systems.

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Effect of Poroelastic Coupling and Fracture Dynamics on Solute Transport and Geomechanical Stability

Abstract: In many applications, a key objective of the numerical model built to simulate the processes is to quantify the mixing between the injected and resident fluids and quantify the extent of the associated mixing zone (

Cited by 28 publications

References 74 publications

RHEA v1.0: Enabling fully coupled simulations with hydro-geomechanical heterogeneity

RHEA v1.0: Enabling fully coupled simulations with hydro-geomechanical heterogeneity

Influence of initial plume shape on miscible porous media flows under density and viscosity contrasts

Characterizing the Impacts of Multi‐Scale Heterogeneity on Solute Transport in Fracture Networks

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