Influence of fracture surface roughness on local flow pattern: visualization using a microfluidic field experiment

Guo, Pingye; Wang, Meng; Gao, Kai; He, Manchao; Wang, Yanwei

doi:10.1007/s10040-020-02210-1

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 51 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This indicates that nonlinear flow can occur in very rough‐walled fractures even at low Re . Numerical and experimental studies also showed that abrupt changes in aperture resulted in the formation of eddies linked with the reduction of hydraulic aperture, which was featured as the nonlinear flow (Briggs et al., 2017; Chaudhary et al., 2011; Guo, Wang, Gao, et al., 2020; Guo, Wang, He, et al., 2020; Qian et al., 2012, 2015; Wang et al., 2020; Zou et al., 2015). Several numerical and analytical studies showed that inertial effects were the main cause of the nonlinear flow regime in a rough‐walled rock fracture (Fourar et al., 2004; Panfilov & Fourar, 2006; Skjetne et al., 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flow Visualization of Transition From Linear to Nonlinear Flow Regimes in Rock Fractures

Kim

Yeo

2022

Water Resources Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study made the first experimental attempt to visualize the transition processes from linear to nonlinear flow regimes in rough‐walled rock fractures for a better understanding of the evolution of flow regimes in rock fractures. The experiments visualized the narrowing of the mainstream channel associated with eddies enlarged near the fracture wall with increasing applied flux. The measured fluid velocity field showed that these flow structures resulted in a significant increase in fluid velocity in the narrowed main flow channel and a relatively small velocity in the enlarged eddy zone. The order‐of‐magnitude analysis of local inertial and viscous forces, using measured fluid velocity vectors, showed that inertial forces overwhelmed viscous forces in the narrowed mainstream channel of rough‐walled segments, which led to the transition to nonlinear flow in rough‐walled fractures. The quantitative comparison between measured fluid velocity and the numerical simulations showed good agreement. This study demonstrates that the micro‐PIV technique can serve for phenomenon‐based experimental research on fluid flow and solute transport in rock fractures.

show abstract