Silicone rubber castings for aperture measurement of rock fractures

Kostakis, K.; Harrison, John P.; Heath, Steve

doi:10.1016/s1365-1609(03)00041-8

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The epoxy cast is in turn used as a template to produce a second silicon rubber molding of a perfectly matching surface (dimensional deformations during polymerization are much smaller for the silicon than for the epoxy). This method is in common use, and typical reproduction problems are negligible in the present type of application [ Hakami and Barton , 1990; Yeo et al , 1998; Auradou et al , 2001; Isakov et al , 2001; Kostakis et al , 2003]. The complementary epoxy and rubber surfaces are the walls of the model fracture used in the present work.…”

Section: Experimental Setup and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Permeability anisotropy induced by the shear displacement of rough fracture walls

Auradou

Drazer

Hulin

et al. 2005

Water Resources Research

107

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[1] The permeability anisotropy that results from a shear displacementũ between the complementary self-affine walls of a rough fracture is investigated. Experiments in which a dyed fluid radially injected into a transparent fracture displaces a transparent one are presented. A clear anisotropy is observed in the presence of shear displacements and allows us to estimate the ratio of the permeabilities for flows parallel and perpendicular tõ u. A simple model which accounts for the development of channels perpendicular toũ qualitatively explains these results and predicts a permeability decreasing (increasing) linearly with the variance of the aperture field for flow parallel (perpendicular) to the shear displacement. These predictions are then compared to the results of numerical simulations performed using a lattice Boltzmann technique and to the anisotropies measured in displacement experiments.Citation: Auradou, H., G. Drazer, J. P. Hulin, and J. Koplik (2005), Permeability anisotropy induced by the shear displacement of rough fracture walls, Water Resour. Res., 41, W09423,

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Section: Experimental Setup and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Permeability anisotropy induced by the shear displacement of rough fracture walls

Auradou

Drazer

Hulin

et al. 2005

Water Resources Research

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Fluid flows through numerically generated aperture distributions have therefore been studied extensively and channeling flows have been observed [Unger and Mase, 1993;Yang et al, 1993;Pyrak-Nolte and Morris, 2000;Lespinasse and Sausse, 2000;Sausse, 2002;Koyama et al, 2006;Matsuki et al, 2006]. On the other hand, casting techniques [Hakami and Larsson, 1996;Kostakis et al, 2003;Konzuk and Kueper, 2004;Yasuhara et al, 2006], X-ray CT techniques [Bertels et al, 2001;Polak et al, 2004], and the coupled casting X-ray CT technique [Pyrak-Nolte et al, 1997;Montemagno and Pyrak-Nolte, 1999] have been used to characterize the aperture distributions of rock fractures experimentally. This failure to incorporate experimental observations into numerical techniques means that numerical observations, such as observations of channeling flow, can only rarely be applied to rock fractures under actual geological conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This failure to incorporate experimental observations into numerical techniques means that numerical observations, such as observations of channeling flow, can only rarely be applied to rock fractures under actual geological conditions. On the other hand, casting techniques [Hakami and Larsson, 1996;Kostakis et al, 2003;Konzuk and Kueper, 2004;Yasuhara et al, 2006], X-ray CT techniques [Bertels et al, 2001;Polak et al, 2004], and the coupled casting X-ray CT technique [Pyrak-Nolte et al, 1997;Montemagno and Pyrak-Nolte, 1999] have been used to characterize the aperture distributions of rock fractures experimentally. However, applying these techniques to the determination of the aperture distributions under a varying confining pressure or a wide range confining pressures is technically difficult [Gertsch, 1995;Fredrich et al, 1995;Montoto et al, 1995].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity of channeling flow in heterogeneous aperture distribution inferred from integrated experimental‐numerical analysis on flow through shear fracture in granite

2009

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Shear (Mode II) fractures with shear displacements of 1 and 5 mm were generated by direct shear on granite under normal stresses of 1, 20, and 60 MPa. Fracture surface mapping showed that the surface roughnesses of the shear fractures decreased with increasing shear displacement and normal stress and were smaller than those of tensile fractures reported in our previous study. Fluid flow experiments on the shear fractures provided fracture permeabilities at a wide range of confining pressures of 10–100 MPa. Nonmonotonic permeability was usually observed to decrease with increasing confining pressure. However, the permeability changes were different between the shear fractures generated at the normal stress of ≤20 and 60 MPa. In addition, obvious permeability changes with shear displacement were observed for 60 MPa, whereas no significant difference was observed for ≤20 MPa. Comparing the shear fractures with the tensile fractures having shear displacements revealed clear differences, even for equivalent shear displacements. Numerical models that were constructed using the data of the fracture surface mapping by matching their permeabilities with the experimentally evaluated fracture permeabilities revealed the development of preferential flow paths, i.e., channeling flows, for the shear fractures, providing a diversity of channeling flow in heterogeneous aperture distributions of rock fractures in the Earth's crust.

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“…Casting techniques, for example, have been used to characterize the aperture structures of rock fractures using casting agents (e.g., Wood's metal) [ Hakami and Larsson , 1996; Kostakis et al , 2003; Konzuk and Kueper , 2004; Yasuhara et al , 2006]. Since it is not necessary to separate the two fracture surfaces, these techniques can be used to produce undisturbed aperture structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determination of aperture structure and fluid flow in a rock fracture by high‐resolution numerical modeling on the basis of a flow‐through experiment under confining pressure

Watanabe

Hirano

Tsuchiya

2008

Water Resources Research

153

142

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[1] A numerical model incorporating experimentally determined fracture surface geometries and fracture permeability is proposed for characterizing aperture structures and fluid flow through rock fractures under confining pressures. The model was applied to artificially created granite tensile fractures with varying shear displacements (0-10 mm) and confining pressures (10-100 MPa). The findings of the study were consistent with those obtained previously, which characterized experimentally determined contact areas and changes in shear stress during the shear process. While the confining pressures considered herein are higher than those of previous studies, experimentally obtained fracture permeability is important for understanding subsurface flow, specifically the fluid flow characteristics in aperture structures under different confining pressures. Development of preferential flow paths is observed in all aperture structures, suggesting that the concept of channeling flow is applicable even under high confining pressures, as well as the existence of 3-D preferential flow paths within the subsurface fracture network.

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Silicone rubber castings for aperture measurement of rock fractures

Cited by 6 publications

References 8 publications

Permeability anisotropy induced by the shear displacement of rough fracture walls

Permeability anisotropy induced by the shear displacement of rough fracture walls

Diversity of channeling flow in heterogeneous aperture distribution inferred from integrated experimental‐numerical analysis on flow through shear fracture in granite

Determination of aperture structure and fluid flow in a rock fracture by high‐resolution numerical modeling on the basis of a flow‐through experiment under confining pressure

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