Dispersion and Mixing in Three-Dimensional Discrete Fracture Networks: Nonlinear Interplay Between Structural and Hydraulic Heterogeneity: DISPERSION AND MIXING-REGULAR VERSUS DISORDERED NETWORKS

Hyman, Jeffrey De'Haven; Gimenez Martinez, Joaquin

doi:10.1029/2018WR022585

Title: Dispersion and Mixing in Three-Dimensional Discrete Fracture Networks: Nonlinear Interplay Between Structural and Hydraulic Heterogeneity: DISPERSION AND MIXING-REGULAR VERSUS DISORDERED NETWORKS

Journal Article · Tue May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Water Resources Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR022585· OSTI ID:1469532

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Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Swiss Federal Inst. of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dubendorf (Switzerland); Federal Inst. of Technology, Zurich (Switzerland). Dept. of Civil,Environmental and Geomatic Engineering; Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

We investigate the relative impact of topological, geometric, and hydraulic heterogeneity on transport processes in three-dimensional fracture networks. Focusing on the two largest scales of heterogeneity in these systems, individual fracture and network structure, we compare transport through analogous structured and disordered three-dimensional fracture networks with varying degrees of hydraulic heterogeneity. For the moderate levels of hydraulic heterogeneity we consider, network structure is the dominant control of transport through the networks. Less dispersion, both longitudinal and transverse, is observed in structured networks than in disordered networks, due in part to the higher connectivity in the former, independent of the level of hydraulic heterogeneity. However, increases in dispersion with higher hydraulic heterogeneity are larger in the disordered networks than in the structured networks, thereby indicating that the interplay between structural and hydraulic heterogeneity is nonlinear. Here, we propose a measure of disorder in fracture networks by computing the Shannon entropy of the spectrum of the Laplacian of a weighted graph representation of the networks, where the weights are given by a combination of topological, geometric, and hydraulic properties. Finally, this metric, as a relative indicator by comparison between two networks, is a first approach to the dispersion potential and “mixing capacity” of a fracture network.

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Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396; 20150763PRD4

OSTI ID:: 1469532

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1436193

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-17-25983

Journal Information:: Water Resources Research, Vol. 54, Issue 5; ISSN 0043-1397

Publisher:: American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 33 works

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Characterizing the Impact of Fractured Caprock Heterogeneity on Supercritical CO$$_2$$ Injection Hyman, Jeffrey D.; Jiménez-Martínez, Joaquin; Gable, Carl W. Transport in Porous Media, Vol. 131, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-019-01372-1	journal	November 2019
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