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Title: Anomalous transport on regular fracture networks: Impact of conductivity heterogeneity and mixing at fracture intersections

Journal Article · · Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Korea Inst. of Science and Technology, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
  2. Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona (Spain). Inst. of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA)
  3. Univ. of Rennes 1 (France). Geosciences Rennes
  4. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

We investigate here transport on regular fracture networks that are characterized by heterogeneity in hydraulic conductivity. We discuss the impact of conductivity heterogeneity and mixing within fracture intersections on particle spreading. We show the emergence of non-Fickian transport due to the interplay between the network conductivity heterogeneity and the degree of mixing at nodes. Specifically, lack of mixing at fracture intersections leads to subdiffusive scaling of transverse spreading but has negligible impact on longitudinal spreading. An increase in network conductivity heterogeneity enhances both longitudinal and transverse spreading and leads to non-Fickian transport in longitudinal direction. Based on the observed Lagrangian velocity statistics, we develop an effective stochastic model that incorporates the interplay between Lagrangian velocity correlation and velocity distribution. The model is parameterized with a few physical parameters and is able to capture the full particle transition dynamics.

Research Organization:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona (Spain)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); European Research Council (ERC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0003907; 617511
OSTI ID:
1505822
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1213280
Journal Information:
Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, Vol. 92, Issue 2; ISSN 1539-3755
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 78 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Review: Mathematical expressions for estimating equivalent permeability of rock fracture networks journal June 2016
Channel network concept: an integrated approach to visualize solute transport in fractured rocks journal August 2018
Contributions of 3D Printed Fracture Networks to Development of Flow and Transport Models journal September 2018
Temporal Markov Processes for Transport in Porous Media: Random Lattice Networks journal May 2018
Trajectories as Training Images to Simulate Advective‐Diffusive, Non‐Fickian Transport journal April 2019
A Flexible Temporal Velocity Model for Fast Contaminant Transport Simulations in Porous Media journal October 2018
Density‐Driven Convection in a Fractured Porous Media: Implications for Geological CO 2 Storage journal July 2019
Ubiquity of anomalous transport in porous media: Numerical evidence, continuous time random walk modelling, and hydrodynamic interpretation journal March 2019
Solvable continuous-time random walk model of the motion of tracer particles through porous media journal August 2016
Pore-scale statistics of flow and transport through porous media journal July 2018
Dependency of flow and transport properties on aperture distributions and compression states journal September 2018
A Review of Critical Conditions for the Onset of Nonlinear Fluid Flow in Rock Fractures journal July 2017
Application of Tempered-Stable Time Fractional-Derivative Model to Upscale Subdiffusion for Pollutant Transport in Field-Scale Discrete Fracture Networks journal January 2018
Stress‐Induced Anomalous Transport in Natural Fracture Networks text January 2019
Temporal Markov Processes for Transport in Porous Media: Random Lattice Networks text January 2017
Fluid deformation in random steady three-dimensional flow journal September 2018
Simulation of solute transport through heterogeneous networks: analysis using the method of moments and the statistics of local transport characteristics journal February 2018