Permeability and dispersivity of variable-aperture fracture systems

Conference · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990

OSTI ID:7203282

Tsang, Y W; Tsang, C F

A number of recent experiments have pointed out the need of including the effects of aperture variation within each fracture in predicting flow and transport properties of fractured media. This paper introduces a new approach in which medium properties, such as the permeability to flow and dispersivity in tracer transport, are correlated to only three statistical parameters describing the fracture aperture probability distribution and the aperture spatial correlation. We demonstrate how saturated permeability and relative permeabilities for flow, as well as dispersion for solute transport in fractures may be calculated. We are in the process of examining the applicability of these concepts to field problems. Results from the evaluation and analysis of the recent Stripa-3D field data are presented. 13 refs., 10 figs.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/ER; DOE/RW
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098
• OSTI ID: 7203282
• Report Number(s): LBL-28335; CONF-900406--59; ON: DE90009204
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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Aquatic-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
APERTURES
DISTRIBUTION
FLUID FLOW
FORECASTING
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
OPENINGS
PERMEABILITY
POROUS MATERIALS
PROBABILITY
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
TRANSPORT
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
VARIATIONS
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES