DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: A study of changes in deep fractured rock permeability due to coupled hydro-mechanical effects

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study of the hydro-mechanical behaviour of a fractured rock domain at 1000. m depth below the land surface as a function of different levels of fluid pore pressure. A 2D fractured rock domain is adopted based on data obtained from outcrop mapping, displaying multiple fracture sets, fracture intersections, dead-end and curved fractures. A continuum based numerical model is used to evaluate the effects of compressive boundary stresses, cracking by tension failure in the intact rock and fractures and shear displacement along fractures on its equivalent permeability. Two in situ stress boundary conditions are considered: an isotropic case SR1 with the two horizontal boundary compressive stresses having the same magnitude, and an anisotropic case SR2 with the ratio between these compressive stress components set to be 2. In the SR2 case, changes in the local stress and stress ratio distributions due to different fluid pore pressure levels are anisotropic and more significant than in the SR1 case, because of tension failures in the intact rock forming bridges between fractures. These failure regions opened new flow connections between fractures and thereby caused important anisotropic changes in the flow paths, and significant decrease in local gradients of fluidmore » pore pressure. The equivalent permeability increases sharply when the fluid pore pressure is approximately 90% of the magnitude of the minimum stress at the boundaries of the fractured rock domain. Results show that the equivalent permeability of the fractured rock domain is most sensitive to the fractures normal stiffness, the permeability of the tension failure regions and the power-law exponent for permeability change.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]
  1. Uppsala Univ. (Sweden)
  2. Uppsala Univ. (Sweden); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1501366
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1337409
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 79; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 1365-1609
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES; Stress-dependent permeability; Fractured rock; Tension failure regions; Flow paths

Citation Formats

Figueiredo, Bruno, Tsang, Chin-Fu, Rutqvist, Jonny, and Niemi, Auli. A study of changes in deep fractured rock permeability due to coupled hydro-mechanical effects. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1016/j.ijrmms.2015.08.011.
Figueiredo, Bruno, Tsang, Chin-Fu, Rutqvist, Jonny, & Niemi, Auli. A study of changes in deep fractured rock permeability due to coupled hydro-mechanical effects. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2015.08.011
Figueiredo, Bruno, Tsang, Chin-Fu, Rutqvist, Jonny, and Niemi, Auli. Sun . "A study of changes in deep fractured rock permeability due to coupled hydro-mechanical effects". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2015.08.011. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1501366.
@article{osti_1501366,
title = {A study of changes in deep fractured rock permeability due to coupled hydro-mechanical effects},
author = {Figueiredo, Bruno and Tsang, Chin-Fu and Rutqvist, Jonny and Niemi, Auli},
abstractNote = {This paper presents a numerical study of the hydro-mechanical behaviour of a fractured rock domain at 1000. m depth below the land surface as a function of different levels of fluid pore pressure. A 2D fractured rock domain is adopted based on data obtained from outcrop mapping, displaying multiple fracture sets, fracture intersections, dead-end and curved fractures. A continuum based numerical model is used to evaluate the effects of compressive boundary stresses, cracking by tension failure in the intact rock and fractures and shear displacement along fractures on its equivalent permeability. Two in situ stress boundary conditions are considered: an isotropic case SR1 with the two horizontal boundary compressive stresses having the same magnitude, and an anisotropic case SR2 with the ratio between these compressive stress components set to be 2. In the SR2 case, changes in the local stress and stress ratio distributions due to different fluid pore pressure levels are anisotropic and more significant than in the SR1 case, because of tension failures in the intact rock forming bridges between fractures. These failure regions opened new flow connections between fractures and thereby caused important anisotropic changes in the flow paths, and significant decrease in local gradients of fluid pore pressure. The equivalent permeability increases sharply when the fluid pore pressure is approximately 90% of the magnitude of the minimum stress at the boundaries of the fractured rock domain. Results show that the equivalent permeability of the fractured rock domain is most sensitive to the fractures normal stiffness, the permeability of the tension failure regions and the power-law exponent for permeability change.},
doi = {10.1016/j.ijrmms.2015.08.011},
journal = {International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences},
number = C,
volume = 79,
place = {United States},
year = {Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}

Journal Article:

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 41 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

The role of hydromechanical coupling in fractured rock engineering
journal, January 2003


Deep hydrogeology: a discussion of issues and research needs
journal, May 2013


Stress-dependent permeability of fractured rock masses: a numerical study
journal, October 2004

  • Min, Ki-Bok; Rutqvist, J.; Tsang, Chin-Fu
  • International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 41, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrmms.2004.05.005

An overview of rock stress measurement methods
journal, October 2003

  • Ljunggren, C.; Chang, Yanting; Janson, T.
  • International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 40, Issue 7-8
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrmms.2003.07.003

Stress effects on permeability in a fractured rock mass with correlated fracture length and aperture
journal, December 2008

  • Baghbanan, Alireza; Jing, Lanru
  • International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 45, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrmms.2008.01.015

Permeability tensor of three-dimensional fractured porous rock and a comparison to trace map predictions
journal, August 2014

  • Lang, P. S.; Paluszny, A.; Zimmerman, R. W.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 119, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1002/2014JB011027

Effects of geomechanical changes on the validity of a discrete fracture network representation of a realistic two-dimensional fractured rock
journal, September 2014

  • Lei, Qinghua; Latham, John-Paul; Xiang, Jiansheng
  • International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 70
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrmms.2014.06.001

Critical stress localization of flow associated with deformation of well-fractured rock masses, with implications for mineral deposits
journal, January 1999


Effects of stress on the two-dimensional permeability tensor of natural fracture networks
journal, June 1996


Numerical study of fluid flow of deforming fractured rocks using dual permeability model
journal, November 2002


A disk-shaped domain integral method for the computation of stress intensity factors using tetrahedral meshes
journal, September 2015

  • Nejati, Morteza; Paluszny, Adriana; Zimmerman, Robert W.
  • International Journal of Solids and Structures, Vol. 69-70
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2015.05.026

Numerical simulation of multiple 3D fracture propagation using arbitrary meshes
journal, February 2011

  • Paluszny, Adriana; Zimmerman, Robert W.
  • Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Vol. 200, Issue 9-12
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.cma.2010.11.013

Fracture and impulse based finite-discrete element modeling of fragmentation
journal, May 2013


Linked multicontinuum and crack tensor approach for modeling of coupled geomechanics, fluid flow and transport in fractured rock
journal, February 2013

  • Rutqvist, Jonny; Leung, Colin; Hoch, Andrew
  • Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Vol. 5, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.jrmge.2012.08.001

Modelling stress-dependent permeability in fractured rock including effects of propagating and bending fractures
journal, January 2013

  • Latham, John-Paul; Xiang, Jiansheng; Belayneh, Mandefro
  • International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 57
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrmms.2012.08.002

Modeling of coupled deformation and permeability evolution during fault reactivation induced by deep underground injection of CO2
journal, March 2011


Geomechanical effects on CO2 leakage through fault zones during large-scale underground injection
journal, January 2014

  • Rinaldi, Antonio P.; Rutqvist, Jonny; Cappa, Frédéric
  • International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 20
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.ijggc.2013.11.001

Validity of Cubic Law for fluid flow in a deformable rock fracture
journal, December 1980

  • Witherspoon, P. A.; Wang, J. S. Y.; Iwai, K.
  • Water Resources Research, Vol. 16, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1029/WR016i006p01016

Calculating equivalent permeability: a review
journal, October 1997


A multiple-code simulation study of the long-term EDZ evolution of geological nuclear waste repositories
journal, September 2008

  • Rutqvist, Jonny; Bäckström, Ann; Chijimatsu, Masakazu
  • Environmental Geology, Vol. 57, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1007/s00254-008-1536-1

Works referencing / citing this record:

Multiphysics Coupling Model of Rock Mass considering Damage and Disturbance and Its Application
journal, September 2018

  • Wang, Wei; Luo, Zhouquan; Qin, Yaguang
  • Advances in Civil Engineering, Vol. 2018
  • DOI: 10.1155/2018/3067120

Experiments and Simulations of Fully Hydro-Mechanically Coupled Response of Rough Fractures Exposed to High-Pressure Fluid Injection
journal, February 2018

  • Vogler, D.; Settgast, R. R.; Annavarapu, C.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 123, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1002/2017jb015057

Experimental investigation on the stress sensitivity of permeability in naturally fractured shale
journal, January 2019


Simulation of hydro-mechanically coupled processes in rough rock fractures using an immersed boundary method and variational transfer operators
journal, September 2019


Permeability of Particle Soils Under Soil Pressure
journal, March 2018


Stress‐Induced Anomalous Transport in Natural Fracture Networks
text, January 2019