Influence of injection mode on transport properties in kilometer-scale three-dimensional discrete fracture networks

Hyman, Jeffrey De'Haven; Painter, S. L.; Viswanathan, H.; Makedonska, N.; Karra, S.

doi:10.1002/2015WR017151

Title: Influence of injection mode on transport properties in kilometer-scale three-dimensional discrete fracture networks

Journal Article · Sat Sep 12 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Water Resources Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2015WR017151· OSTI ID:1255226

Hyman, Jeffrey De'Haven ^[1]; Painter, S. L. ^[2]; Viswanathan, H. ^[1]; Makedonska, N. ^[1]; Karra, S. ^[1]

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

We investigate how the choice of injection mode impacts transport properties in kilometer-scale three-dimensional discrete fracture networks (DFN). The choice of injection mode, resident and flux-weighted, is designed to mimic different physical phenomena. It has been hypothesized that solute plumes injected under resident conditions evolve to behave similarly to solutes injected under flux-weighted conditions. Previously, computational limitations have prohibited the large-scale simulations required to investigate this hypothesis. We investigate this hypothesis by using a high-performance DFN suite, dfnWorks, to simulate flow in kilometer-scale three-dimensional DFNs based on fractured granite at the Forsmark site in Sweden, and adopt a Lagrangian approach to simulate transport therein. Results show that after traveling through a pre-equilibrium region, both injection methods exhibit linear scaling of the first moment of travel time and power law scaling of the breakthrough curve with similar exponents, slightly larger than 2. Lastly, the physical mechanisms behind this evolution appear to be the combination of in-network channeling of mass into larger fractures, which offer reduced resistance to flow, and in-fracture channeling, which results from the topology of the DFN.

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Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: 20140002DR; AC52-06NA25396; AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1255226

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1265639

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-14-28670

Journal Information:: Water Resources Research, Vol. 51, Issue 9; Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Fransisco, California, United States; 2014-12-15; ISSN 0043-1397

Publisher:: American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 67 works

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Title: Influence of injection mode on transport properties in kilometer-scale three-dimensional discrete fracture networks

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