A casting and imaging technique for determining void geometry and relative permeability behavior of a single fracture specimen

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

OSTI ID:7079552

Cox, B L; Pruess, K; Persoff, P

A casting technique has been developed for making translucent replicas of the void space of natural rock fractures. Attenuation of light shined through the cast combined with digital image analysis provides a pointwise definition of fracture apertures. The technique has been applied to a fracture specimen from Dixie Valley, Nevada, and the measured void space geometry has been used to develop theoretical predictions of two-phase relative permeability. A strong anisotropy in relative permeabilities has been found, which is caused by highly anisotropic spatial correlations among fracture apertures. 16 refs., 6 figs.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/CE; DOE/ER; DOE/RW
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098
• OSTI ID: 7079552
• Report Number(s): LBL-28485; CONF-900115-2; ON: DE90009192
• Resource Relation: Conference: 15. workshop on geothermal reservoir engineering, Stanford, CA (USA), 23-25 Jan 1990
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
58 GEOSCIENCES
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
IMAGE PROCESSING
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
APERTURES
CASTINGS
DATA PROCESSING
DESIGN
FLUID FLOW
FORECASTING
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOMETRY
PERMEABILITY
RISK ASSESSMENT
ROCK MECHANICS
SAMPLING
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICS
MECHANICS
OPENINGS
PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
Geothermal Legacy
152002* - Geothermal Data & Theory- Properties of Minerals & Rocks
580000 - Geosciences