Journal
ADVANCES IN WATER RESOURCES
Volume 96, Issue -, Pages 373-388Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.advwatres.2016.08.006
Keywords
Self-affine fractures; Surface roughness; Roughness decomposition; Nonlinear fluid flow; Lattice Boltzmann method
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [51579188, 51409198]
- China Scholarship Council (CSC)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study investigates the impacts of surface roughness on the nonlinear fluid flow through three-dimensional (3D) self-affine rock fractures, whose original surface roughness is decomposed into primary roughness (i.e. the large-scale waviness of the fracture morphology) and secondary roughness (i.e. the small-scale unevenness) with a wavelet analysis technique. A 3D Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is adopted to predict the flow physics in rock fractures numerically created with and without consideration of the secondary roughness, respectively. The simulation results show that the primary roughness mostly controls the pressure distribution and fracture flow paths at a large scale, whereas the secondary roughness determines the nonlinear properties of the fluid flow at a local scale. As the pressure gradient increases, the secondary roughness enhances the local complexity of velocity distribution by generating and expanding the eddy flow and back flow regions in the vicinity of asperities. It was found that the Forchheimer's law characterizes well the nonlinear flow behavior in fractures of varying roughness. The inertial effects induced by the primary roughness differ only marginally in fractures with the roughness exponent varying from 0.5 to 0.8, and it is the secondary roughness that significantly enhances the nonlinear flow and leads to earlier onset of nonlinearity. Further examined were the effects of surface roughness on the transmissivity, hydraulic aperture and the tortuosity of flow paths, demonstrating again the dominant role of the secondary roughness, especially for the apparent transmissivity and the equivalent hydraulic aperture at high pressure gradient or high Reynolds number. The results may enhance our understanding of the role of surface roughness in the nonlinear flow behaviors in natural rock fractures. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available