Combined effect of tortuosity and surface roughness on estimation of flow rate through a single rough joint

Xiao, Weimin; Xia, Caichu; Wang, Wei; Bian, Yuewei

doi:10.1088/1742-2132/10/4/045015

Cited by 30 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…We test our proposed model with experimental measurements by (Xiao et al, 2013), in which the coupled flow-normal-shear tests are conducted. We choose the cases with a shear of 1 mm under the normal stress of 3 MPa.…”

Section: Comparison With Experimental Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We choose the cases with a shear of 1 mm under the normal stress of 3 MPa. All the required parameters values are available in Table 1-5 in the reference (Xiao et al, 2013) except for Wang et al (2014)'s model since no information regarding fractal dimension is provided. The proposed model shows the best accuracy among all available analytical models, as shown in Figure 5.…”

Section: Comparison With Experimental Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The proposed model shows the best accuracy among all available analytical models, as shown in Figure 5. Xiao et al (2013). They are sorted in descending order in terms of accuracy.…”

Section: Comparison With Experimental Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many efforts, including machine learning, have been proposed in the literature to improve the accuracy and applicability of cubic law. Examples include 1) modification of the definition of the aperture used in cubic law, such as arithmetic average (Brown, 1987), geometric average (Renshaw, 1995), averages proposed by others (e.g., Neuzil & Tracy, 1981;Zimmerman et al, 1991); 2) inclusion of correction factors that account for roughness influence (e.g., Louis, 1969;Patir & Cheng, 1978), tortuosity influence (e.g., Brown, 1987;Waite et al, 1999), combined roughness-tortuosity influence (e.g., He, Sinan, et al, 2021;Xiao et al, 2013); 3) implementation of machine learning techniques Sun et al, 2020). All above modifications, however, are designed for 2D rock fractures or 3D fullyopen fracture cases (e.g., no contact areas).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analytical and Numerical Assessment of Hydraulic Properties of 3D Partially-Open Rock Fractures

Alsinan

Kwak

et al. 2022

Day 3 Wed, February 23, 2022

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Modeling fractured reservoirs requires an accurate assessment of the hydraulic properties of discrete fractures. High-resolution Navier-Stokes simulations provide an accurate description of the flow within the fractures, including fracture upscaling. However, its excessive computational requirements make it impractical. The traditionally used cubic law for fracture upscaling is known for its poor accuracy. This work introduces a new analytical model based on cubic law to estimate hydraulic properties of 3D rock fractures with the irregular contact-area distribution. We first briefly review the applicability of the existing models in the literature. Most of the current models exhibit major limitations related to prediction accuracy and practicality. For instance, most models neglect the effect of contact-area distribution. As a result, they fail to capture properly the heterogeneous and anisotropic flow behaviors caused by irregular contact-area distribution. In addition, some models work well only for idealized cases, such as parallel-smooth fractures with specific shapes of contact areas. Others are only valid for cases with fractional contact area and relative roughness less than certain values. Alternatively, we propose a dynamic indicator using a particle-percolation approach to quantify the effect of the contact-area distribution. We then introduce a more general modified cubic law, which accounts for different factors, including variable aperture, roughness, flow tortuosity, and contact-area distribution. The proposed model predictions are then compared with the solutions of the 3D high-resolution Navier-Stokes simulations and experimental measurements collected from public resources. We assess the predictability of our model and benchmark it with other existing models from the literature with dozens of fracture cases. We show significant superiority of our model compared with other existing models, especially for cases with pronounced fracture anisotropy where the impact of the fracture contact area is dominant. Moreover, results show that the hydraulic aperture decreases with the increase of frictional contact area almost linearly. The contact-area distribution shows a significant impact on hydraulic properties even with the same size of contact regions. We introduce a new analytical model to estimate the hydraulic properties of 3D partially-open rock fractures. Based on our benchmark that included dozens of fractures, our model is superior to commonly used models in the literature. The proposed model also retains the simplicity and efficiency of the cubic law, and can be easily implemented in workflows for reservoir characterization and modeling.

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Section: Comparison With Experimental Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Comparison With Experimental Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The proposed model shows the best accuracy among all available analytical models, as shown in Figure 5. Xiao et al (2013). They are sorted in descending order in terms of accuracy.…”

Section: Comparison With Experimental Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analytical and Numerical Assessment of Hydraulic Properties of 3D Partially-Open Rock Fractures

Alsinan

Kwak

et al. 2022

Day 3 Wed, February 23, 2022

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“…A lot of work have been done to characterize and parameterize these properties by using the fractal and self-affine features (Hsiung et al 1993;Mandelbrot 1985;Odling 1994;Power and Tullis 1991;Tse and Cruden 1979b). Researchers have proposed different methods for generating synthetic rock fractures (Brush 2001;Brush and Thomson 2003;Chen and Horne 2006;Crandall et al 2010;Hanssen 2013;Lavrov 2013;Moon and Song 1997;Ogilvie et al 2003;Ogilvie et al 2006;Wang et al 2016;Xiao et al 2013).…”

Section: Characterization Of Rough Rock Fracturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of equivalent hydraulic aperture (EHA) for rough rock fractures

Xiao

Zhao

2019

Can. Geotech. J.

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Most existing models for fluid transportation within a single rock fracture tend to use a channel with two smooth parallel plates, whereas real fracture surfaces are usually rough and tortuous, which can produce a flow field significantly different from the smooth plate model. For fluid flow in a rough fracture, there are surface concave areas (SCA), where the fluid velocity is extremely low, contributing little to the fluid transportation. It is of great significance to quantitatively evaluate the impact of rough surfaces on fluid flow. Therefore, a numerical model for simulating Newtonian fluid through rough fractures is proposed, where synthetic surfaces are generated according to statistical analysis of natural rock fractures and can be quantified by several characteristic parameters. Equivalent hydraulic aperture (EHA) is proposed as one quantitative indicator for evaluating the impact of fracture roughness. Systematic studies were conducted for evaluating EHAs of rough fractures, which, combined with characteristic parameters of fractures, are used to build surrogate models for EHA prediction. It is found that the EHA is directly correlated with the fracture roughness, the mean mechanical aperture, and the standard deviation of aperture distribution. The developed surrogate models were verified to have a high accuracy for EHA prediction.

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Models of Tortuosity

Korvin

2024

Statistical Rock Physics

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Combined effect of tortuosity and surface roughness on estimation of flow rate through a single rough joint

Cited by 30 publications

References 22 publications

Analytical and Numerical Assessment of Hydraulic Properties of 3D Partially-Open Rock Fractures

Analytical and Numerical Assessment of Hydraulic Properties of 3D Partially-Open Rock Fractures

Evaluation of equivalent hydraulic aperture (EHA) for rough rock fractures

Models of Tortuosity

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