Experimental study of turbulent unconfined groundwater flow in a single fracture

Qian, Jiazhong; Zhan, Hongbin; Zhang, Weidong; Sun, Fenggen

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2005.01.013

Cited by 120 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Lomize, 1951;Louis, 1969;Qian et al, 2005Qian et al, , 2007Qian et al, , 2011Wen et al, 2006). Tortuosity, which usually characterizes the ratio of the effective path length connecting two locations in porous media to the geometric distance (Tenchine and Gouze, 2005), has been found to significantly affect fluid flow in fractured media under certain conditions (Tsang, 1984;Wang and Narasimhan, 1985).…”

Section: Cherubini Et Al: Bench Scale Laboratory Tests To Analyzementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Flow regimes and non-linear behavior of fluid flow through fractures have been investigated empirically (Lomize, 1951;Louis, 1969), experimentally (Witherspoon et al, 1980;Qian et al, 2005;Chin et al, 2009), and numerically (Zimmerman et al, 2004;Kolditz, 2001;Brush and Thomson, 2003). Zimmerman et al (2004) studied non-linear flow regimes both with experimental and numerical simulations of NavierStokes equations and suggested the critical Reynolds number of 10 for practical purposes.…”

Section: Cherubini Et Al: Bench Scale Laboratory Tests To Analyzementioning

confidence: 99%

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Bench scale laboratory tests to analyze non-linear flow in fractured media

Cherubini

Giasi

Pastore

2012

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The knowledge of flow phenomena in fractured rocks is very important for groundwater resources management in hydrogeological engineering.A critical emerging issue for fractured aquifers is the validity of the Darcian-type "local cubic law", which assumes a linear relationship between flow rate and pressure gradient to accurately describe flow patterns.Experimental data obtained under controlled conditions such as in a laboratory increase our understanding of the fundamental physics of fracture flow and allow us to investigate the presence of non-linear flow inside fractures that generates a substantial deviation from Darcy's law.In this study the presence of non-linear flow in a fractured rock formation has been analyzed at bench scale in laboratory tests. The effects of non-linearity in flow have been investigated by analyzing hydraulic tests on an artificially created fractured rock sample of parallelepiped (0.60 × 0.40 × 0.8 m) shape.The volumes of water passing through different paths across the fractured sample for various hydraulic head differences have been measured, and the results of the experiments have been reported as specific flow rate vs. head gradient. The experimental results closely match the Forchheimer equation and describe a strong inertial regime. The results of the test have been interpreted by means of numerical simulations. For each pair of ports, several steady-state simulations have been carried out varying the hydraulic head difference between the inlet and outlet ports. The estimated linear and non-linear Forchheimer coefficients have been correlated to each other and respectively to the tortuosity of the flow paths.A correlation among the linear and non-linear Forchheimer coefficients is evident. Moreover, a tortuosity factor that influences flow dynamics has been determined.

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Section: Cherubini Et Al: Bench Scale Laboratory Tests To Analyzementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cherubini Et Al: Bench Scale Laboratory Tests To Analyzementioning

confidence: 99%

Bench scale laboratory tests to analyze non-linear flow in fractured media

Cherubini

Giasi

Pastore

2012

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…We limit ourself to viscous flow characterized by low Reynolds number (Re51) although turbulence might develop at high flow rate [25,26]. The Reynolds number Re that can be defined from the Navier-Stokes equation is the ratio of the inertial terms to the terms describing the viscous forces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fracture morphology and viscous transport

Schmittbuhl

Steyer

Jouniaux

et al. 2008

International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences

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The morphology of a fracture in a granite block is sampled using a high resolution profiler providing a 3999 Â 4000 pixel image of the roughness. We checked that a self-affine model is an accurate geometrical model of the fracture morphology on the basis of a spectral analysis. We also estimated the topothesy of the experimental surface to be l r % 2 Â 10 À7 mm and the roughness exponent to be z % 0:78. A finite difference scheme of the Stokes equation with a lubrication approximation was used to model the viscous flow through a fracture aperture defined as the gap between the experimental fracture surface and a flat plane. We finally compare our numerical results to experimental measurements of the flux through the fracture of a glycerol/water mixture (to be at sufficiently low Reynolds number where Stokes equations holds) changing the average aperture of the fracture. The comparison is successful despite a limited resolution of the experimental measurements. Interestingly we show that only long wavelengths of the fracture morphology control the fracture hydraulic conductivity. r

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“…In certain non-Darcian conditions, the cubic law can still be applicable in situations in which the inertial component of flow is modest [39]. The Forchheimer Number (Fo) was used instead of the Re number to assess flow, and it was found that for a non-Darcian flow of Fo less than 1.30, the cubic law was able to produce meaningful results [40].…”

Section: Influence Of Flow Mechanism and Flow Regimementioning

confidence: 99%

On the cubic law and variably saturated flow through discrete open rough-walled discontinuities

Dippenaar

Rooy

2016

International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences

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Highlights• The role of the fractured intermediate vadose zone is becoming increasingly important.• Discontinuity geometry affects flow, most notably due to changes in aperture, roughness and infill.• The applicability of the cubic law is often queried.• Better understanding will contribute to issues of slope and excavation stability and contaminant transport.• Open questions requiring addressing concluded the paper. Abstract:Fracture flow is fairly well documented with the widespread application of, for instance, the cubic law and assumed smooth parallel plate model.Geometrical intricacies such as aperture, roughness and infill do however significantly influence the validity of the cubic law with even its application to smooth parallel systems being contestable. Rock mechanical discontinuity surveys provide valuable information regarding the discontinuity geometry that can likely contribute to the evaluation of flow through individual fractures with variable properties. The hydraulic aperture is available for the transmission of flow, while normal and shear stresses alter discontinuity properties over time. In this, numerous advances have been made to better accommodate deviations of natural discontinuity geometry to that of smooth parallel plates and at partial saturation. The paper addresses these advances and details conditions under which the cubic law, even in local form, fails to adequately estimate the

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Experimental study of turbulent unconfined groundwater flow in a single fracture

Cited by 120 publications

References 45 publications

Bench scale laboratory tests to analyze non-linear flow in fractured media

Bench scale laboratory tests to analyze non-linear flow in fractured media

Fracture morphology and viscous transport

On the cubic law and variably saturated flow through discrete open rough-walled discontinuities

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