The use of synthetic colloids in tracer transport experiments in saturated rock fractures

Abstract

This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither thle United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor amy of their employees, make any warranty, express or impliedl, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any informationl, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Referencie herein t o any specific commercial product, process, olr service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, olr otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. ACKNOWLEDGMENTSMany individuals and organizations are gratefully acknowledged for their financial, technical, and emotional support, which enabled me to complete this dissertation. Financial support was provided by the U. S. Department of Energy through the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Special thanks are due to Bruce Robinson of Los Alaimos, who had direct oversight and ultimate responsibility for the work. He supported the effort from inception to completion, including serving as a key dissertation committee member. I also wish to thank my advisor, Eric Nuttall of the University of New Mexico, for his guidance, gentle pushing, and flexibility in accommodating unconventional circumstances in a dissertation project. The participation and contributions of all my dissertation committee members are greatly appreciated.Others at Los Alamos whom I would like to thank include: Joe Ladiish and John Hererra for making the research possible by establishing a new Los Alamos program for Ph.D. candidates; Phil Thullen, Harold Sullivan, Tom Hirons, Julie Canepa, and Wes Myers for advocating and/or approving my participation in the Ph.D. program; Ed Essington, Darlene Linzey, Everett Springer, and Wayne Hansen for providing laboratory space for the tracer experiments as well as laboratory training, orientation, and advice; Brent Newman for his assistance in obtaining the two fractured core samples from the Nevada Test Site; Robb Habbersett for providing training and assistance in the use of the flow cytometer for fluorescent microsphere analyses; Barbara Carlos for conducting a qualitative mineralogical characterization of the fracture surfaces; Ines Triay for providing technical advice and reviews; Chuck Cotter and Robert Lopez for obtaining the J-13 well water for the tracer experiments, Jose Olivares for conducting the inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry analyses of cations in the J-13 water; Jay Thorne for machining the aluminum parts for the fracture flow systems; Dave Mann for offering the use of his rock saws and grinders to prepare the fractures for the experiments; Kelly Tapia and Cindy Sandoval f...

Particle Tracking Model and Abstraction of Transport Processes

“…However, even when fluid in the matrix is completely stagnant, solute can migrate into the matrix via molecular diffusion, resulting in a physical retardation of solute compared to pure fracture transport. This effect has recently been demonstrated on the laboratory scale by Reimus (1995) and on the field scale both by Maloszewski and Zuber (1991) and in the saturated zone at Yucca Mountain by Reimus et al (1999).…”

Saturated Zone Colloid-Facilitated Transport

“…Also, because of their hydrophilic surfaces, the CML microspheres are relatively stable even at ionic strengths approaching 1 molar (in monovalent cations), which is advantageous when injecting them with ionic solute tracers. CML microspheres behaved more conservatively (less attachment) than silica microspheres and non-modified carboxylated latex microspheres (hydrophobic surfaces) in previous laboratory experiments (Reimus 1995). The use of conservative colloid tracers was expected to result in conservative filtration parameter estimates, which in turn should result in conservative predictions of large-scale colloid transport.…”

Fracture Characterization in Enhanced Geothermal Systems by Wellbore and Reservoir Analysis

“…However, values of R c and R n were used such that the nanosensors experience no retardation and the solute tracer does experience retardation. This is based on studies of colloid transport in fractures which showed that nonadsorbing colloids exhibit breakthrough more rapidly than solute tracers because they tend to stay in fluid streamlines and do not experience matrix diffusion (Reimus 1995). Also, the volumetric flow rate q and the masses of the tracer m c and m r were based on values reported by Gentier et al (2010) for the 2005 tracer test performed in the Soultz-sous-Forets reservoir.…”