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Flow of groundwater in fractured rocks

L'écoulement de l'eau dans les roches fissurées

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Bulletin of the International Association of Engineering Geology - Bulletin de l'Association Internationale de Géologie de l'Ingénieur Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A pervasive problem in dealing with fractured rocks is the importance of the flow of ground water through the discontinuities. This paper describes the results of recent work in this laboratory to investigate this problem. A much better understanding of the physics of fluid flow in a natural fracture from a sample of granite has been obtained from metal casts of the complex topography of the surfaces of the fracture as it is subjected to normal stresses up to 85 MPa. Contact area within the deforming aperture increases up to 30 percent and produces a flow regime that cannot be described by the cubic law. An investigation of flow in a network of fractures using a new numerical technique has been carried out to determine the effect of length and density of fractures on permeability. Networks with shorter fracture lengths and higher density will have lower permeabilities and will behave less like porous media than networks with longer fracture lengths and lower density. As fracture length increases, permeability approaches a maximum that can be predicted on the basis of infinite length fractures. A new analytical solution for transient flow to a borehole that penetrates a fracture dominated rock mass is summarized. A new derivative method of analyzing pressure transients from this solution is discussed and enables one to distinguish a fracture dominated system from one that exhibits double-porosity behavior.

Résumé

Dans l'étude des roches fracturées, l'importance de l'écoulement de l'eau souterraine dans les discontinuites est un problème qui revient toujours. Cet article décrit les résultats de travaux récents du Laurence Berkeley Laboratory dans ce domaine. Notre compréhension de la physique de l'écoulement fluide dans une fracture naturelle d'un échantillon de granite a été largement améliorée en prenant des empreintes métalliques de la topographie complexe des épontes de la fracture soumise à des contraintes normales allant jusqu'à 85 MPa. L'augmentation de l'aire de contact entre les épontes atteint jusqu'à 30%, et le régime d'écoulement ne peut plus alors être décrit par la loi, cubique. Une nouvelle technique numérique a été utilisée pour l'étude de l'influence de la longueur et de la densité des fractures sur la perméabilité du réseau qu'elles constituent. Un réseau dense de fractures courtes est moins perméable et a un comportement plus éloigné du milieu continu qu'un réseau moins dense de fractures plus longues. Lorsque la longueur des fractures augmente, la perméabilité tend vers un maximum qui peut être prédit à l'aide du modéle des fractures infinies. Une solution originale de l'écoulement en régime transitoire vers un sondage traversant un milieu rocheux dont la fracturation domine le comportement est exposée brièvement. Une nouvelle méthode d'analyse des pressions en régime transitoire tirée de cette solution est discutée. Elle permet de distinguer un systême dont la fracturation domine le comportement d'un système à double porositè.

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Abbreviations

b:

fracture aperture (L)

C:

constant (l/L)

c:

compressibility (T2L/M)

c1 :

total compressibility (T2L/M)

h:

formation thickness (L)

‡h:

change in hydraulic head (L)

J:

dimensionless potential gradient

Kg :

permeability in direction of gradient (L/T)

k:

permeability (L2)

l:

fracture length (L)

l :

mean fracture length (L)

n:

number of fractures intersecting weelbore

p:

pressure (M/T2L)

Δp:

change in pressure (M/T2L)

PD :

dimensionless pressure (2πk‡p/qμ)

Q:

fracture flow rate (L3/T)

Qin :

specific flux into fracture system (L/T)

q:

well flow rate (L3/T)

r:

radial distance (L)

rC :

dimensionless radius (rw/rf)

rD :

dimensionless radius (r/rf)

t:

time (T)

tD :

dimensionless time (kt/ϕ μcr2)

α:

hydraulic diffusivity (L2/T)

α c :

dimensionless diffusivity

β:

dimensionless conductivity

Γ:

Euler's constant (0.57721566)

γ:

angle or rotation (degrees)

ϑ:

angle between fracture pole and borehole axis (degrees)

γ A :

areal fracture density (l/L2)

γ L :

linear fracture density (l/L)

ϕ:

porosity

μ:

fluid viscosity (M/LT)

f:

inner region

i:

initial

rf :

based on rf

w:

wellbore

1:

region 1

2:

region 2

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  1. University of California and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California, U.S.A.

    Witherspoon P. A.

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Witherspoon, P.A. Flow of groundwater in fractured rocks. Bulletin of the International Association of Engineering Geology 34, 103–115 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02590241

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