Impact of stress on anomalous transport in fractured rock
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2017-11-01
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Conference Paper
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Abstract
We investigate the effects of geologic (tectonic) stress on flow and tracer transport through natural fracture networks. The fracture network is extracted from the geological map of an actual rock outcrop, and we model the impact of stress on aperture field, flow field and tracer transport properties. We observe that anomalous transport emerges in response to confining stress on the fracture network, and show that the stress state is a powerful determinant of transport behavior. An anisotropic stress state can induce preferential flow paths through shear dilation, and an increase in geologic stress can also increase aperture heterogeneity that induces late-time tailing of particle breakthrough curves. Our results point to a heretofore unrecognized link between geomechanics and anomalous transport in natural fractured media.
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ETH Zurich
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14th International Conference on Flow Dynamics (ICFD 2017)
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03465 - Löw, Simon (emeritus) / Löw, Simon (emeritus)
Notes
Conference lecture held on November 1, 2017.