16,072 research outputs found
Characterisation and modelling of natural fracture networks: geometry, geomechanics and fluid flow
Natural fractures are ubiquitous in crustal rocks and often dominate the bulk properties of geological formations. The development of numerical tools to model the geometry, geomechanics and fluid flow behaviour of natural fracture networks is a challenging issue which is relevant to many rock engineering applications. The thesis first presents a study of the statistics and tectonism of a multiscale fracture system in limestone, from which the complexity of natural fractures is illustrated with respect to hierarchical topologies and underlying mechanisms. To simulate the geomechanical behaviour of rock masses embedded with natural fractures, the finite-discrete element method (FEMDEM) is integrated with a joint constitutive model (JCM) to solve the solid mechanics problems of such intricate discontinuity systems explicitly represented by discrete fracture network (DFN) models. This computational formulation can calculate the stress/strain fields of the rock matrix, capture the mechanical interactions of discrete rock blocks, characterise the non-linear deformation of rough fractures and mimic the propagation of new cracks driven by stress concentrations. The developed simulation tool is used to derive the aperture distribution of various fracture networks under different geomechanical conditions, based on which the stress-dependent fluid flow is further analysed. A novel upscaling approach to fracture network models is developed to evaluate the scaling of the equivalent permeability of fractured rocks under in-situ stresses. The combined JCM-FEMDEM model is further applied to simulate the progressive rock mass failure around an underground excavation in a crystalline rock with pre-existing discontinuities. The scope of this thesis covers the scenarios of both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) fracture networks with pre-existing natural fractures and stress-induced new cracks. The research findings demonstrate the importance of integrating explicit DFN representations and conducting geomechanical computations for more meaningful assessments of the hydromechanical behaviour of naturally fractured rocks.Open Acces
Impact of anisotropy and fracture density on the approximation of the effective permeability of a fractured rock mass using 2D models
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Three-Dimensional Network Model for Coupling~of~Fracture and Mass Transport in Quasi-Brittle Geomaterials
Dual three-dimensional networks of structural and transport elements were
combined to model the effect of fracture on mass transport in quasi-brittle
geomaterials. Element connectivity of the structural network, representing
elasticity and fracture, was defined by the Delaunay tessellation of a random
set of points. The connectivity of transport elements within the transport
network was defined by the Voronoi tessellation of the same set of points. A
new discretisation strategy for domain boundaries was developed to apply
boundary conditions for the coupled analyses. The properties of transport
elements were chosen to evolve with the crack opening values of neighbouring
structural elements. Through benchmark comparisons involving non-stationary
transport and fracture, the proposed dual network approach was shown to be
objective with respect to element size and orientation
Parallel numerical modeling of hybrid-dimensional compositional non-isothermal Darcy flows in fractured porous media
This paper introduces a new discrete fracture model accounting for
non-isothermal compositional multiphase Darcy flows and complex networks of
fractures with intersecting, immersed and non immersed fractures. The so called
hybrid-dimensional model using a 2D model in the fractures coupled with a 3D
model in the matrix is first derived rigorously starting from the
equi-dimensional matrix fracture model. Then, it is dis-cretized using a fully
implicit time integration combined with the Vertex Approximate Gradient (VAG)
finite volume scheme which is adapted to polyhedral meshes and anisotropic
heterogeneous media. The fully coupled systems are assembled and solved in
parallel using the Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) paradigm with one layer
of ghost cells. This strategy allows for a local assembly of the discrete
systems. An efficient preconditioner is implemented to solve the linear systems
at each time step and each Newton type iteration of the simulation. The
numerical efficiency of our approach is assessed on different meshes, fracture
networks, and physical settings in terms of parallel scalability, nonlinear
convergence and linear convergence
A new approach to upscaling fracture network models while preserving geostatistical and geomechanical characteristics
A new approach to upscaling two-dimensional fracture network models is proposed for preserving geostatistical and geomechanical characteristics of a smaller-scale “source” fracture pattern. First, the scaling properties of an outcrop system are examined in terms of spatial organization, lengths, connectivity, and normal/shear displacements using fractal geometry and power law relations. The fracture pattern is observed to be nonfractal with the fractal dimension D ≈ 2, while its length distribution tends to follow a power law with the exponent 2 < a < 3. To introduce a realistic distribution of fracture aperture and shear displacement, a geomechanical model using the combined finite-discrete element method captures the response of a fractured rock sample with a domain size L = 2 m under in situ stresses. Next, a novel scheme accommodating discrete-time random walks in recursive self-referencing lattices is developed to nucleate and propagate fractures together with their stress- and scale-dependent attributes into larger domains of up to 54 m × 54 m. The advantages of this approach include preserving the nonplanarity of natural cracks, capturing the existence of long fractures, retaining the realism of variable apertures, and respecting the stress dependency of displacement-length correlations. Hydraulic behavior of multiscale growth realizations is modeled by single-phase flow simulation, where distinct permeability scaling trends are observed for different geomechanical scenarios. A transition zone is identified where flow structure shifts from extremely channeled to distributed as the network scale increases. The results of this paper have implications for upscaling network characteristics for reservoir simulation
Dual virtual element method for discrete fractures networks
Discrete fracture networks is a key ingredient in the simulation of physical
processes which involve fluid flow in the underground, when the surrounding
rock matrix is considered impervious. In this paper we present two different
models to compute the pressure field and Darcy velocity in the system. The
first allows a normal flow out of a fracture at the intersections, while the
second grants also a tangential flow along the intersections. For the numerical
discretization, we use the mixed virtual finite element method as it is known
to handle grid elements of, almost, any arbitrary shape. The flexibility of the
discretization allows us to loosen the requirements on grid construction, and
thus significantly simplify the flow discretization compared to traditional
discrete fracture network models. A coarsening algorithm, from the algebraic
multigrid literature, is also considered to further speed up the computation.
The performance of the method is validated by numerical experiments
From invasion percolation to flow in rock fracture networks
The main purpose of this work is to simulate two-phase flow in the form of
immiscible displacement through anisotropic, three-dimensional (3D) discrete
fracture networks (DFN). The considered DFNs are artificially generated, based
on a general distribution function or are conditioned on measured data from
deep geological investigations. We introduce several modifications to the
invasion percolation (MIP) to incorporate fracture inclinations, intersection
lines, as well as the hydraulic path length inside the fractures. Additionally
a trapping algorithm is implemented that forbids any advance of the invading
fluid into a region, where the defending fluid is completely encircled by the
invader and has no escape route. We study invasion, saturation, and flow
through artificial fracture networks, with varying anisotropy and size and
finally compare our findings to well studied, conditioned fracture networks.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure
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