6 research outputs found
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