Annual Report
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collabora tion, this project is concerned with<br />
the accurate modelling of intrinsically coupled<br />
processes in rock fractures to predict changes<br />
in their long-term mechanical and hydraulic behaviour.<br />
A multi-scale approach is employed:<br />
mechanical-chemical pore-scale models investigate<br />
changes in fracture surface topology as a<br />
result of the balance between dissolution and<br />
precipitation processes in the presence of surface<br />
contact pressure. Fractured core flood experiments<br />
are modelled and validated against<br />
to investigate localization of fluid flow in single<br />
fractures. Frac ture network investigations show<br />
the large-scale flow behaviour as a result of the<br />
in-situ stress field and fracture network geometry.<br />
The ensu ing findings aid the rigorous assessment<br />
of frac tured rock as host to geological<br />
disposal facili ties. Accurate computation of the<br />
permeability tensor of a fractured rock mass<br />
Hydraulic Transmissivity of Fracture Networks<br />
generated through Geomechanical Fracturegrowth<br />
Simulations<br />
Researcher: Robin Thomas<br />
Supervisors: Prof Robert Zimmerman, Prof John<br />
Cosgrove, and Dr Adriana Paluszny<br />
Sponsors: RATE Programme (NERC/RWM/EAP)<br />
Most previous modelling of the field-scale<br />
transmissivity of fractured rock masses has<br />
been based on stochastically generated fracture<br />
networks, with lengths, orientations and<br />
apertures taken from statistical distribution<br />
functions. The purpose of this project is to inject<br />
more “geological realism” into this process. To<br />
achieve this, an in-house, three-dimensional<br />
geomechanical finite element simulator is being<br />
used to generatefracture networks. The<br />
fracture orientations and shapes, and their<br />
apertures, will therefore be governed by the<br />
laws of fracture mechanics, rather than being<br />
stochastically generated from some statistical<br />
Philipp Lang: accurate computation of the block<br />
permeability tensor of a fractured rock mass<br />
distribution. The transmissivities of the resulting<br />
networks will then be calculated explicitly<br />
by the same geomechanical simulator, and<br />
compared to the values predicted using either<br />
Leung’s analytical method for 2D networks,<br />
or the 3D extension that is being developed<br />
within HydroFrame by post-doctoral researcher<br />
Anozie Ebigbo. These calculations will serve to<br />
test these approximate methods, and should<br />
shed light on the effect that rock properties,<br />
Centre for Nuclear Engineering <strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> 2014-2016 56
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