A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Flow of groundwater in fractured rocks
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.
Flow of groundwater in fractured rocks
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.
Flow of groundwater in fractured rocks
Witherspoon, P. A. (author)
1986
Article (Journal)
English
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