Numerical investigations of fluid flow and solute transport in a self-affine fractal fracture with nonlinear hydromechanical effect

Abstract

This paper presents the numerical study to examine characteristics of fluid flow and solute transport in a rough fracture subject to effective normal stresses. The aperture distribution is generated by using the self-affine fractal model. In order to represent a nonlinear relationship between the supported normal stress and the fracture aperture, we combine a simple mechanical model with the local flow model. The solute transport is simulated using the random walk particle following algorithm. As a result of numerical simulations, the case of the flow is significantly affected by the geometry of aperture distribution varying with the effective normal stress level but slightly by the fractal dimension that determines the degree of the fracture surface roughness. However, the case of transport is influenced by the effective normal stress as well as the fracture surface roughness. © 31st IAHR Congress 2005: Water Engineering for the Future, Choices and Challenges. All Rights Reserved.