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An Evaluation of the Active Fracture Concept in Modeling Unsaturated Flow and Transport in a Fractured Meter-Sized Block of Rock

Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, MS 90-1116, Berkeley, CA 94720

View larger version (139K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Discrete fracture network model (DFNM). The thickness of the fracture lines indicates aperture.

View larger version (23K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Schematic diagram depicting interface area calculation and permeability assignment for connections.

View larger version (29K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Water breakthrough curves of the DFNM with bottom capillary-barrier condition and various injection rates (top: 1–20%, bottom: 0.02–0.2% of saturated flow rate).

View larger version (30K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. Comparisons of water breakthrough curves in the DFNM with different bottom conditions and various injection rates (top: 1–2%, bottom: 10–20% of saturated flow rate).

View larger version (130K): [in a new window]   Fig. 5. Distributions of water saturation in the DFNM with capillary-barrier bottom boundary condition when water reaches the bottom of model block (top left: 2% injection rate, t = 4.8 d; bottom left: 20% injection rate, t = 0.48 d; top right: 2% injection rate, t = 6.9 d; bottom right: 20% injection rate, t = 0.69 d). = 0.

View larger version (82K): [in a new window]   Fig. 6. Distributions of water saturation in the DFNM with different bottom boundary conditions when water reaches the bottom of the model block: free-drainage condition (top), free-drainage condition with 100 times higher matrix permeability at fracture–matrix connections (bottom). 2% of injection rates, t = 4.8 d, and = 0.

View larger version (39K): [in a new window]   Fig. 7. Calibration of water flow rates to estimate values for DCM with bottom capillary-barrier boundary condition and selected injection rates. = 0 (top); is estimated (bottom). Symbols are data from the DFNM and the symbols with line are from the DCM.

View larger version (29K): [in a new window]   Fig. 8. Calibration of breakthrough curve to estimate values for the DCM with bottom free-drainage conditions and various injection rates (1 and 10% of saturated flow rates). Free-drainage condition (top), free-drainage condition with 100 times higher matrix permeability at fracture–matrix connections (bottom). Closed symbols are data from the DFNM, open symbols with dashed line are from the DCM with = 0, and solid lines are the calibrations to estimated values.

View larger version (23K): [in a new window]   Fig. 9. Calibration of tracer breakthrough curves to estimate for the DCM with selected injection rates (2 and 10% of saturated flow rates). Capillary-barrier boundary condition (top); free-drainage condition (middle); free-drainage condition with 100 times higher matrix permeability at fracture-matrix connections (bottom). Closed symbols are data from the DFNM, open symbols with dashed line are from the DCM with = 0, and lines are the calibrations to estimated values.

View larger version (91K): [in a new window]   Fig. 10. Distributions of tracer concentrations in the DFNM (free-drainage condition) 10% of injection rates at 0.03 d (top left); 10% of injection rates at 0.7 d (bottom left); increased matrix permeability with 10% of injection rates at 0.7 d (top right); 2% of injection rates at 1.7 d (bottom right).