Experimental study of the non-darcy flow and solute transport in a channeled single fracture

Abstract

The characterization of fracture rocks is always a key issue in understanding the flow and solute transport in fractured media. This article studies the solute transport in a Channeled Single Fracture (CSF), a single fracture with contact in certain areas. The flow in a CSF often has preferential pathways and the transport in a CSF often has Break Through Curves (BTCs) with long tails. The Surface Contact Ratio (SCR), the ratio of the contact area to the total fracture area, is an important indicator for the fracture surface roughness. To study the flow and solute transport in a CSF, a controlled physical model is constructed and a series of flow and tracer test experiments are carried out. Under our experimental conditions, the flow in a CSF is found to follow the Forchheimer equation J = av + bv 2, where J and v are the hydraulic gradient and the average pore velocity, respectively and a and b are two parameters related to the viscous and inertial flow components, respectively. Furthermore, it is found that b decreases with the decrease of SCR. For the solute transport, it is found that the BTCs often deviate from the traditional Fickian behavior, by the early-arrival and the long tailing. More interestingly, the observed BTCs often have a double-peak or a multi-peak, that would be difficult to explain using the existing transport theory such as the Advection-Dispersion Equation (ADE). In addition, the longitudinal dispersion coefficient D L is found to be scale-dependent in a CSF and the D L – l relationship is of exponential type.