Abstract
Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the flow and transport properties of a fractured porous tuff block measuring 20 × 20 × 50 cm. One porous ceramic plate was placed immediately above a fracture and two other plates were placed on either side of the fracture above the rock matrix. The plates control the pressure head applied to the upper surface of the fractured rock block. Laboratory results are simulated using the boundary integral method for a single saturated fracture with an assumed uniform transmissivity embedded within a porous tuff block. The simulation is used to identify the saturated hydraulic properties of the fracture. Matrix hydraulic conductivity is estimated as 50 × 10−9 m s−1 and the fracture transmissivity is estimated as 5.0 × 10 −9 m2 s−1. Much of the flow which exits the fracture at the lower surface first passes through the rock matrix even though a direct contact with a porous plate is present. Travel times and breakthrough curves are calculated by integrating the inverse velocity along a streamline, and then summing over all streamlines. Observed breakthrough curves were used to estimate fracture dispersivities which ranged from 0.0207 to 8.01 m. Breakthrough curves deviated from simulation results due to significant channeling of fracture flow.
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